How to Tutor Your Own Child: Boost Grades and Inspire a Lifelong Love of Learning--Without Paying for a Professional Tutor

by Marina Koestler Ruben, Gerald Richards (Foreword)

Tutoring today is a $4 billion industry (yes—billion) with companies like Sylvan Learning Center and Kaplan Tutoring cashing in. What are parents of today’s overextended students to do? If only there were a resource closer to home that was easy, free, and able to provide the same quality of service. But there is: you.
     
Top professional tutor Marina Koestler Ruben empowers you to take a do-it-yourself approach to your  child’s after-school enrichment. As a parent-tutor, you will learn how provide holistic academic support for your children and create an intellectual environment in the home—strengthening your relationship and improving parent-child communication in the process.
 
Ruben’s accessible guide shows you how to balance big-picture curiosity with the academic nitty-gritties of homework assignments, organization, and electronic resources. Building on her proven “Six-Step Session” format, Ruben shares the secrets to tutoring children in any subject from kindergarten through high school—all with a warm, entertaining tone that will inspire you to inspire them.

Genres: Parenting, Education, Nonfiction, Teaching

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to Tutor Your Own Child is a well written book. I have a degree in education, and spent a few years as a substitute teacher where I had to field questions that were out of my area of expertise. I would say that Marina Koestler Ruben offers sound educational advice, and very practical assistance on how to answer questions that you might not have run across since you were the one taking the elementary/secondary class. Not only does she present a simplified pedagogy (i.e. how to teach/tutor) but she also includes things like how to design or set up the area where you will tutor so that the student will get the most benefit. I think this book can help build confidence with non-teacher parents, and assist teachers as well. Why teachers? Because I for one was trained to work with 20-30 kids who I could send home, Ruben offers advice on how to help one (or a small group) who you need to feed, clothe and sleep with, while helping and not hurting anyone involved.

[ladydusk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library.

This was surprisingly helpful. I was thinking it might have a few ideas worth skimming through, but really I found a lot of good ideas and reminders.

It doesn't hurt that she is supportive of, and willing to learn from homeschoolers. Ruben regularly recommends homeschooling resources from the Well Trained Mind to their forums. She has good reminders and suggestions on how to use technology, how to engage your student, ways to encourage, and engage your children.

The book might be worth reading for her checklists to read through for essays and math homework.

It isn't one I'd own, but I appreciated what she had to say, as tutoring being truly parenting, not just the responsibility of someone else. Good for re-energizing during the February slump.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a book written with home school parents in mind. Instead, the author summarized a lot of the interesting ideas from the home schooling community and created a resource aimed at parents who want to supplement their kids education during their after school time. As such, some parts were more relevant to me than others, but all in all it is a useful group of ideas for engaging education in whatever forum it is happening in.

[Qwerty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very thoughtful and useful book. The title is a bit misleading because the book is really about how to provide an enriching educational environment to your child, the actual sit-down tutoring session is only covered in a few pages. The book, however, has a wide range of excellent and practical recommendations.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some good tips and ideas in this book that I will definitely try to incorporate. Will it stick? I don't know, but even if I can successfully implement a couple of things, it will be useful. Ruben has many ideas for all ages of students, and she opened my eyes to seeing that many of the issues that we have lie with me :)

[Roseanne Wilkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written by an experienced professional tutor who shares her expertise with parents. If you'd like to help your kids but don't know where to start, this is an excellent tool. Highly recommended.

[Readersaurus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly readable. Emphasis on love of learning & exploring together, as well as respecting your children's homework time with quiet, clear spaces.

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas in here!

[Susan Min · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting info on motivating children, a lot of it new to me. Fun, stimulating read for parents and tutors of children k-12. Learned a lot.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent ideas for emphasizing the lifestyle of learning. Quick, practical read.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for parents who are interested in being involved in the educational process of their kids - she focuses on nurturing your child’s love for learning rather than making it all about college applications or shiny report cards. A refreshing and practical book - highly recommend!

[Matt McCullough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with solid strategies on how to tutor kids of various ages.

[Nathalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was helpful but disorganized and it seemed that most things were just common sense. Would have liked more of a structured lesson plan or something like that.

[Jenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book as a homeschooling parent hoping it might give me some professional tips to improve the mentoring we do together. I was surprised to find that it is an excellent resource that essentially describes how homeschooling is done well. My guess is that the book is marketed to reach the most common demographic of parents with school aged children, but with the author's inclusion of home/unschooling philosophy, I hope more parents realize that they are qualified and capable of homeschooling their kids.

[Ylva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very inspiring, useful and relevant to parents of kids aged 5-18. Author drew from best practices of varied sources ranging from homeschooling community to top tier college prep boarding schools. In the end the book offers solid tutoring and/or 'after-schooling' advice but it also has easy suggestions for how to handle daily homework in a positive way and promoting a learning environment in a fun and organic way.

Read again in a couple of years.

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Tutoring is the academic word for parenting.'

A useful little book, to help parents complement the education their child(ren) receive at school -not only to succeed on a purely academic level (get good grades etc.) but, beyond that, transmit that joyful love of learning for the sole sake of learning. It will appeal to every parent having an humanistic approach of education.

[Kosta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a quick read - I read it in two sittings. Although it included a lot of "common sense" items, it was useful because it brought up approaches that I hadn't thought of before and will apply in tutoring my kids.

[Lynn Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a homeschooling mom of 20 years, and I found this book full of helpful ideas.