How much would you expect to pay for a private tutor for a 5 yo?

[Maamekin]

We don't live in the UK at present.

When we return, DD will have missed reception and year one, (but won't have done any formal schooling where we are now, as they start later, so eg she probably won't have learned to read or write).

I am thinking of employing a private tutor for her for literacy and numeracy, so that she won't be too far behind when she eventually goes into UK year 2.

Does anyone have any idea of the approximate cost I should be looking at? I was hoping to do 1 hour a week, 1 to 1.

I wouldn't get a tutor for a 5 year old.
If she is 5 she will be in year 1, if she just 6 by September 1st she will be in year 2. Children with no formal education do catch up in state schools all the time. If you want a tutor, I would have one to give some intensive practice for a couple of weeks over the summer (maybe 1 hour a day).
But even better, make sure you know your phonics, and use Jolly Phonix or the Reading Reflex to help you start her with reading. You can also do some simple Maths, make sure she can count, and recognises numbers, then you can develop these skills using simple workbooks.

When are you coming back? Why don't you teach her to read, count, add and subtract yourself? I find teaching my daughter to write a little harder than the other things. The other things seem quite natural to her. Plainly, the more she can do when you return the less you'll have to pay for and the basics are pretty easy to teach.

I reckon you're looking at starting prices of 30 pounds per hour.

have a look here

www.underfives.co.uk/elg.html

If you aren't in UK then you need state roughly where you are as rates will vary hugely. Do you have any international or British schools locally - one of their staff may do tuition or you may find other trailing spouses willing to do after school groups covering Reception/KS1 numeracy and literacy (a sahm friend who was a former teacher used to run one on Wednesday afternoons which was a school half day) or 1 to 1. Ask around the expat communtiy or look for English speaking school newletters and websites. tbh 1 hour may not be enough to make much difference and at 5 a group might be less pressured and mroe fun. Also there is huge variation within a year 1 /2 classroom anyway so she would catch it up unless she has other issues, just keep reading to her in English and perhaps get some workbooks.

We are coming back in 2 years time (probably!). She would be starting reception in September if we were in the UK.

She can count already, I could probably teach her the numbers stuff myself, but wouldn't really know how to go about teacher her to read (though she is quite interested in doing so). And she likes to try and write my shopping list. But I think she finds it quite difficult, not much has "clicked" yet. I thought maybe someone who knew what they were doing might be better at teaching her.

Plus DD2 (1 yo) likes to "join in" and throw the magnetic letters everywhere, and it affects the studious atmosphere

I am in Germany - there are international schools here, and that is a fantastic idea trying to get a group together with others :)

We came back to the uk at the end of y1. I started teaching ds1 phonics 4 months earlier. We did 10-15 minutes every weekday after Kindergarten and By the time we came back he was reading basic books (yellow or blue band ish?). He had picked up maths through playing at Kindergarten so learning how to write numbers was the main thing I had to teach him for maths. What I mean is4x2 meant nothing to him but he'd know that if you had a Lego brick with 2 rows of 4 dots that there would be 8 dots altogether.

He left y1 behind but left y2 higher than average. Admittedly during the summer holidays we read a book daily and I made him keep a diary but during the 6 weeks his writing started off as long strings of letters and ended up as sentences with spaces, full stops and capital letters.

I was surprised how quickly he picked it up but being older (ie not reception age) meant that he was more ready and needed less time.

I wouldn't get a tutor. It's not hard to sit with a child and practice reading and writing. There are lots of workbooks and online resources that you can use at a fraction Of the cost.

The way I taught my two/three year old to read was with three letter words first, baa, faa, maa, wee, fee, dee, moo, coo. I wrote them on A5 paper and spread them on the floor. After a few weeks I could call any "word" out and she'd pick it up and bring it to me. Then we added dog, log, fog and so on. And after a few months of three letter words we started slowly adding four letter words. After about a year we started combining the familiar words into sentences and after about six months of that we started combining the sentences into stories. After a few months of that we also started reading simple stories written by other people. Now she's four and reads simple library books.

A number bond is a jargonny way of saying limited addition, eg 2 and 8 make 10, 4 and 6 make 10 and so do a lot of other combinations. When I was at school we used to call them the number stories of 10, stories of 8 and so on.

Surely you do not need a tutor ? teach her bits yourself and she will catch up if needed when the time come. My kids did not go to school until 7 so not formally followed curriculum until then and were ahead of others. I would not worry save your money.

You can watch sesseme street on utube, that helps lots too. Sing the ABC song. My daughter still loves to hear Elmo sing it.

I think 1 hour sessions with a 5 year old are wast of time and money.

As others have said, I would look at the Early Years Foundation Stage goals for Reception and then try and work within these while you play with her, e.g. count bricks or whatever she is playing with, sweets and re-count when she has eaten one etc., but I think you probably do that sort of stuff anyway - but you could focus it a bit more towards the EYFS goals.

Then I would get some Jolly Phonics material and sing the songs and do the actions as often as she is keen to do it - that way she will know her letters ... then blend them if she is interested.

Towards Y1 I would try and find out what the expectations are for Y1 and then try and move her in that direction.

Also, read to her, talk to her lots .... the usual.

All that you could fit into several 5 min sessions per day or however it suits you - she won't even know she is being taught. Just have fun. She is only young.

Do read to her lots, she may just start to pick it up. But I would recommend that you make sure you know your phonic sounds. Do lots of nursery rhymes etc. with her too.

Tbh, I doubt you would get a German tutor teaching a 5 year old English school knowledge.

Either try to speak to a international/British school or do it yourself.

DD is in YR and she was taught phonics using "Jolly Phonics". She gets a book each day but the school doesn't believe in a fixed reading scheme, so we have Oxford Reading Tree, Toddler Books, non-fiction and so on.

She learns cursive writing in school but as far as I know each school in our borough uses a different template and it must be brand-new as our neighbour's DD in Y2 only learned it after the start of the last autumn term.

She only started recently doing more numbers. She could already count up to 20 and beyond when she started last year and we play lots of games with dice to help her counting and adding/subtracting.

My friend's DD taught herself to read when she wasn't able to start school as she is October born. The mum had books from the CBBees Alphablocks and the girl just did it herself.

Seriously, a small child is better with a few minutes a day off you. They learn by repeating stuff.

Counting, adding up Lego bricks, looking at favourite books. Tracing patterns then letters.

In nursery and reception in the UK they do short formal activities mixed in with lots of play.

If she isn't going to UK school 'till Y2 it may help if she's done jolly phonics and read a few Floppy books (Oxford reading tree).

Even if her school uses something else these are so ubiquitous in Britain they will provide a common starting point.

I assume your DD is bilingual. Does she go to Kindergarten? I would make sure she has plenty of contact with English speakers and you only use English with her.

I am German and we are in the UK, and I have met quite a number of parents whose DC understand German but won't use it, especially when they start school. Luckily mine will speak German to anywone who they think is fluent.

Thanks taking all this on board.

TBH I assumed a tutor would also be fun, and play lots of games etc with her too - I didn't want some severe slave-driver one! , I wanted a nice lady who would do lots of fun things and boost her confidence, and who also knew what she was doing.

We already do most of the things mentioned above - not jolly phonics though. She is very keen to write my shopping list for me, and the names of her friends - she says things like "I am going to write Sophia" and then she sticks an S and a F and a U on her magnetic board (not necessarily in that order). Or she makes me write something and then adds random letters to it and makes me read it out and collapses with giggles.

I think I'll shelve the idea of 1 to 1, but I still might explore doing something in a group, I rather like that idea, and she might make some friends.

Does she go to kindergarten or anything like that at the moment? I went to one that was based on Steiner ideas so there were some group activities, and lots of free time where the children could choose to do different kinds of play, or spend time doing more number/letter based things. I really wanted to be able to read & write and the teachers would show me how to make letters and let me practice them in paint, which it sounds like your daughter might enjoy, whereas other kids didn't necessarily want to and carried on playing doctors or whatever. Is there anything like that where you are?

I wouldn't worry too much - it sounds like she is more or less teaching herself really. Maybe you could order some fun workbooks and go through them with her?

Yes, shelf the tutor idea! That nice lady may sing a jolly phonics song with her for 2 minutes and then your DD may decide to cook her a lovely meal in her play kitchen and play catch in the garden for the rest of the time - I don't think you want to pay her for that though?

Can you watch alphablocks on tv (cbeebies website)?

My DD is obsessed with it and it really helped her learn the initial sounds for the letters and then move on with jolly phonics.

If you have an iPad Montessori does good apps where you can sound out the letter and write it. You can record yourself making the sound. They do a lovely basic numeracy one as well. If you want them and can't find them pm me and I will find the link.

HTH

where are you in germany?

i am in south cologne, have a little boy who is nearly 3 and have lots of primary resources to copy if that's close to you...

or have you tried the website 'toytown' to meet other english speaking mums in germany who might know of or want to form a group.

When DS1 was younger he had a tutor and it was £20 an hour.

A couple of kids in DS's year have tutors (yr2) and they pay £30 per hour.

simpson - £30 per hour - my question would be, what can that tutor do what a parent can't achieve with an extra 10 min per day or so?

My DS is in Y2 and I thought he needed a bit of a push wish his maths. 10-15 min per day for a couple of months did the job.