When children reach school age, the rhythms of a family change: the family and professional commitments of the parents are added to the school commitments of the little ones in the house.
If your working hours do not allow you to spend the hours immediately following their return from school with your children, usually dedicated to study and homework, you are probably wondering if you should look for a person that offers a homework help service.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR HOMEWORK HELP?
On the other hand, even children who work well independently may need a study guide, not to mention the students who live this commitment with more difficulty.
This is why a person who offers your children homework help can become an excellent ally to improve their school performance and assist them with their homework before you return home.
Depending on the age of your children, the homework help service can take on different nuances. It can partly overlap with a babysitting service and thus become an all-round support for boys and girls who attend the elementary school; on the other hand, if your children are already in middle school, homework help may require more in-depth school knowledge.
In this article we will give you some advice to guide you in finding a person who can offer a task help service with competence and professionalism.
What is meant by homework help
Before moving on to the practical tips, let’s define what exactly is meant by homework help. Often, for example, this service is mistakenly confused with that of tuition and the confusion can generate misunderstandings.
The tutoring service consists in reviewing the school program of a subject in which the pupil is not particularly strong. Taking repetitions serves to fill gaps in a specific subject: it is therefore a service that does not have the broad scope of homework help.
Homework help is usually a service intended primarily for pupils in elementary or middle school .
A homework assistant professional moves smoothly on multiple school subjects , because his aim is to accompany the student with the homework assigned by the teacher, regardless of the subject.
The duties of a home help professional
The duties of an aid professional may include:
- Assistance with homework of any school subject
- Accompaniment in reading, studying and repeating lessons
- In-depth study of parts of the school program in which the student finds it more difficult
- Possible babysitting service (accompanying the student on the way from school to home, preparing a snack, recreational activities …)
For this reason, before starting the search, it is important to draw up a list of the needs and school commitments of your children: in this way it will be clearer how to modulate the job offer and which tasks to request from a professional homework help.
Useful tips for finding a homework help service
Here are three tips for finding a home help professional who meets the specific needs of your family:
- Specify what skills you are looking for
As we have seen, since it is a generic and all-round accompaniment of the student, homework help does not usually require in-depth knowledge of school subjects.
However, if your children have special needs or specific gaps in a particular subject, do this: in this way you can select a person with an edge in the subjects in which your children need reinforcements.
Clearly indicate the age of your children, which class they attend and what kind of homework help you are looking for: should it be a daily appointment? Will it be aimed at certain subjects or only at certain types of tasks?
- Evaluate any past experience of working with children
Who better than you knows how much patience it takes to get kids to do their homework?
This is why a home help professional cannot ignore fundamental soft skills such as patience and effective communication with children.
For this reason, finding a person who also has a previous experience of working with childhood as a babysitter or educator will be very useful. In this case, a home help professional will be able to manage the natural attention deficit of children well and also organise play breaks to let them recharge their batteries.
- Determine your hourly needs and the degree of flexibility of the service
Now every child has weekly commitments to respect in addition to school: sport, music or any other recreational activity are transformed into commitments to fit harmoniously into your children’s school commitments.
Although the amount of hours a week that children devote to study may vary, the commitment is mainly concentrated in the afternoon hours.
When you start looking for a home help professional who can accompany your children in their studies, try to specify as clearly as possible the hourly availability you expect to receive.
In particular, indicate:
- The days of the week in which you request the service (every day or every other day?)
- The hourly availability during the same day (only a few hours in the afternoon or until the evening?)
- Any extra tasks that are not strictly related to homework help (preparing a snack, accompanying you from school to home or other recreational activities, …)
In conclusion
Being able to count on a person expert in helping homework is a real salvation for many families with complicated or busy weekly schedules.
Knowing that your children will be accompanied in their study and homework during your absence gives you a lot of peace of mind. To find the right person, however, you will need to have a clear understanding of your children’s needs and their weekly commitments, so that you can clearly indicate them in your job offer.
Always specify:
- What skills are you looking for
- If the person is to have past experience of working with children
- How do you prefer to manage time and if you require some flexibility in hours
Have a nice job!
