Have you ever bought a curriculum...

[Kate in Arabia]

...then paid someone else to teach it to your kids?

 

I'm considering this for art. I have bought several curricula, but we just aren't getting to it. I think part of the problem is that I'm just not making the time for it, if I outsourced the teaching I'm sure I would get the kids there. I was hoping for a once-a-week class. We have several expat artists in our community, I've sent an email to one to see if she would be interested in teaching a class to my kids (and others who might want to join). I'm not sure how much she would charge, that's my only hesitation; she is a professional artist with formal training/schooling. For anyone who has had their kids in an art program, how much were you paying per session?

[Aurelia]

Ariel goes to a local fine arts school, and they charge $40 per month for the art classes for homeschoolers and $50 for after school.

[8filltheheart]

I am paying $110 per quarter for my senior and the teacher is providing all of the supplies. She has a masters in art. However, I think she is dirt cheap!! When ds was going to a private school, I was spending almost that much in supplies b/c the school didn't provide them.

[Kate in Arabia]

for both of you, how many times a week does your class meet?

 

Thanks!

[Donna T.]

We're considering (hoping for!) this for both Spanish and Greek. We have a friend who is fluent in Spanish and is well grounded in Biblical Greek. We would provide the curricula. Haven't gotten to this point yet since his time is limited and so far we are doing o.k. at home but I think it will work great. He's very patient and loves our kids.

[tdeveson]

Sure. There is a teacher in our co-op who lost her job in the public school system and is now teaching homeschooled kids at home. I haven't used her services except for our evaluation last year, but some of the moms love the morning off!

 

Because I am a fiend at lesson planning, anyone can come in and teach my son just from my notes, so from time to time I've had my daughter take over several subjects on a day when I really needed to be out of the house. Dd is 27 and was homeschooled herself, so she is very well qualified.

 

Frankly, the job we do as home educators, and the number of hours we spend preparing, would earn us six figure incomes if we were getting paid for it. Taking a day a week off and having someone who is qualified teach is a liberating experience.

 

One of the things we're doing this year is teaching science together. That means people buy their own books (RS4K) and I teach them all on alternate Fridays. They take assignments home (reading, activities, etc.) and bring them back to me on the following Friday for grading and comments. Effective, I am teaching science to my co-op's kids and the moms are just making sure the kids do at home whatever I assigned. This seems to be working very well for everyone.

 

This is not really about art, but I just wanted you to know that the concept in general works.

Edited October 13, 2009 by tdeveson

[Aurelia]

for both of you, how many times a week does your class meet?

 

Thanks!

 

 

Once a week. She is supposed to practice with the technique at home during the week, though.

[Kate in Arabia]

Thanks again. I spoke with the artist this morning, she sounded really interested. I'm going to drop off my curricula later today and we'll talk again about how we could go about it. She said that she is teaching classes for adults at the local British/American school, that we could either have classes there or at my house (which would also be ok for me).

 

We touched briefly on cost, I brought it up by saying that was going to be an issue for me, with three kids. She had art classes at a dedicated studio last year that were quite expensive (to me), but without having to worry about the rent and all I was hoping the cost would go down. I don't know if it is comparable, but for swimming lessons, which are about four kids to a class, I'm paying 50 dirhams per half hour (about US$15). I was hoping to pay something similar (preferably less) for art classes; she did mention that if we had a few other kids join us (which is fine with me) the cost would go down. But no figures have been mentioned yet.

 

I was just happy that she's interested, and she sounded like she was wanting to work things out so that everyone was benefitting/satisfied.

 

Thanks again for helping me think through this...

Edited October 15, 2009 by Kate in Arabia

[Kate in Arabia]

I could use more thoughts on this.

 

I gave the artist my copies of Artistic Pursuits (level K-3 books) and Child-Sized Masterpieces; I discussed with her that I wanted a course that would be both artistic technique and art appreciation.

 

I received an email from her today, she's looking at having one 1.5 hr session each week, and for my three kids she's charging 200 dirhams (abt US$50) per week altogether. I need to decide whether I think this is too high or reasonable. It will be using my program as the core (I don't know what she will add onto it, or whether she will expand on that), and classes I believe will be at my house. I need to ask her whether art materials are included.

 

Do you think this is too much? Too much if art materials are included/not included? Ok if art materials are included/not included?