by Karen Nunn

Created on: September 23, 2009   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

When parents ask me to help their child with homework or tutoring, I first start with setting goals. Where they see their child's progress by the end of the school year is one of the questions to get answered. Unrealistic goals are the biggest reason that tutoring or homework help will fail. Make sure to get the background of any learning disabilities the child may have. I will also get the child's input on what they feel their problem areas are and what they want to work on. With the parent and child's input, I then put together a plan to reach the goals that we have all discussed.

When I have found the goal for each child, I will put together a study guide. This is to be followed on a weekly schedule. I take each subject that is to be worked on and what needs to be addressed to reach the final goal. Each week may have only a few things to cover or it may have quite a bit to get them to the end goal. Make it a realistic weekly goal for the child to reach as to not get discouraged. Talk to the parents about a possible reward program for reaching weekly goals.

The first meeting with the child should be to go over the study guide and to lay down the ground rules. At this time, if a reward program is implemented by the parents, let the child know that your report will determine if the weekly goal is met to receive their reward. If the child wants to get started, then by all means jump right in, but make the first week all about laying ground rules and helping the child to understand what is expected of them.

When the next week approaches and your student has arrived, give them their assigned work right away. When they have finished is the time to go over what mistakes have been made and help the student come up with a creative way to remember or learn how to solve a problem. Have the student re-work the problems that you were both working on and see how to implement the new method. Help to build their pride and self-esteem in getting some, if not all, of the re-worked problems right. With this method, the student will learn much faster and learn to feel better about themselves at the same time.

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