Tell me if this sounds familiar. Your child is participating in a sport, say soccer. You want to be a supportive parent and you opt to help coach, only to find that your own child often blows off your input while listening intently to everyone except you. Ring a bell?
Often times I have found that whether a given sport or school subject, my own children often respond far better to input from another adult. That’s not to say they don’t listen to me, but rather often times just react in a more positive way when another adult provides a bit of insight to what they’re doing.
In the case of tutoring for school this has been even more the case. In the past, as a child struggles with one subject or another, you may find that seeking out another individual to provide some tutoring may give them that bit of help they need. This isn’t to say that it’s in a subject you may not be familiar with, but rather just having that “other” person sometimes can make a world of difference.
Often times teachers at the school your child already attends will provide extra help, and of course services like My Town Tutors also can provide direct access to highly qualified teachers ready to help in all 50 states. By combining tutoring such as this, with easy to access resources such as 19Pencils.com, you may find that this help goes even further for your student.
As an experiment, have you child go for extra help either before or after school with their own teacher. But as with tutoring yourself, this may be too close to the situation.
By selecting a tutor whom both you and your student respect, you may find the results can be far reaching for both of you. Your child may find the help he or she needs and you may find a new approach to coaching your child.
In the case of participating in sports with my own children, I’ve found that by watching closely how my child responds to that of the input from the other coach, and by reproducing those same actions, I’ve found they begin responding to me better.
As the saying goes, “sometimes it’s not what you say but how you say it.” Sometimes the solution to helping your children may be as simple as finding that other way to say it.
Jason Fabbri is the Founder of 19pencils.com, Inc. Jason is always thinking of ways to help make the world of public education a better place. When he’s not thinking of such things, playing with his own kids, or fly fishing, you will find him cleaning up the tools his children have left about.
