Be Your Child's Tutor

Your grade-school child is struggling in school and the teacher has suggested you hire a tutor. While a tutor can be an enlightening experience, having one can also be expensive and the time a tutor spends with your child is limited. Instead, consider tutoring your child yourself with the subjects he is having difficulty with in school.

Assess the Problem Areas

Begin by assessing the areas and subjects your child is having difficulty with. Is your child struggling with reading or math concepts? Is he working too slowly and unable to complete tasks? Are his comprehension skills good but organizational skills in need of work? Analyze what some of the trouble areas are so you can set up a plan on how to help your child succeed.

Talk to His Teacher

Set up a meeting with your child's teacher to get her view on what your child's strengths and weaknesses are in academics. Maybe your child is distracted easily and cannot concentrate in class. Or your child may learn better by interacting and touching rather than reading long chapters. Getting a second opinion will help lead you in the right direction to help your child.

Also, for specific subjects your child is having trouble with, ask the teacher for a copy of the curriculum so you can help supplement it at home. Ask for copies of any worksheets or workbooks that the teacher has that may help you work with your child. It might be your child only needs a little extra work in these areas to master them.

Get Materials

Depending upon the subject your child is struggling with, purchase or borrow learning tools such as workbooks, flashcards, and games. You can buy these at almost any bookstore or borrow them from the school or local library. Work together with your child using these materials to help build on the skills he already knows and to learn new ones.

Organize Your Time Together

Put aside time each day to help your child with his current homework on the problem subjects and to work with him on additional materials to help supplement what he is learning. Start with only a few concepts and build on those as the days and weeks go by. Don't overwhelm your child with too much extra work or concepts because this will only frustrate him. Learning a little extra each day will help to build on what he is doing in school so he can catch up with the other children.

If organization or stress over timed tests are your child's big roadblocks try teaching your child better ways to organize his time or relaxation techniques for stress. Sometimes a perfectly good student can lapse because of one of these issues, so it's important to teach them the skills they need to conquer these problems.

Be Internet Savvy

There are many sites on the Internet that offer ideas for lessons for all subjects and grade levels. They have free worksheets, word search puzzles you create yourself, handwriting worksheets, reading comprehension tests and even flash cards you can print plus much more. These are great tools because you can create materials to suit your child's needs. Try abcteach.com or atozteacherstuff.com

There are also interactive learning sites your child can use. These have learning games for all age levels in a variety of subjects, puzzles that you can put together, Sudoku, mazes, word search puzzles and much more. Try funbrain.com or primarygames.com

Be patient and have fun exploring these subjects with your child. Often, as parents, we expect to see results instantly but that isn't always the case. The important thing is for your child to try to catch up and keep up with his class and age level. Some subjects may always frustrate your child but it is comforting for him to know that you are there and willing to help him when the times get tough.