Home tuition – How To Be A Good Home Tutor

Why Math is Important in our Lives

Math is one of the most integral parts of our day to day lives. It is also one of the integral parts to our society as a whole, and important to many industries. But what do we use it for during the average day to day routine? Well the answer to this question mainly depends on what you do everyday.

The average person may not realize it but they use math for almost every action they take. When you mark the calendar for an upcoming event you count down the days to that event. When you cook you have to measure, subtract, add, divide, and sometimes multiply the amount of ingredients for your food. You also use basic math skills when you tell time and organize your day.

In the work place math plays a pivotal role. While computers do most of our intense calculations and payroll number crunching they still use the same mathematics that we do. Without math in this aspect no one would get paid. If it weren’t for math there would be no kind of an economy for anyone to use period. Then you get into the fields of technology and construction.

While many think of computers and the internet as the backbone of our world the truth is the real background is in stone and metal. Our massive concrete and steel structures would not be possible without math. You have to precisely measure the components, materials, and calculate the load strains for the supports. In fact building would not be very easy if it were not for the existence of math.

A perfect example of this is the great pyramids in Egypt. Without math there is no way that such a structure could have been built so precisely. Many of the modern marvels that we take for granted today such as electricity, cell phones, and even our air conditioners would be nonexistent were it not for math. But who created math in the first place?

The first recorded use of math in a society was around 3000 BC. This was primarily used in trading, mapping, and the recording of time. However the origin for basic math skills that people use for counting objects cannot be determined. As it evolved cultures started making tools to help them count and begin to make calculations.

This aided the development of the ancient world and without it there would not be a world as we know it today. If math was not used beyond the common everyday usage we would have no tall structures, no electronics, no advanced technology, and no advanced medicine. Math played an integral part in the development of our world and our sciences. Without it we would still be in mud huts clothing ourselves in fur and looking up at the sky worshipping what we see there as deities.

So remember when teaching your children and your grandchildren about the world enforce upon them the importance of math. Without it we would be nowhere and worse off for it. But with it we have the ability to reshape the world and make glorious wonders both technologically and scientifically. Everything from the latest skyscrapers to Sunday dinner is the result of math.

How To Find The Right Tutor And Keep Your Child Motivated

More and more parents are turning to home tuition to augment the learning their children receive at regular school. This may be to develop gifted children in an accelerated way, focus on improving grades in a specific subject, or to deal with non academic challenges such self confidence and motivation.

In line with this demand there is also an ever growing supply of home tuition services both on-line and off-line including individual tutors and home tuition agencies. So how do you make an informed decision about which tutoring service to use? The mere fact that you are considering additional tutoring for your child shows you wish only what is best for him or her. Depending on the age of your child if you can, get your child involved right from the start. When he or she believes they are part of the decision making process you have already started to get your child motivated.

Setting Goals

Before doing any research into what tuition services are available make sure you are absolutely clear as to what it is you wish for your child. Get your child involved if you can, work together and establish clear goals, that is, know exactly what you wish to achieve and know how you will recognize that you have achieved it.

When selecting a tutoring service, it’s imperative to know what you want to get out of the relationship. Whether your child is struggling with a specific subject or is gifted and needs accelerated learning, or needs help in preparing for examinations understanding the specific needs of your child will help you when you begin your research to determine whether or not the tutoring services you find are right for your child.

Research

Most Modern individual tutors and tutoring services have websites explaining who they are, what they specialize in their fee structures and so on. If this is the first time you are looking for additional tutoring, look for a reputable home tuition agency which should have more than enough information on their website everything from the subjects they offer and their philosophy of education to statements about the qualifications of their tutors and testimonials from satisfied clients. Pay particular attention to testimonials from children – the real customers.

Those of you who are familiar with tutoring and home tuition may feel comfortable enough to deal directly with individual tutors who specialize in the subject for which your child needs help. For those of you who are less familiar there are points to take into consideration over and above setting goals mentioned earlier.

Personalized Learning

This is where individual home tuition comes into its own. It can be very difficult to keep your child motivated if he or she is part of a larger group being tutored by one of the tutoring services. In many ways this can be the same learning environment as the normal classroom.

Each child is unique with his or her own preferred learning style and study habits. Also the exact kind of tutoring he or she needs may be different from others. For these reasons, one-on-one home tutoring is your best option. Motivation is a very important factor in your child achieving his or her best. A professional home tutor has the expertise to notice when the motivation wanes and knows what action to take to resolve it.

Evaluations and Assessments

How is it possible for an on-line tutoring service to know what is the ideal tuition program for your child if they haven’t met your child or is lacking in adequate information to make an accurate assessment?

Any reputable and professional home tuition service will wish to conduct an initial evaluation as a means of determining the right tutoring program for your child. This evaluation then forms the basis against which all progress can be assessed. Assessments should be conducted at regular intervals to ensure your child is on track or otherwise.

Should your child be falling behind in a given subject, the home tutor will recognize this and take the remedial action necessary to keep your child motivated.

Release of 2009 PSLE Examination Results

Dear pupils and parents,

Let’s count down…4, 3, 2, 1 ……..

MOE has announced that the result of 2009 Primary School Leaving Examination will be released on 26 November 2009. Pupils will obtain their result slips from their respective schools from 12 noon on 26 Nov.

On 26 November, eligible pupils will also receive from their respective primary schools, their option forms to select secondary schools. Pupils are have to pass the option forms to their parents.

Yeah! Parents can finally put a fullstops for their child primary school education. And preparing for the secondary education for the kid.

As a parent, we spent uncountable time, money and other resources to the kid, of course we wish our kids can score well in PSLE and get into the ideal school and course. Congratulation! If your child can get the result you want, keep it up in the secondary school education.

What if the kid disappointed you? Does that mean your kid is the loser in PSLE? NO…
There are no loser in this world, either you win the game or you learn something from the game. Never ever have a thought about losing.

Primary School Leaving Examination

PSLE stands for Primary School Leaving Examination. It is a national examination in Singapore. The PSLE examination is a yearly examination given in Singapore. The examination is taken by pupils at the end of their sixth year in primary school, generally taken around the age of twelve, although there are exceptions based on pace. PSLE is to assess pupil’s suitability for secondary education and also place them in one of the appropriate secondary school courses, which match their learning pace, capability and inclination

After the primary school education, all the pupils will be streamed into the Special course, Express course, Normal (Academic) course or Normal (Technical) course in secondary school according their performance in PSLE. In 2008, the Special courses and Express courses merged into the Express course. (Refer http://www.moe.sg/media/press/2007/pr20070803.htm for more information about the merging of two course)

Primary School Leaving Examination – Subject Information

Not To Overly Concern About the Scores

It is natural to expect our child’s to get good marks, but not to overly concern about the scores.
Think about below three situations, what would you say if you were the parents?

Scenario 1: Any improvement?
Albert scored 75 for his Mathematics test in March. In May, he obtained 75 for Mathematics again. His mother was disappointed because she expected him to show improvement, after all the coaching from his private tutor.

Scenario 2: Did he slip?
Benny’s mark for the first English test was 70 and he scored 65 for his second test. His mother was horrified as she expected a better grade after she spent much time tutoring him

Scenario 3: Time for celebration?
Calvin scored 10 marks more for the recent Chinese test, compared to his previous results. His mother was rather pleased

All three mothers may be wrong! When we compare two scores, it’s easy to be misled. Tests cover different topics of different standards and usually syllabi list easier topics earlier. So, though Albert scored 75 for both tests, he may have in fact made an improvement if the later one was more difficult. However, such gains are not reflected in the marks. This same principle works for Benny and Calvin.

An increase in scores may not reflect improvement. Conversely, a decrease may not signify lack of progress either. The crucial factor is the relative difficulty levels of the two examinations.

In recent times, examination results have become highly emotional events for students, and parents perhaps, it is important to know that every score is relative to other factors, which are essential for the correct interpretation of results. Sometimes, such pertinent information Is not available to you as a parent. So what’s critical is your child’s self-esteem. Encourage and support your in his progress and not be overly concerned about scores.

Your Child And The Home Tuition Process

There is growing criticism of the public schooling system whether it is class sizes that are far too large, too much attention to targets or too little attention on the development of individual children. Much of the criticism is justified but schools have to follow regulated and approved programs. Where individual children need special attention or have preferred learning styles which are not being met, it is impossible for teachers to deal with those situations. This goes some way to explaining why more parents are adding  home tuition to help educate their children.

One of the most important benefits of home tuition is the flexibility with which you can tailor your child’s educational needs developing a learning process which takes into account the preferred learning style of your child as well as recognizing his or her strengths and weaknesses.

The benefits don’t stop there. Although you do have to follow a set curriculum and should have developed a plan to execute it, you have a great deal of flexibility within that plan. Always remember that home tuition is also the relationship between you (or a recognized professional home tutor) and your child. That relationship thrives when you and your child develop the ways in which your child will learn, identify the different subjects that you will both enjoy and even both learn from.

Before you get anywhere near actually teaching there are a number of things to consider as you introduce your child to the home tuition process.

Think of the head start you will have if you involve your child from the very beginning. By inviting your child to help you develop the right learning program for him or her you are all but ensuring that he or she will take more of a personal interest in the tuition as well as encouraging a higher level of learning retention. Think of the huge difference between learning together and being taught at!

When the home tuition education plan has been developed, ask your child to review it keeping them involved in the process. You have the benefit of being as flexible as you need to be as long as your child is aware of his or her responsibilities and why the curriculum needs to be followed. You can introduce as many fun elements as you wish especially if they make full use of your child’s preferred learning style. However, you also need to make it clear the seriousness of why you will be spending this time together and what the desired outcomes are.

You can make your child feel that he or she has an important role to play by discussing daily plans and asking for input. The thing to watch for is that there will be subjects your child does not like and may try to find ways to avoid that particular lesson. He or she needs to understand why the lessons are necessary and by working together to find alternative ways of tackling the lesson may result in your child being a lot more positive.

Knowing your child as you do you can be proactive and have alternative study plans for the subjects or activities you know your child will object to. Offering the alternatives that you have designed can be a very good way of encouraging your child to learn a subject they do not like. On a more positive note even for subjects your child does like offering alternative study plans can keep the subject fresh and all the more interesting.

Part of your role is to manage the whole home tuition process and monitor progress towards achieving specific goals. Within that framework, if your child feels that he or she has made a real contribution to the design of the program and believes you have actively listened to what he or she had to say your child will feel important and a lot more likely to want to participate and learn each day.

Discover The Benefits Of Home Tuition

Home tuition is growing in demand as more parents are seriously considering this as the most appropriate method of providing additional education for their children. If you are one of those parents it will pay you to do some research first. Talk to a reputable home tuition agency, ask their advice. Ask them to answer any questions you may have, discuss prices and fees in case you cannot deliver the home tuition program on your own. Also talk with any local home tuition support groups and other parents who are already involved with home tuition. Look on the internet at websites and blogs connected with home tuition programs, services supplies etc.

Building up as clear a picture as you can, will give you the confidence needed to decide whether teaching your children at home is the best option to complement their regular schooling in preparing them for their future or not. It will also help you to decide whether you are the right person to teach them or if you are going to need professional help.

Benefits of Home Tuition

If your child is not learning or developing as much as he or she should be it will cause concern. It may be because your child is unhappy or even fearful due to continuing peer pressure or they are struggling with the lessons being taught. Home tuition gives your child a safe and more pleasurable environment within which to learn and gives you the opportunity to monitor progress a lot more closely. They can then take the new learning with them back to the classroom.

Perhaps your child is struggling in the classroom because the teachers must follow set guidelines on what should be taught and how it should be taught. Your child may have a preferred learning style which he or she cannot get in school and this could cause them to fall further behind. Home tuition gives you the option of choosing the best learning style for your child as well as the flexibility in deciding how to cover the subject matter in question.

Furthermore you will be able to watch how your child is progressing and developing, identifying their core strengths and areas that need further development or improvement. Again you have the flexibility to shorten some lessons, lengthen others, even repeat modules if necessary fine tuning your program to suit the needs of your child and not the system.

You know your child best and you will be in control. You will know the best ways to deal with minor problems or distractions and you already have their trust as their parent. In monitoring your child’s activity and attention span you will be able to quickly get them back in focusing on the work at hand. All of these situations can go totally unnoticed in the regular school classroom.

Depending on your child’s character and nature they may be shy, quiet and reserved which makes it extremely difficult for him or her to socialize with the relevant peer group at school. Oftentimes this can lead to feelings of unwitting resentment in the other children leading to even more unhappiness in your child. What can make matters worse is that children may not feel they can openly discuss this at school or at home.

If you recognize that this could be a potential problem then you can use the home tuition time to build on their confidence. When your child feels safe, happy and you have a solid learning relationship nothing will stop him or her developing even at a greater pace than regular schooling on its own. He or she will take the new confidence back with him or her to the classroom and playground.

Managing The Transition To Home Tuition

When you make the decision to provide your child with extra tuition over and above their public school education, you and your child will need to be able to manage a period of transition. Even if your decision is based partly on the request of your child or unsatisfactory progress at school, you will both have to adjust to this new experience.

We all need time to adjust when something significant happens in our lives and making the decision to home tutor can be as significant as any. It is important for your child and you to take the time starting their home tuition program to get accustomed to new routines and prepare for the extra time spent in study. Even though you are happy with the decision if you are nervous or feel apprehensive about coping with this change, discuss it through with specialists at a reputable home tuition agency. It is important that your child understands that his or her learning and education at home is only part of their academic study but still an important part.

You also need to manage your transition and one of the best ways to do that is to plan. Be ready to start your child’s home tuition properly:

• Make sure you have all the resources and materials you need.
• Prepare your child’s learning programs.
• He or she will no longer have as much time after school or at weekends to enjoy playing or the company of friends so how will you cater for that?
• Recognizing that your child may miss friends, plan activities after tuition if you can to make up for that.

If you have planned well the start of the home tuition should go smoothly enough but don’t worry if it doesn’t or if lessons take longer than initially thought. Remember that scheduling, rescheduling and flexibility is one of the benefits of home tuition so don’t try to achieve too much too soon. Don’t set the expectations of yourself or your child too high to begin with.

It may come as a pleasant surprise that with the one-on-one home tuition your child not only catches up with their learning but actually surpasses it. You will both find the rhythm that works best for each session.

Your child may be a little young to know the meaning of terms like goals, objectives or career plans. Use the words you know they will understand and talk to them about their likes and dislikes within the context of learning and developing, ask them what dreams they have of the future and build their confidence. They already trust you, so reassure them that they will be able to learn and study subjects that they are interested in much greater detail than they have ever been able to before. Now is the time to get their imagination going and build the excitement of learning in a safe and secure environment.

If you do this, and plan for your home tuition to include the things your child wants to focus on and make real progress with, you will find an enthusiastic child excited about learning as well as looking forward to spending time together.

Does Home Tuition Work For High School Students?

Home tuition continues to grow in popularity as more parents discover the benefits to both them and their younger children. Year on year statistics are proving that high school students who take advantage of additional home tuition are out performing their peers. Many still believe, however, that home tuition really only benefits younger children but you will see that tutoring high school students at home is also growing in popularity as the extra study is helping them progress.

There is a change of emphasis if you compare the two age groups. Whereas the decision to tutor younger children at home will be made by the parents depending on their circumstances, quite often it is the older students themselves who are opting for the extra home tuition study. There can be a number of reasons for this such as:

• Struggling to learn in classes with too many other students.
• Preferred learning styles not being catered for.
• Not being accepted socially.
• Peer pressure.
• Bullying.
• Wishing to prepare early for the next stage of their career.

One of the added benefits for parents is that high school level students can be more independent and attend to their own educational and academic needs. Nonetheless it is very important that they are given guidance in choosing the right curriculum for them.

Discussing their requirements with a reputable home tuition agency will save a great deal of time searching and researching for resources and programs to follow as well as determine whether the student will need the assistance of a professional home tutor. Other benefits could include:

• Identifying the best websites for materials and support.
• Building a network of contacts and friends through message boards, chat rooms and online forums.
• Finding established support groups in the home area.
• Selecting the best curriculum or developing their own study program with the help of the home tuition agency to further develop their strengths and address their weaknesses.

Also with this change of emphasis it is extremely important that any and all discussions about additional home tuition for your older children involves them directly and they are part of the decision making process. This helps to give them a sense of responsibility and a feeling that they are now accountable for their own success. Moreover, home tuition for students at this level will develop sound independent study skills as they focus on continuous learning on their own.

In discussing options with an external home tuition agency and in choosing the best home tuition curriculum, it is best if your teenagers take an active part in deciding which curricula to choose that would best suit their learning styles and abilities. Moreover it is important to look beyond the academic needs of your older children and take a more holistic approach to their ongoing development taking into account their social needs, interpersonal skills development and physical development.

For your high school level students deciding on an extra-curricular home tuition program will not only help them achieve their academic goals but with the right levels of support and guidance will prepare them well for the next stage in their chosen career.

Remember that both you and your teenage students can get all the guidance and support you need by contacting a reputable and experienced home tuition agency.

Home Tuition Is A Great Way For Children Who Are having Trouble Learning In The Classroom Setting From Their Teacher

Home tuition is a good way for your child to excel away from the classroom where they may be struggling. There is a reason why home tutoring is so beneficial, the reason is because your child will not be under the pressures they have at a regular school. They may feel more comfortable to express feelings and thoughts they may be to insecure to express in school.

There are many kids who have problems at school, when they have these problems they might tell their parents about it and ask for help, but the parents may not always be able to offer up the right help.

They may decide to lash out in school because they are frustrated with not being able to learn properly, or they could just be having problems with one subject or two and if they can get this figured out they’ll be alright. If this is the case a home tutor will be able to help bring out your child true potential.

A good home tutor will be able to zero in on your child weaknesses and their strengths. They’ll be able to use these things to come up with the best way to help your child learn better. This is an advantage they would have if they were in the classroom.

To give you examples of this take the child who may be good at one subject but struggles with another one. Do you believe this child would not benefit from having someone who has the skill in these particular areas where your child is lacking? Also do you believe the way your child is learning now is the reason why they’re struggling? Maybe the teacher at school is the problem.

Maybe if they were delivered the information in a better way they would absorb it better. These are all things you need to consider, a good home tutor will want to assist your child in a way where there weaknesses will be turned into strengths.

The only thing you’ll want to make sure of is that the tutor is well qualified. If they are not qualified then they won’t be a good fit for your child. You’ll want to do a quick check of their back round to see what their education level is. You’ll want to see what areas they specialize in. If your child needs help with math then it may benefit you to get a tutor that has strong skills in math.

If your child is struggling with science then it may be a good idea to get someone who specializes in science. The more specialized the tutor is towards a particular subject the more you’ll be able to pick and choose which one your child will best benefit from. Then you won’t have to worry about the areas they’re lacking in at school because they’ll have someone to help them out more then what they would get in a regular learning environment.