Tutoring Services

The last decade or so has seen a massive increase in tutoring services. Although tutors have pretty much always been around, the last decade has seen the boom of the 'tutoring services.' These tutoring services come in a variety of flavors, but the two main types are described below.

-tutoring centers which provide a place for parents/guardians to drop off their students for tutoring
-tutoring services that employ private one on one tutors

Tutoring centers have become very popular over the last decade. Kumon, Sylvan Learning are just of the larger franchises that offer tutoring services. As you probably know, you take your child to these centers which have tutors there to work with your children. By many accounts, this type of tutoring can be effective. Although the qualifications to become a tutor vary from institution to institution, there is not too much of a rigorous application process. In other words, it's not too hard to become a tutor at one of these places. That said, the prices can be reasonable and most of the places have a methodology that they use to teach. For instance, Kumon uses their own sheets and methodologies and I know several people who are happy with what Kumon does. Same can be said for Sylvan learning.

This type of tutoring has been around forever. Basically, you try to find the tutor with the best reputation, often a person from whatever school your child goes to and approach the tutor to see what they charge and if/when they are available. Private tutors can charge anywhere from $20/hour to hundreds of dollars an hour--seriously!

Although it may be hard to find a tutor who fits your exact requirements/needs, if you do find the right person, it might well be worth the money to have individual attention and expertise focused on your own child.