Twinmom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 My family has been pretty chaotic lately due to the needs of my eldest, who has FASD. We have been under so much stress that I've not been able to even nearly meet my educational goals with my twins, who also have special needs. My fourth child is gifted and is hanging in there, but also needs more attention. I'm stressed, getting sick, DH is stressed, too and our home isn't at all peaceful at the moment. As a result, we are seriously considering sending some or all of the kids back to school. :( Hating it, but it seems the best option for now. We have an Orton Gillingham tutor for the twins who is a friend and a neighbor. As an alternative to sending them to school (or, perhaps to get them ready for school), she has offered to school them full time for me, possibly until the end of the school year so I can settle things down and reevaluate for the future. She would use all my materials (I have a nice, semi-classical plan set up that I've been unable to implement), supplement if she thought they needed it, and do their HearBuilders computer program for auditory processing with them. She's also offering field trips and to take them to homeschooling events I can't manage with DD. This would free me up to get the other two kids straightened out, help DD with her issues, get my head together and try to stabilize things around the house. So, yep, the service would be priceless. She has offered to do it for whatever I can afford. I have NO idea what to offer her. Her tutoring services have been at $25 an hour...no way can I even begin to pay that for full time school. There is a benefit to her in that she is trying to stay home with her littles, who are in preschool half day but who preclude her from tutoring in the afternoons. So, she needs to work tutoring from home but doesn't have any other students with whom she can work during the day. She needs the money. I want to pay her well, but don't have much, either and am already giving her $450 a month. Thoughts? She's not even giving me a ballpark here, though I've asked her for one. DH is suggesting $800 a month as something we could afford temporarily. Would love any thoughts on the matter...want to be fair but financial stresses due to medical needs are part of the issue at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minuway Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Just to throw out there - I have a friend whose kids do a sort of private hybrid Waldorf thing where a bunch of families have hired a Waldorf teacher who holds class three days a week from 9 am to 1 pm. The parents then supervise the kids the rest of the time in completing other assignments (although it is Waldorf, so quite different from a WTM plan). She pays I believe about $200 per child a month for this, and there are something like six or eight children in the class, if that helps you. To me $800 seems very reasonable for what you are thinking about. I would consider what you would pay for private school tuition (per kid) as a starting point and then plan to go upwards from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoobie Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Currently she's making $450 for 18 hours a month. How many hours a day would she have your kids? $800 at 5 hours a day is less than $10/hr, which is less than random babysitters get here. $25/hr for an OG trained tutor is an absolute steal! She's a certified teacher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted November 20, 2013 Author Share Posted November 20, 2013 See, I think her services are worth far more than I can pay. Truthfully, we were talking about cutting tutoring as a way to pay off some medical bills. From a financial standpoint, I should send them to public school and call it good, but I really don't see them doing well there...too many special needs but not enough to qualify for adequate services. Before I can even begin to offer her a number, I just told her I must have her give me a range first. This was actually her idea, not mine, and I don't want to insult her with a low ball number. I'd rather just say thanks for the generous offer but we can't afford it and move on. This is a hard decision either way, but we have to do something. Things are just not working the way they are at the moment. Edited to add...we are talking about 3-4 hours a day here rather than a full 8 hours, if that makes a difference. If they need more, I'd probably pick it up at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted November 20, 2013 Author Share Posted November 20, 2013 Currently she's making $450 for 18 hours a month. How many hours a day would she have your kids? $800 at 5 hours a day is less than $10/hr, which is less than random babysitters get here. $25/hr for an OG trained tutor is an absolute steal! She's a certified teacher? Yes, she's certified. She used to run a Brain Works tutoring center. She offered me $25 an hour down from her usual $35 since we are friends and there are two of them. We live in a small town, so I'm sure she'd ask more in a larger city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Just to throw out there - I have a friend whose kids do a sort of private hybrid Waldorf thing where a bunch of families have hired a Waldorf teacher who holds class three days a week from 9 am to 1 pm. The parents then supervise the kids the rest of the time in completing other assignments (although it is Waldorf, so quite different from a WTM plan). She pays I believe about $200 per child a month for this, and there are something like six or eight children in the class, if that helps you. To me $800 seems very reasonable for what you are thinking about. I would consider what you would pay for private school tuition (per kid) as a starting point and then plan to go upwards from there. Yes, I know someone who does the same. Perhaps part-time teaching with parent supervision the other days. I hope you find an arrangement that works for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted November 20, 2013 Author Share Posted November 20, 2013 FYI...private schools around here are generally less expensive than in a larger city. For example, I think the most I've seen charged per year for a regular education private school is between $3,500-$4,000 per kid. The highest in town is a special needs private school that runs $7,000 a year per kid, but that's the only one out of that range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinmom Posted November 21, 2013 Author Share Posted November 21, 2013 Okay, that may make a difference, especially since you're really talking about half days with her. Here, the private schools run from $6k to $20K+ per year. The special needs private school is ~$22k. I charge $40/hour for tutoring, and I'm not O-G trained. I hope you can work things out to everyone's satisfaction. Good luck! Yeah, I'm from Dallas and I'm used to prices being much higher than they are here. The special needs schools I looked at down there are easily 20k or more and we paid 10k for one regular Ed kiddo to go to private school. Obviously, we can't do that anymore...:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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