Lots of questions about homeschooling others' children.

[Amy in TX]

This is something I've never had a particular desire to do, but am now considering, as a source of additional income both for college tuition and to allow us to travel more as a family.

 

There are a lot of implications, and I wonder if any of you can help me think them through, particularly those with experience.

 

Pros: Extra income (this is a big pro). Possibly stimulation/competition for my dc with another student in the house.

 

Cons: Loss of freedom (this is a big con). Our schedule would become inflexible b/c someone else would be dependent on it; I'd be accountable to other parents wrt the students' progress. Less attention for my dc with each outside student taken on.

 

Questions:

 

Can anyone come up with other pros or cons than the ones I've thought of?

 

How do you design a curriculum for an outside student? With my own dc, I've always started with WTM, and tweaked and changed as it suited me or the child. It's always somewhat of an experiment--but that wouldn't necessarily fly with other parents. I'm using different, say, math curricula with each of my dc--how would I decide what to use with a new student? What if the student flounders in math and I decide another curriculum would help, etc.? Wouldn't that upset the parents? What if I decide to rethink (as I'm now doing) our approach to foreign languages? It seems that having other parents in the mix takes away a lot of the advantages of homeschooling, at least for the outside student.

 

How do you decide what to charge? I could look at what private schools charge locally, but that seems to be comparing apples to oranges. Besides, I'm not in a position to guarantee anything--my dc haven't taken SATs or been admitted to college yet. But I really am not willing to do this without significant compensation.

 

What kind of contract do you use? Would anyone who has used one be willing to pm it to me?

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on these issues. I may be adding more as I think of it.

 

Edited to add: And how do you find students? Several relatives have asked me to school their dc, but doing business with relatives is full of potential pitfalls. Where else do you get students?

Edited September 26, 2010 by Amy in TX

[missmoe]

The first question that popped into my head was Is it legal to homeschool someone else's child where you live? I know that it is not where I live.

 

Also, perhaps tutoring would be a more doable option?

 

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this. Hopefully someone can be more of a help than I am.

[Amy in TX]

The first question that popped into my head was Is it legal to homeschool someone else's child where you live? I know that it is not where I live.

 

Also, perhaps tutoring would be a more doable option?

 

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this. Hopefully someone can be more of a help than I am.

 

Yes, it is legal in Texas.

 

I've also thought about tutoring. It would certainly be a lot easier, but would of course bring in far less income. Any thoughts on how to find students?

 

Thanks MissMoe :)

[Skadi]

I would tap into local churches as a resource. Make some nice looking fliers and post them on the church bulletin boards, and talk with anyone you may know who goes to any of these churches to get some word of mouth going. You could also post signs at the library, local science center (if you have one), theatre, or parks. Be sure to mention any college education you may have, jobs you've had in the past that might help your resume and so forth. If you decide to go the tutoring route, Craig's List is a good place to advertise. My DH used to charge $20 per hour to tutor college students in science and math, for what it's worth.

 

This site might help you decide what you should be charging. The starting pay for teachers in Texas is about $34,000 per year -- at 40 hours per week for 36 weeks, that's around $23 per hour. You said that you're not in a position to "guarentee anything" like private schools do...well...private schools don't guarentee anything. Seriously. They really don't. No school does!

 

I do think that if you're teaching someone else's children, it helps to be able to show some measure of progress. If it were me, I'd have the child tested before instruction began and then once more at the end of the school year. I wouldn't worry about changing curriculum...you can sell it as "finding a method of learning that is customized to the child's learning style" or some such.

 

I have no idea what kind of contract you'd draw up. Maybe someone here with more experience can help!

[Peela]

 

Pros: Extra income (this is a big pro). Possibly stimulation/competition for my dc with another student in the house.

 

Cons: Loss of freedom (this is a big con). Our schedule would become inflexible b/c someone else would be dependent on it; I'd be accountable to other parents wrt the students' progress. Less attention for my dc with each outside student taken on.

 

Questions:

 

Can anyone come up with other pros or cons than the ones I've thought of?

 

I homescholed another child for a year. I charged $50 a week plus costs, and the mother was a bit shocked that I would charge that much! For looking after her son all week! I think she thought I was doing it as a charity! So...I am not sure how much you would charge, but check what you could actually get.

 

The kid was the same age as my older child but he had different strengths and weaknesses. I had him do basically the same program as her.

 

The biggest con for me was that this kid was quite emotionally closed to me and it wasnt so easy to "reach" him. He had been bullied at school and was quite withdrawn. I found that a bit hard- he got on well with my kids, but had that really strong divide with adults, wheras my kids are so friendly. We never did really warm together. So, personality can make a difference.

Another con was that I always tied our evening read aloud to our schoolwork. Since he wasnt there in the evening...I had to pick something different, so that he wasnt being deprived. That did irk me a bit though it doesn't sound like a big thing...I really relied on that extra 30 mins of read aloud time for our program.

 

 

How do you design a curriculum for an outside student? With my own dc, I've always started with WTM, and tweaked and changed as it suited me or the child. It's always somewhat of an experiment--but that wouldn't necessarily fly with other parents. I'm using different, say, math curricula with each of my dc--how would I decide what to use with a new student? What if the student flounders in math and I decide another curriculum would help, etc.? Wouldn't that upset the parents? What if I decide to rethink (as I'm now doing) our approach to foreign languages? It seems that having other parents in the mix takes away a lot of the advantages of homeschooling, at least for the outside student.

 

 

The understanding I had with the mother was that it was basically up to my discretion at all times. She didnt have a clue about homeschooling and trusted me. Up to the point where she told me I was being hard on her son for making him read the last chapter of Treasure Island in the holidays because he hadnt finished in term time...and it was the only book I had got him to read all term...and I told her I would no longer homeschool her child if she was goign to undermine my authority with him. It had taken me a lot of work to get him to read that book, it was totally age appropriate, and I needed him to finish the last few pages. She thought I was being unreasonable.

So...I recommend that you set some clear boundaries around homework and your expectations and dont sell out to get your students. You need the parents to enforce things like reading at home.

 

Relatives: yes. The boy I homeschooled is my dh's ex-wife's son. He shares a half sister with my kids and they always considered him a "sort of half brother" even though they arent really related.

 

Pro or con: personality of the kids meshing with yours and your kids' personalities.

 

I think Joanne from these boards homeschools other kids, or did. She may well have some good advice for you.

 

I think you woudl have to run it as a business and treat it as such. There is so much room for getting mucked around. I like the idea of running a one room school too but I was a little burned by my experience. In many ways it was ok though - it wasnt the kid that was the issue- it was the parent. Many people told her afterwards how stupid she was because it was doing her son a lot of good to be with me...but she never apologised.

[Ellie]

How do you design a curriculum for an outside student? With my own dc, I've always started with WTM, and tweaked and changed as it suited me or the child. It's always somewhat of an experiment--but that wouldn't necessarily fly with other parents. I'm using different, say, math curricula with each of my dc--how would I decide what to use with a new student? What if the student flounders in math and I decide another curriculum would help, etc.? Wouldn't that upset the parents? What if I decide to rethink (as I'm now doing) our approach to foreign languages? It seems that having other parents in the mix takes away a lot of the advantages of homeschooling, at least for the outside student.

You're the boss; you get to make the decisions, but you need to consider the parents' pocketbook before deciding to spend more money on something.

 

Technically, IMHO, you're not homeschooling someone else's child. You're running a very small private school, and the school has to make those decisions. Having a non-family member in the mix really does take away many of the advantages of *homeschooling.*

 

How do you decide what to charge? I could look at what private schools charge locally, but that seems to be comparing apples to oranges. Besides, I'm not in a position to guarantee anything--my dc haven't taken SATs or been admitted to college yet. But I really am not willing to do this without significant compensation.

You're only slightly comparing apples to oranges. You're a small private school, but you're still a private school; and the other child(ren?) is physically in your care all.day.long. Your time alone is worth something. And you don't have to guarantee anything other than giving it your best shot.

 

What kind of contract do you use? Would anyone who has used one be willing to pm it to me?

Not sure on that, but it should include when tuition will be paid, consequences if it isn't paid on time, school hours, notifications of days the child will not be in school because of vacations or doctors' appointments, etc., other expenses the parents might incur such as field trips. There should probably be some sort of description of student expectations--behavior, homework, classwork, and so on. And you'll need to have the discussion about what happens if either you or the student/parents think it isn't working out.

[Joanne]

I've homeschooled a total of 6 "bonus" students. The one big determining factor is why is the child in an alternative setting? Is it because the parents are being *proactive* or *reactive*?

 

My proactive-parented students did well and we managed to work out and through everything.

 

My reactive-parent situations did not work out. One child I had to dismiss. Another was dismissed by passive default, but I had been considering letting him go.

 

I found my first client by advertising the need/opportunity on a large homeschool list. I live in Texas, also, where homeschooling is quite common and groups active.

 

Some issues include illness. When your own kids are sick, your school might have to close. This can be a problem for client families - especially those who work. Another is the family/friends of the client family. If your client is especially worried about what other people think, they may be quite anxious and you might find yourself "homeschooling" this student by proxy and third party.

 

One potential problem is the reaction of others, including homeschoolers, towards your decision. This might sound petty, but many homeschoolers look down upon this. Many people, who are already not knowledgable about homeschooling, find homeschooling others to be an awful choice.

 

I charged according to family. It generally was around $100 a month. I had to provide more *care* to littles but more intense academics to the older kids. I had the parents pay for curriculum, or if it was a shared curriculum, I divided it by the number of students and they paid their "share". I also charged a supply fee every year for paper, school supplies, ink (!!!), etc.

 

I made the curriculum decisions, with input from the family according to how valuable I found it. That varied by family.

 

Remember that the younger the child, the more they will need toys, manipulatives, and that you'll have *some* issues of daycare. Remember that the child will need to have at least one meal (usually lunch) and often a snack. I found it easier to provide this out of my salary instead of relying on parents - this is a leftover decision from my providing daycare days.

 

We ended up having 2 families that stayed for 3 and 4 years! I still have one bonus student. Because of our unique situation, I teach him and my youngest Language Arts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, take my youngest to his school (at which I am a high school teacher on Mondays and Wednesdays) and meet my remaining client at the library for private tutoring. My dd (8th grade) often accompanies us. Speaking of the library, our meetings there technically are against policy since I profit from my time with this child.

 

My kids were exposed to language, family situations and some dysfunction that we had to talk about. They learned about the nature of professionalism, confidentiality. They had to share me - but for them it was an improvement over the sharing of the daycare years.

 

I work at a private school that emerged from a similar setting. The owner of my school began designing her school as a teen when she was bored out of her mind in school. She eventually became a homeschooling mom, took in other students and that kept growing. Her mom opened a retail homeschool store that offered "some" classes. Last year, they launched a full on school. This year, they closed the retail portion and applied for accreditation.

[Amy in TX]

and will respond. This is all so helpful and just what I was hoping for. Thanks and I'll be back online tonight!

[angela in ohio]

How do you decide what to charge? I could look at what private schools charge locally, but that seems to be comparing apples to oranges. Besides, I'm not in a position to guarantee anything--my dc haven't taken SATs or been admitted to college yet. But I really am not willing to do this without significant compensation.

 

What kind of contract do you use? Would anyone who has used one be willing to pm it to me?

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on these issues. I may be adding more as I think of it.

 

Edited to add: And how do you find students? Several relatives have asked me to school their dc, but doing business with relatives is full of potential pitfalls. Where else do you get students?

 

I think what you charge will depend largely on what your background is. Do you have experience teaching or tutoring outside your home? Do you have training in any of the subject areas? As homeschool parents, we know we can learn as we need to, but an outsider will want some assurance of quality.

 

I agree with Ellie. This would turn your homeschool into a private school. I think the best way to handle it would be to run it as such. Naming it and advertising it will bring in students.

 

Have you considered teaching individual classes as opposed to teaching a student every area? You could have students in your home for a few hours a week, as opposed to all day every day, and you could probably make the same amount of money.

[AngieW in Texas]

Have you thought about just teaching individual classes rather than trying to do everything?

 

I'm teaching an algebra-based physics class this year, but next year I plan to teach precalculus (middle dd will need it), chemistry (middle dd will need this also), probably physics again, probably geometry (already have a request for this), possibly physical science (for my youngest) and possibly algebra I (not sure if my youngest will be ready or not). I will definitely have at least 2 classes, but probably no more than 4.

 

My fee is about $5/hr for each student. It isn't exactly that amount because some months may have more classes than other months, but it works out to about that amount. For instance, I'm charging $60/month for my physics class that meets 2x/week for 1.5 hours each time. We could end up meeting anywhere from 7-9x/month, but it averages out to 8x/month.