HE with a tutor

[Whocantakeasunrise]

Sorry not posted on this section before - don't know if this is the right place. But after advice for a friend. They have a 5yr old daughter, who is struggling with school, she's in Yr 1, and every day is crying about going to school, worries all weekend about returning to school on Monday, and has begun to become ill (stomach ache), or is at least saying that is the problem, so that she has time off school.

They are considering getting a tutor in to tutor her at home. They both work full time, but have their week split so that one of them is always working from home. They don't want to do the educating themselves, but would like to employ someone to do it, in the home environment.

Has anyone got any experience of this either good or bad?

How do you go about finding a tutor?

I haven't any experience of this arrangement, but after all it used to be how the rich preferred to educate their children, at least for the early years: tutor or governess.

Do your friends need a lot of childcare, or are they just thinking of arranging for formal education for a few hours, while they themselves juggle working from home with providing childcare for most of the week? (I don't know whether they realise that even if they prefer formal education then with one-to-one teaching they'll only need a few hours a week.)

If they just want a few hours a week of tutoring then I suppose they'd go through the same channels as parents who are seeking extra after-school tuition; I don't know quite where people start looking for that.

If they need a substantial amount of childcare then they could consider a childminder or nanny. Some prospective CMs or nannies would be put off at the idea of providing education, because they may think it is more difficult than it is. But I'm sure they could find someone who's up for it!

It might be more fun for the little girl if they hire someone who is already HEing his/her own children as well. Such a person wouldn't be daunted at the idea of home education, and might already know all about local home ed activities etc, and the little girl would have children to play with during the daytime. I'm sure there are parents on the home ed lists who would find such a position appealing as it would allow them to bring in an income while continuing to home educate their own children.

Thank you for these, I will show them this thread.

I am presuming here, and once they've seen this they may ask me to say/ask more, or they may cut out the middle man and ask you themselves, but they need the 8.30-3.30ish times of childcare (but thinking about it they have travelling time on this which of course would be eliminated), as whoever is at home, then works in the evening when the other parent returns home.

Very good idea re HE person looking for additional income.

Thanks for that very helpful.

I know a couple of people who work full time but home ed their children. They have nanny- type childcarers for their children, as Samay suggests. They take them out to groups/ museums/ zoos/ home ed trips or they hang out at home and read books/ cook/ do art or science projects. At 5 especially I wouldn't have thought they'd want a tutor, more just a lovely, warm, interesting carer who wants to build a good relationship with their daughter and help her explore the world. It seems to work ok for them. I use a nanny on a part time basis for my children who are home ed and it works well for us.

I'm a remedial reading tutor and, long ago, home educated my youngest son.

Nowadays, I occasionally have home educated children come to me for tutoring whilst their parents provide the rest of the education themselves.

Often the child returns to school once I've taught them how to read as that was the root of the problem with school attendance.