Tutoring for nursery-aged children

[deliciouslytwo]

My mum has had a nursery for 30+ years. She's the owner and manager, but also works with the preschoolers (3-4) on a daily basis. She has a degree in Early Years Education.

She's retiring next month, and is looking at opening a small tutoring 'business'. Her nursery, since its opening, has been one of the few in the UK that teaches the children to read and write before starting primary school.

She's excited to retire, but gutted for the parents who have children in the nursery who started under the assumption that their children would reach the pre-school class and also benefit from this.

My mum has developed her own techniques over the years and now has 3-4 year olds writing full sentences. She's also worked with older children (who left the nursery and struggled at primary school, for example) to work on their writing, as well as with kids with additional needs.

What do we think? She'd like to keep busy during retirement and loves helping and working with the kids. She's not so interested in the money side of things, but I suppose to cover running/marketing costs this would be something to think about.

I am sure you will find plenty of parents interested, who have their eye on more competitive schools down the line. But also many who just want their children to be kids. She just needs to know how to reach the right target audience.

She's also worked with older children (who left the nursery and struggled at primary school, for example) to work on their writing, as well as with kids with additional needs.

I think she'd have more of a market here to be honest. I'd never in a million years get a tutor to teach my 3 year old to read and write. I think more people will consider it the older their child is.

Could she tutor reception and year 1 pupils who are struggling rather than nursery age? I would think most parents wouldn’t pay for nursery age tutoring and it’s not actually important for children to learn to read before they start school, in fact lots of schools don’t like it as they follow specific phonics systems and they aren’t all the same so it sometimes causes them more work.

Oh, absolutely.

For more context: we live in a small town (very HCOL and lots of wealthy families and private schools around - both primary and secondary). My mum has a great reputation for the work she does with children before they start school.

She's up-to-date with what the schools expect and how they go on to work with the children (including both phonics and writing styles - cursive vs block lettering, etc).

I think marketing to reception/Y1 though is a great shout. Thanks!

From a child development perspective, tutoring reception aged children is pretty poor practice and I would expect a woman with so much experience to know this.

I agree with the slightly older children - there are always going to be some very pushy parents out there. For what it's worth, I have a son in Year 1 and it's not something I'd ever contemplate and would have actively chosen not to send him to a nursery which taught them to read and write.

I think reception and year1 is her target. I am dyslexic and my parents took me at this stage of a wonderful lady who was kind and patient with my reading and writing. I attribute much of my spelling today to her she taught me tactics to help remember how to spell and gave me the joy of a story.

Advertising as early years and key stage one means that's she's covering both the parents pushing for early education and those who need a bit of extra help.

I do think early reading and writing is more down to the child because one of mine was reading fluently at 3, the other was 6+ same parents, same early education approach

Does she have any experience with Sen teaching? I have a young child who was struggled with reading and would have hired her as a tutor. My son is year 2 but if I had found her in reception or year 1 I would have used her.

If she is flexible with her hours - my dream when my child was in the early years was to have a tutor/after school care. I work full time and this would have been amazing

Can she speak any languages? My DS knows a little bit of French but DH and I don't speak it well enough. I would be happy with someone coming once a week for 30mins or so and playing a game or doing Lego with him speaking in French

Out of interest, why? Honestly not being deliberately goady or anything.

If the child also has plenty of opportunity to develop via play and friendships etc then why would an hour or so of tutoring a week be poor practice?

She does! Thanks for this, I've made a note of it.

She speaks Italian. I have a MFL undergrad and postgrad degree and speak French and Italian - this is something we've talked about too :)

I hope your mother finds what she's looking for to give her an active and fulfilling retirement - additional support in reception/Y1 may well be a good area to explore.

However, I suspect I am not the only one feeling uncomfortable at the concept children already being 'hothoused' at nursery stage.

I heard of a six year old with a tutor recently and thought that was bad enough tbh.

I imagine some will love the idea of their 3yo reading and writing but that will be a small subset of parents, and probably not the easiest to work with either.

The market for older children will be bigger.

Just let children play.

Who the hell wants to tutor a toddler? Also, a lot of schools don’t want children to join already knowing how to read and write as they have often used different techniques which will confuse the children. Plus they will surely be bored during phonics all through reception!

Thing is that my oldest would have loved this at 3/4yo. She loved reading and writing.
I wouldn't have wanted a tutor for her though as she did it by herself without it being hard.

My youngest would have hated it and so I wouldn't have put him through it and it would have been pointless too as he'd have done nothing.

So I'm not sure who it would be aiming at.

Reported @devongusscott - you can't just dredge up an old topic with an advert for your business, sunshine