Have you ever hired a tutor for your child? Chances are you’ve at least thought about arranging for supplemental support – either one on one or in small group form – outside the classroom. From 
remedial support and catch up, to enrichment and getting ahead, working with a tutor is becoming the norm. Parents want to do what they can to ensure their children have a quality education and support outside the classroom is often the just the thing to bolster success.
If you’re the parent of a school aged child, you can probably think back to a time when you tried to help your student study for a test or plan out a long term assignment. Perhaps your seventh grader has come home completely stumped but a new pre-Algebra concept introduced that day in school. As a caring parent wanting to keep your child feeling good about his math ability, you offered to sit down with your son after dinner and work through that night’s assigned problems. Ten minutes into reviewing the homework assignment the tension was thick. You were frustrated by your son’s apparent lack of focus and your son felt you were confusing him more and he assured you he could complete the work himself. Sound familiar? When a parent tries to offer support to a struggling student it often leads to frustration – maybe even a meltdown. Power struggles and emotions are sure to take over and can quickly become the dominant focus. Hiring a tutor can be just the ticket for success. After all, your student does not have an emotional attachment to the tutor. This will allow you to go back to being a parent rather than the homework police. Tensions will dissolve and the parent/child relationship will be strengthened. Tutors can help ease family stress around academics.
So, when you’ve tried to work with your child, helping them with a math assignment or planning out steps for a science project only to leave the experience completely drained and defeated, it may be time to look into tutoring.