How to Get Our Child Ahead in School

How To Get Our Child Ahead in School
By Coach Jasmine

Most parents want the best education for their child. From putting them in private school, to moving to a neighborhood that has the best school system or even transporting them across town to make sure they have the best of the best in education.  Unfortunately, sometimes all that you have done in school placement isn’t fruitful. Your child still may be struggling or they are unhappy with the school they are attending and you scratch you head in confusion asking how you can help your child. Honestly, you already have the answer. The beauty of parenting is everything that parents need to know about their children and how to support their children lie within the children themselves. 

Well, what do you mean by that?

Great question! Have you ever heard, “Actions speak louder than words?” Well, you can apply that quote to this situation. Children respond to their environment emotionally and display their feelings physically. When they are frustrated in school, you can tell by their behavior in class and at home. It could be disruptive behavior, being withdrawn or acting bored to name a few. Whether it be at home, in school, or society in general we all naturally respond to our environment. As parenting we need to want our children’s actions, as their words might not always add up to what is being shown and other times they honestly might not be able to find the right words to tell you how they really feel.

So, how do I help my child get ahead in school?

That is another great question! To support your child in school, you must support the whole child (mind, body and spirit). Get to know your child from the inside – out. Do they respond well when you tell them that you are proud of them? How do they respond when you give them a random gift? How do they act when you help them with their homework? Understanding your child’s physical response will give you the answers of how they are feeling emotionally even when words aren’t being shared. When you show that you care about your child as a person they will respond accordingly. It is up to you, as the parent to pay attention.

Talk to them. Eliminate the guessing game and just ask. Children are smarter than what we give them credit for. It’s just a matter of talking to them. Example, if you want to know how they are doing in a particular subject, ask them open ended questions about them not about school. If you want to know how they are doing in math, ask them how they like their math teacher. Ask them how the other children like their math teach. These answers will give you insight into how they are doing in that particular class. 

Helping your child get ahead in school is about team work! You, your child and their school. Like a triangle, your child is the point of the triangle and you and your child’s school are the base, the support, the foundation. I think you get my point. Open lines of communication between you and your child’s school, specifically your child’s teachers. They have a fragile life in their hands a majority of the day, why wouldn’t you want to know more about who your child is around? The best way to open up lines is to show up to their school, but if you are unable to show up, maximize the use of technology. Email, text and phone all work well to communicate with your child’s teacher and/or school.

There are many more ways to support your child and help them get ahead in school. If you don’t know or would like more ways then seek out and ask for help.  I would be honored to help you. My name is Coach Jasmine and I am a Holistic Parenting Life Coach at Parenting Wellness Center.  We offer a variety of coaching services and packages, designed to meet your budget and schedule, including  one-on-one coaching sessions, group coaching, and online coaching.  Every month, we also sponsor a free teleclass, and invite you to join in on the call. Please visit my website www.parentingwellnesscenter.com for more information or call for a free 15 min consultation at 720-343-9081. 

Money, Money, Money, Money: What is the Cost of Tutoring?

We all know that parents will do whatever it takes to provide their children with the best of everything so there is no doubt that when a child starts to struggle in school the parent wants to help but the one hindrance can be money. Here are some answers to questions that parents are always asking us about the costs of tutoring:

1. What does tutoring cost at Nashville Learning Center? Our rate is competitively priced at: $30-$60 per one hour private tutoring lesson. At Nashville Learning Center our prices vary depending on the program, academic subjects, and test taking skills. We offer several different tutoring programs that are tailored to fit your needs. We invoice by the tutoring program, prior to the start of tutoring sessions. There is no extra charge for the tutor's travel time. There are no surprise fees. Tutoring may be cancelled at any time with 24 hours notice. If you do not cancel a tutoring session at least 24 hours in advance you will be charged the full one hour fee. If we do receive proper notification, you will receive a credit for one lesson to be applied to the next month's bill. Credits will be reflected on the next month's billing cycle.
2. How are the payments set-up? All of our programs bill out monthly and are due on the 1st of the month no later than the 15th.  
3. What am I guaranteed for this investment? At Nashville Learning Center we realize that tutoring is not only an investment of money but also an investment of time and we do not take that lightly. Not only do our student's grades increase, according to their parents their test scores and confidence in themselves increases as well.
4. Do you have any discounts for multiple children? For families who have multiple children who want to attend Nashville Learning Center we do offer a discounted rate for having multiple children enrolled. The 2nd child receives a 15% discount.
5. Do you have any new student specials? Absolutely!!! We are currently enrolling all new students free of charge, that's right NO ENROLLMENT FEE!!!!

Are you ready to join the Nashville Learning Center family? Just complete this form  and we will give you a coupon for free enrollment.

Have questions or comments please leave them below.

Nashville Learning Center

www.nashvillelearn.com

615-450-6NLC (6652)

#nashvillelearn

#tutoring

#costoftutoring

Here's What Happens When Your Child Enrolls at Nashville Learning Center

There are several questions that are asked of Nashville Learning Center on a regular basis so we want to answer a few for you and give you an example of what we can do with your child:

What ages do you tutor? 
We start at age 3 with our pre-k students.

Why would a 3 year old need tutoring?
It is not that they need tutoring however their parents want them to start off on the right track so they sign them up for academic enrichment.

What subjects do you tutor?
We do our very best to provide a tutor for any subject in which our students need support.

What are your hours?
We are open Monday through Thursday 8am - 9pm; Friday 2pm - 6pm and Saturday 10am - 2pm

What can you do to help my child?
The assistance that we can provide your child with is endless. We have been working with Jaide since she was 10 months and at 3 years old she can now read and write and will be starting math very soon.

Now how can we help you? Leave your comments and questions below.

Nashville Learning Center

www.nashvillelearn.com

615-450-6(NLC) 6652

#3yearoldsreadtoo

#nashvillelearn

#tutoring

#allkidscanlearn

Stop Summer Learning Loss

How to Avoid Summer Learning Loss

Most parents think that if their children relax during summer break whether that is through vacationing, sleeping, playing video games, or just doing whatever they choose that their child will be well-rested and ready to start the school year off with a bang!

Unfortunately this is so far from the truth students can lose anywhere from he last 2 to 3 months of what they learned in the previous school year. So to put that into perspective if your child gets out of school at the end of May they can lose everything that they learned from March -May if they are not receiving some type of academic enrichment during the summer months.That is a huge heaping of information that your child is losing. How can you avoid the summer learning loss? It is simple enroll them in summer enrichment or an academic summer camp or work with them yourself on enrichment. Over the next few days we will provide you with information on our summer enrichment/ camp programs as well as give you some tips on what you can work on with your children.

Some of the things you can do are as follows:

• Make time for learning - incorporate learning in everything that you do with your child but also set aside some time for just learning such as reading 30 minutes per day or working on Math 30 minutes per day.
• As the teacher for the standards that will be covered the next school year or look them up on the school district's website and focus on the areas in which you know your child has trouble.
• Hire a tutor who can work with your child.
• Enroll them in a summer enrichment program or camp.

#summerenrichment
#summerlearningloss
#nashvillelearn
#Mathemagic
#STEMCamp
#BrainBootCamp

 

Them vs. Us: 4 Things That Sets Me Apart From My Competitors

What makes Nashville Learning Center different from the hundreds of other Tutoring and Test Prep Companies?

When asked this question I had to put myself in my clients shoes and think about all we have to offer. So what makes us different? Below you will find a few items that set us apart from our competitors.

1. You are more than just a number - At NLC we strive to give you our best so in an effort to do so we don't look at you as just another client (number) we think of you as family. So we give you everything we can to help you accomplish your goals:
• Sitting in the classroom to see if there's any issues in the classroom
• Communicating with teachers on a regular basis
• Staying in constant communication with parents
• Attending parent/teacher conferences and becoming a liaison between the family and the school.
• And whatever we can to help you achieve academic success
2. Honesty is the best policy - When I first started tutoring I had a parent tell me that she was disappointed because in an effort to be proactive she had been paying for her daughter to receive services from another tutoring company for about 6 month prior to the start of the school year. Her daughter was a preemie when she was born so she wanted to make sure that when she started kindergarten she would be ready to go and would not have any issues. After her daughter started school she was tested to see where she was and her mother knew that they would be shocked at how much her daughter knew because she had been paying what was equivalent to her mortgage to this company every month and they had given her a list of all of these skills her daughter had mastered. Well the mother was shocked when she received the report on her daughter was not even at a pre-k level and that everything she had been assured that her daughter had mastered her daughter did not know. After demanding that she be retested several times the mother felt awful and that is when she found us. At NLC we believe that there is no need to sugar coat anything when it comes to education honesty is our policy. We do not promise to make your child an "A" student in 2 weeks, we do not promise that they will become geniuses, what we do promise is that we will teach them any skills in which they are lacking, we will stay in constant communication with their teachers, we will keep you abreast of what is going on at all times, and we will make every effort to make sure they are the best student that THEY can be.
3. We are always learning -  Anthony J D'Angelo said "Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you'll never cease to grow" so at NLC we continue to feed our passion to learn more in return we are constantly growing and so are our students.  How can someone teach you when they themselves have stopped learning? They can't which is why we offer monthly professional development courses for our staff members, all of our staff members must be NLC certified and will soon be NTA (National Tutoring Association) certified, we even educate our parents through monthly seminars that they can attend free of charge.
4. Tutoring can start at any age - Contrary to what many believe tutoring is not just for students who are in elementary, middle, high school, or college. Tutoring is for ANYONE who wants to learn ANYTHING. At NLC our youngest client is actually 3 and she has been with us since she was about 10 months (she is my niece so that is why so young, here's a video check out Jaide Reading) and with our help and the support of her parents she is reading consistently between a first and second grade level. Our oldest thus far was 55 and she came to us because her position changed and she had to start using Excel more at work so we trained her on how to not only use Excel but helped to get all of the reports that she needed for work set-up. So you can receive tutoring at any age and we will work to make you feel comfortable and confident while learning.

To sum it all up at Nashville Learning Center you are treated like family and your child will be treated no differently than the way we treat our own children. We are devoted to providing the best services to all of our clients and will do everything in our power to make sure all of our clients are successful. As we stated above we are always learning so if there are any areas in which we can improve or if you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns please feel free to leave them below as we always love hearing from you.

 

The How To's of Selecting a Tutor

As a parent there may come a time in which you realize that your child needs academic support. This could be for remediation, enrichment, test prep, college prep, or just to make better grades. It is up to the parent to know what to do when this comes up so we will answer questions about how to select a tutor today to support you in finding the best fit for your child.

Step 1: Is There a Need?
The first step is to find out what your child actually needs in a tutor. Again a personal tutor can be hired for several different reasons and we will go through a few of those with you.

• Enrichment - This is for the student who is succeeding at grade level and wants to move forward focusing on increasing knowledge and preparation for the next level.
• Test Prep - This is for the student who has any type of standardized testing that they will have to take such as the state grade level standardized tests, SAT, ACT, Compass, etc.
• Maintenance - This is for the student who needs assistance in transitioning from one school to the next, one class to another, or one grade to another. Maintenance focuses on those skills that are not taught in school such as time management, note taking, organization, and study skills that they can apply to their current coursework.
• Remediation - This is for the student who has either forgotten a skill or just never really learned it. Usually parents get hit in the face with remediation, in other words the child comes home with an unexpected F. With remediation the child is tested on grade level and provided with a prescription of how to get caught up and catch what was missed in the past this in turns allow the student to succeed in the future.
• Remediation/Maintenance (a hybrid of sorts) -This usually works for older students and allows half of the tutoring time to be devoted to remediation while the other half is devoted to maintenance.

Step 2: How to Find a Tutor:

• First, check with other parents in your neighborhood. Chances are a good tutor is working right next door!
• Check with your child’s teacher or school principal, guidance counselor or learning specialist.
• Look in the yellow pages for learning centers.
• Check flyers in the local library, pediatrician’s offices, children’s consignment stores, coffee shops, parent teacher stores, and any other kid friendly business.
• On-line searches may result in locating tutors in your area as well but make sure you research the tutor  by simply doing a Google search and checking out social media sites as well as asking for references that you can contact.

Step 3: Evaluate the Tutor (The Application) - The tutor should be evaluated in the following areas:

• Qualifications - When looking at qualifications there are a few things you should look for. Your tutor should have a college degree and some tutoring or teaching experience. Ideally you want someone who is a certified teacher or has a tutoring certification.
• Personality - Most students resist tutoring so you want someone who has a great personality and have the ability to put the student at ease. The tutor should be able to determine what will and will not work for your child and help determine their strengths and weaknesses.
• Communication - The tutor should provide consistent feedback on the goals for the student and how these goals will be achieved and measured.They should also communicate with the teacher to make sure that the student is getting everything that they need in and out of the classroom.
• Cost - This is probably the most important factor for parents and the one thing I remind parents of is you get what you pay for. Tutoring can be accomplished in a one-to-one or small group setting. I believe the method used depends on the student and whether or not they can concentrate with another student there.One-to-one tutoring will be more expensive than small group and in-home more than going to a center. It is up to the parent to determine what is best for the student and go from there.

Step 4: The Interview: 

Questions to ask your tutor:

• How many years have you been a tutor?
• Are you, or is your company, a member of the Education Industry Association?
• Can you provide references?
• What assessments do you use?
• What supplies and materials do you provide? What will my child need to provide?
• Will you provide private (one-to-one) tutoring?
• What are your qualifications?
• What is the cost?
• Are there additional fees?
• Will I have a contract?
• Can I get out of the contract?
• How will you know what my child’s needs are?
• Do you have a particular teaching philosophy?
• How will you communicate with me?
• Will you communicate with my child's teachers?

Step 5: The Interview Part II: 

What your tutor needs from you:

• What seems to motivate your child?
• Does your child like school? What are his/her favorite subjects? Least favorite?
• How does your child feel about being tutored?
• Do you have samples of the work that I can view?
• May I speak to the teacher regarding your child?
• Does the school agree with your assessment of your child?
• How does your child feel about standardized tests? Does s/he get anxious? What are his/her past standardized test scores like?
• Does your child have any specific organizational/study skill issues?
• Does your child have any  learning disabilities that you are aware of?

What questions do you have about selecting a tutor or tutoring in general? 

Leave your comments below and we will answer each of them.

Industry Myths

There are tons of myths in every field so I decided today that I would discuss a few in my industry.

• Myth 4: Tutors give you answers. 
• The refusal of tutors to respond to student demands for the “right answer” can lead to some learners disengaging with tutors and complaining that tutor support is poor. However, as a learner, it’s important to recognize that asking a tutor for the correct one, is an unrealistic expectation and, in some instances, could be considered cheating.
• Your tutor can act as an excellent sounding board when identifying key topics and developing arguments for your assignments, helping you as you work towards developing your own answer.
• Myth 3: Teachers are not working hard enough and if they did the students would not need tutors. This to is very far from the truth. Teachers teach from a curriculum and much of their time is spent dealing with behavioral issues. Imagine being in a classroom with 30 students and here is the demographics of your class: 
• 5 of your students are ESL students meaning English is their 2nd language and only 1 of the 5 speaks any English (yes this is what happens in the classroom).
• 3 of your students are responsible for not only getting themselves up and ready for school but also their siblings. They may or may not come to school in clean clothing, they may not have eaten, and you may be the only adult that they come in contact with all day.
• 6 of your students tested below basic the year prior and the expectation is for you to bring them along with the rest of your class up to proficient.
• 3 of your students have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and are medication or other homeopathic treatment but there are 5 more who you know are ADHD or ADD yet you have to wait until a parent initiates a meeting and just deal with their inabilities to focus or sit still until that time.
• The remainder of your students are A/B students who strive for their best yet you as a teacher must deal with all of the other issues in the classroom before you can even get to teaching.
• So when someone says the teacher is not working hard enough I beg to differ teachers come to the classroom and give their all to their students and when is all said and done after all of the extra time and money spent they are probably making less than minimum wage with minimal resources.
• Myth 2: Tutoring is only for students who are failing. 
• Many parents seek private tutoring to ensure their child attains grade level competency.
• Increasingly, parents enroll their children in private tutoring to help them get ahead of their class and be better prepared for the next school year.
• Many college bound students enroll in private tutoring to help them attain higher ACT and SAT scores
• Myth 1: A good tutor is too expensive to afford. This is far from the truth and I typically explain it to parents in this manner. If you go to Starbucks daily or feed a family of four at McDonald's once or twice a week you can afford tutoring. All it takes is giving up something that you may not always want to give up but would not take anything away from your livelihood or well-being to do so. I mean think about it if you stopped drinking Starbucks coffee and made coffee at home you could save at least $120 a month (that's with buying 2 containers of coffee a month) and at Nashville Learning Center that gets you at least 4 tutoring sessions.

Would you hire a tutor to help your child or if you needed one yourself? If the answer is No, why not? Post your questions or comments below.