Your Questions about Tutoring Answered
To answer some questions that might be bubbling around in your brain about joining our Silent Elephant “e” community of tutors that are changing lives, let me tell you a little about my tutoring business.
First question: “What does your tutoring day look like?”
One of the perks of this job is that you can set your own schedule! I regularly tutor Mondays through Fridays, but on occasion I have tutored on Saturdays and Sundays. On some days, I begin tutoring at 9 A.M; on some days, I finish tutoring at 9:15 P.M. I create my own schedule around my family and other projects I’m involved in.
Presently I am choosing to tutor 48 hours a week because I love tutoring and I have students who really need the systematic, multi-sensory teaching that Silent Elephant “e” provides.
My full-time schedule is absolutely my choice because I’m my own boss. Silent Elephant “e” is my personal at-home business. I could tutor less hours, but the time flies by as I’m having so much fun watching my students realize how smart and capable they are and seeing that spark in their eyes when they learn something new.
I personally love tutoring from my home when possible, as I don’t have transportation issues: slow traffic, being out on icy roads and sidewalks, and loss of teaching time while driving.
Now, of course, because of COVID, I have completely transitioned to tutoring online using Zoom and have been over-the-moon happy with the continued success of my students. This opens up our ability to tutor from anywhere. I presently am tutoring children in three states.
You might wish to tutor at a student’s home or a public library. I do not recommend tutoring at a coffee shop. Most of my students struggle with attention issues and would find it extremely difficult to focus outside of a quiet environment.
Personally, I’m charging $35 an hour. If I did the driving, I would charge more. Check with other tutors in your area to determine your fee. One note: I do not charge for the first hour, because I want that time to be used as a relaxing time to meet my new student, to meet my student’s parents and to enjoy getting to know each other. Children truly begin to relax during this time and are much more comfortable the next time we meet when I want to begin assessing them.
Since it is MY business, I have the freedom to take time off when I want. As my students’ progress is so strong, I am not worried about taking a week off. I know when I return, their skills will remain strong, and we will move forward. Also, because Silent Elephant “e” is ensuring that my students are progressing, their parents are relaxed about my taking time off.
It’s a win, win, win – for my students, their parents and me.
Second question: How do you find students to tutor?
I volunteer at my neighborhood school and have met many teachers there who refer their students’ parents to me. I am listed as a tutor with surrounding school districts and with the International Dyslexic Association.
In the beginning, I only had a couple of students, but my business organically grew to full time because the success of my students got around and more people began to request me.
Third question: How much will you invest to begin a Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” tutoring business. Here are the details:
The full program cost is $2217.
This is what you will receive when you purchase:
· Your teacher’s copy of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers containing over 1800 pages of instruction in 14 user friendly spiral bound books
· Over 100 instructional videos that I created so you can have an at-your-fingertips reminder of how to teach the lessons
· 44 colorful posters
· The picture book My Awesome Grandma
There are a few other materials for you to make or collect before beginning tutoring:
· Magician hat
· Elephant hand puppet
· Magic wand
· Tiny star wands: 1 doz. pink, green, blue, silver
· 1 set of cat toy mice
· 1 individual hand-held mirror (check the Dollar Store)
· Make twenty-one 1” colored copy paper squares; three squares of each of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and brown and laminated them
· Plastic zippered bag to store the 21 squares
· Copy the 6 game boards from Part 1and laminate them
· Pocket folder per student
· 1-3 oz. paper cup per student
· Box of 8 Crayola colored pencils per student
· Two boxes of 8 Crayola water markers
· Copy the 6 paper masks from Part 4 and laminate them
· Set of orange, tactile, glittered construction paper letters for consonant digraphs for Part 4
There you have it!
You will be able to start your Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” tutoring business for a little more than $2217.
To quickly enhance your teaching of Silent Elephant “e” and to support you in setting up your business, purchase my 9-hour virtual personal workshop for $1000 or get a group of friends to take the workshop together and share the $1000 cost. You’ll have FUN learning together!
That’s not much to start up a business and, as I have shared with my own tutoring business, that amount is easy to recoup in a very short time.
Fourth question: What if you have already purchased Silent Elephant “e” and want to take the workshop? That’s an easy answer, just contact us and we’ll get you in.
Last thought from some happy parents:
“It’s hard to describe how much this program has helped our daughter with her reading. In the relatively short time, she has been working with this program we have gone from taking hours of fighting and struggling to read books below her grade level to a girl who is comfortably reading books at or near her grade level and actually starting to ask to read to her younger brother. We could not be happier with the results so far and excited to see how much further this will go.” Kristina and Derek
If you are questioning whether Silent Elephant “e” is the comprehensive reading, writing and spelling program you’d like to purchase, feel free to contact us. We will also gladly answer any other questions you may have.