Another reason why I think it is important to hire a tutor is due to the learning styles of children at school.
The way that maths in particular was taught a couple years ago, even compared to now is very, very different. For example, a child that I tutor in Year Three has a father who is helping him with maths at nighttime. This father is working from home. He’s very stressed out already with the high demands of work and working from home while managing a family of five. The Year Three student is the youngest and needs the most help with maths.
Through chatting with this Year Three student, we were doing math together and his dad popped on the screen and said, “Oh, I don’t remember learning it that way”. And I said, “Yes, because in the past maths was usually done vertically going down, and many parents, when in doubt, just go vertically”. That is not the case anymore.
As tutors and teachers we have been taught a different way to teach kids moving into the future about number fluency and gaining a sense of number by; being able to explain the problem many different ways, being able to use materials to explain it, being able to use words, being able to use pictures etc.
So the expectations of kids to understand mathematics is a lot deeper than it was before, and it’s more important use a tutor for that exact reason.
