Top 6 Benefits of Hiring a Local Tutor to Teach Your Children

Parents are often on the lookout for the best way to help their children succeed in school. This is where a local tutor can be of great assistance. Hiring a tutor can provide your child with the personalized instruction they need to excel in their studies. Here are the top 6 benefits of hiring a local tutor to teach your children:

1. Local Knowledge: Local tutors are deeply knowledgeable about the local education system and the local curriculum. This gives them a better understanding of the areas your child may be struggling with and how best to help them.

2. Personalized Instruction: A local tutor can tailor their instruction to your child’s individual needs. This means they can provide tailored lessons that are focused on the topics your child needs the most assistance with. This can make all the difference in helping your child understand difficult concepts and improve their performance in school.

3. Personal Connection: Local tutors can develop a personal connection with their students. This helps to create an environment of trust and mutual respect which is essential for effective learning.

4. Convenience: When you hire a local tutor, you don’t have to worry about transportation or scheduling. The tutor will come to your home, meaning your child can get the help they need without having to leave the house.

5. Flexibility: Local tutors can be very flexible in terms of scheduling and availability. They can provide flexible scheduling to fit the needs of your family. Having a flexible schedule can be particularly helpful if your child’s school day doesn’t end until late in the evening. This means you won’t have to worry about rearranging your schedule or missing out on important family activities.

6. Professionalism: When you hire a local tutor, you can trust that they are experienced and knowledgeable. They can provide your child with the instruction they need to excel in their studies.

Qualities of the Best Local Tutoring Service Provider

Finding the best local tutors for your child can be a daunting task. With so many options available, it can be difficult to know where to start. So, what qualities should one look for in a tutoring service provider? Here are some things to consider:

• Experience and Credentials: It’s essential to look for tutors who have experience in teaching the subject your child needs help with, as well as any credentials or qualifications they may have. Prep Academy Tutors provides experienced tutors that can cater to your child’s needs.

• Positive Reviews: Reviews and feedback can be a great way to get an idea of how other parents feel about a particular tutor. We take this feedback seriously to provide only the best tutors to children.

• Availability: Make sure to ask potential tutors about their availability and if they offer online tutoring. This can be a great option for busy parents who don’t have the time to drive their child to a tutoring session. We work with a team of experienced tutors who can work with your preferred schedule.

Conclusion

Hiring a local tutor to teach your children has a plethora of benefits. From the convenience of having your tutor come to your home, to the advantage of having a knowledgeable teacher, there’s no denying that having a local tutor to teach your children is a great way to get your kids the education they need. So, the next time you’re looking for a tutor for your children, make sure to look for a local one!

Are you trying to find a local tutor for children? Prep Academy Tutors has the perfect solution for you! We offer personalized tutoring services to meet the needs of each student. We understand that every student is unique and has different learning styles. That’s why we tailor our approach to each student’s individual needs. Our tutors provide individualized instruction and feedback to ensure that each student is getting the most out of their tutoring sessions. Let us help your children reach their academic goals and improve their grades! Contact us today to get started!

Weighing Between In-Home Tutoring Kids vs. A Tutoring Center

When it comes to helping children with their schoolwork and preparing them for important exams, parents must weigh the pros and cons of in-home tutoring versus a tutoring center. In-home tutoring and a tutoring center can both be beneficial, but the best choice will depend on your child’s individual needs.

In-home tutoring is a great way to give your child individualized attention, as the tutor will be able to focus solely on their needs and provide customized instruction to help them learn. On the other hand, tutoring centers offer access to a variety of qualified tutors with different areas of expertise and varying levels of experience.

Choosing the right tutoring option for a child can be overwhelming for parents, but there are some key factors to assess. For instance:

1) Convenience

In-home tutoring can be convenient, as it typically takes place at the child’s home and can be scheduled around their other commitments. On the other hand, tutoring centers typically require the child to travel to the center, which can be time-consuming. If you and your kid have a packed schedule and reside a significant distance away, it’s best to have tutoring at your own place.

2) Dedicated Support

In-home tutoring offers a more personalized approach, as the tutor is able to provide one-on-one attention to your child and tailor the program to their individual needs. Tutoring centers, on the other hand, often have multiple students in the same session, which means that the tutor has to divide their attention among the students.

3) Availability

In-home tutoring can typically be arranged at any time of day, as the tutor can come to the child’s home at a time that is convenient for them. Meanwhile, tutoring centers usually have set hours and days that they are open, which can make it difficult to find a time that works for both the student and the tutor. Try to assess how flexible things can be.

4) Simplicity

In-home tutoring is usually very straightforward and simple. The tutor will come to the child’s home, work with them on whatever subject they need assistance with, and then leave. It’s best to expect that tutoring centers require additional paperwork, fees, and contracts that can make the process more complicated.

5) Focus on School Subjects

In-home tutoring is usually focused on specific school subjects or topics that the student is struggling with. On the other hand, tutoring centers may offer a wide range of services, such as test preparation and college counselling, that go beyond the scope of school subjects. Figure out your priorities before you end up choosing.

6) Previous Preferences

Think about any previous experiences your child has had. Some kids may have preferred remote learning over in-school learning, which can reflect their own preferences when it comes to tutoring.

In addition to that, if the student has had success with a particular type of tutoring in the past, they may be more likely to have success with it again. It’s important to consider what type of tutoring has worked best for the student in the past before making a decision.

Conclusion

Ultimately, in-home tutoring can prove to be considerably beneficial for your child’s academic success. But in the end, when choosing between that and a tutoring center, it is important to consider your child’s individual needs and the cost.

In need of online tutoring in North America? Prep Academy Tutors offers personalized in-home and online tutoring services. Find your local tutor today!

Road to Success: 12 Ways Tutoring Can Benefit Students

Being a responsible parent is supporting your child’s educational journey. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to ensure this, especially if both parental figures are always busy. 

For this reason, several parents are investing in tutoring. It helps students better understand their course material by focusing on topics they’re struggling with and staying on track after class hours. Parents may also invest in tutoring if they find that their children respond better to a tutor than trying to study alone. 

This article will enumerate 12 ways tutoring can benefit students’ lifelong development. 

1. Ensure Total Attention

A reputable tutor will first determine how your child absorbs information and can adjust their teaching methods accordingly. They’ll be your kid’s private educator. 

2. Prepare Your Child for College

Letting your child attend university allows them to learn the skills to help them succeed, such as effective time management and increasing their knowledge base. You can ensure these by investing in tutoring. This valuable asset can help them understand and remember the topics they’re studying.  

3. Create a Unique Learning Experience

When you invest in tutoring, your child can benefit from personalized lessons and activities tailored to their needs. It gives them a unique learning opportunity they won’t get in a traditional classroom. 

4. Improve Their Academic Performance

No parent would want to hear that their child is performing poorly on their student report card. Fortunately, you can prevent this stressful event by getting help from a tutor. Your child will better understand the subject material with the tutor’s extra guidance and assistance, increasing their chances of achieving better grades when taking tests. 

5. Ensure a More Positive Work Space

Tutoring allows for a more focused learning experience, with fewer students and fewer distractions, so your child can better understand the learning material. 

6. Boost Their Self-Esteem

Tutoring lets your child access the necessary tools to succeed in school and boost their self-esteem. They’ll get the needed support and guidance to help them become more confident in their academic abilities and develop a more positive attitude toward learning. 

7. Improve Attitude Toward School and Learning

A positive outlook toward school and learning helps your children develop into successful, motivated, and responsible individuals. When you enroll them in tutoring sessions, your child will be excited to learn and grow with the tutor’s positive reinforcement and enthusiasm. That way, they can overcome all obstacles they’ll encounter while learning. 

8. Encourage Self-Directed Learning and Teach Responsibility

Tutoring can help your child learn to take charge of their school work, understand how to regulate their learning pace, and gain a sense of accomplishment. They’ll also help them become more self-reliant and be more able to work alone without relying too much on you for assistance. 

9. Improve Work and Study Habits

Healthy work and study habits are essential for your children to succeed, even after they graduate from university. When you provide your child with tutoring, you’re letting them develop long-term strategies for success. These techniques will help them in their academic pursuits and beyond, equipping them with the skills to reach their fullest potential.

10. Help Them Overcome Learning Obstacles

A tutor can help your child overcome writing, maths, language, or reading difficulties. 

11. Improve Social and Behavioural Skills

Tutoring services can help improve your child’s communication skills, build healthy relationships with others, and make positive behavioural changes. 

12. Encourage Them to Ask Questions

Tutoring can create a safe learning environment for your child, encouraging them to feel more confident about asking and answering questions without worrying about the reaction of their peers.

Building a Brighter Future

Education is crucial to ensure your child’s success in later life. Investing in high-quality tutoring services can help them develop good study and work habits and increase their chances of creating a brighter future for themselves. 

Prep Academy Tutors offers personalized in-home and online tutoring across North America to improve your child’s academic performance. Find your local tutor today, and let’s make report card day a breeze!

Why Choose Tutoring?

If you are concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on your child’s education (or the education of a child you care about), here is some information designed to help you grasp the depth of the national education challenge we are facing — and what you can do about it.

In September 2022, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released its first national report card since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results were a fire alarm for parents and teachers alike — erasing nearly two decades of academic progress.

Percentage of U.S. students scoring below NAEP “basic” levels

For a complete list of student performance by state, click here.

Although Colorado was 22 out of 50 in combined test scores for fourth and eighth graders in math and reading, the performance of both fourth and eighth grade students in Colorado decreased significantly after the pandemic.

Percentage Colorado students scoring below NAEP “Basic” levels

These numbers quantify what parents and educators in Colorado already knew: After two years of school lockdowns and online learning, our children are less proficient in math and reading and less prepared for the educational journey ahead.

Fortunately, there’s a proven solution to this problem: tutoring.

According to an article in AERA Open (the Journal of the American Educational Research Association), tutoring’s impact on student achievement in both reading and math is greater than:

• Smaller class sizes (lower student/teacher ratios)
• Extended school days
• Extended school years
• Vacation academies
• Summer school

According to the above-mentioned AERA Open article, “Several reviews find that tutoring benefits students at all levels of prior performance … with some evidence of larger effects among lower performing students.”

In other words, tutoring is the most efficient and effective way to help your child (or a child you care about) bridge the pandemic-induced education gap.

For more information about the tutoring programs at Prep Academy Tutors, call us at 720-902-5585, email us at boulder@prepacademytutors.com, or visit our website.

When Choosing the Right Tutor, Look for These Qualities

When trying to find a tutor, it’s important to look for someone knowledgeable in the area you need assistance with. Additionally, you should seek a tutor who can clearly explain the material in a way you understand. It’s also important to ensure that the tutor is someone you feel comfortable working with. Today’s article will provide insight into what to look for and avoid when choosing a tutor.

Top Qualities to Look for

• Patience: A good tutor can stay calm and patient while teaching, even if the student is having difficulty understanding the material. They will be able to explain the concept differently if needed, and they will only give up if the student understands.

• Expertise: A tutor should thoroughly understand the subject they are teaching to help students understand it effectively. They should be able to answer questions and provide explanations that are easy to comprehend so that students stay calm and focused on the material.

  Additionally, they should have an innate patience and encouraging disposition to ensure that students can learn the material and succeed in the subject.

• Resourcefulness: Having the right resources is essential for providing a good learning experience for children. With the right tools and resources, teachers can create engaging and fun lessons to help kids understand important concepts such as mathematics and science.

  Examples of these tools include video editing software and other resources that can make teaching more effective and enjoyable. YouTube is an excellent resource if the tutor curates the content they plan to teach.

• Flexibility: A successful tutor needs to be accommodating and work within the student’s schedule. They should be able to devise an arrangement that is convenient for both parties.

  For instance, tutoring can be a lot to take in, so it’s important to give your child space to take a break. This will help keep them from feeling overwhelmed or too exhausted from the session.

• Friendliness: A tutor should be approachable and create a relaxed atmosphere so that the student feels comfortable asking for help and discussing any topics that are causing difficulty. They must explain difficult concepts in a way that the student can understand and be patient and encouraging.

  One easy way to spot this is when the tutor openly shows they are proud of their successes and value hard work. They are not stingy with praise for their efforts and will take time to celebrate their accomplishments to help your child stay motivated and positive about their efforts.

  Take note that while friendliness is a desirable trait, tutors are meant to help students excel in ailing subjects, not become their friends.

• Reliability: A dependable tutor is essential for successful learning. The student can rely on their tutor to be available when needed and trust that the tutor will not suddenly cancel their scheduled sessions. As a result, students can be confident that their studies will continue.

In Closing

Tutoring can help students work towards their objectives and reach their full potential. By taking advantage of the tips and advice in this post, you can easily find a tutor that meets your specific needs. First, it’s important to ask the right questions and do your research. 

Also, remember to use your judgment when selecting the right tutor. With the right guidance, you can empower your student to reach the heights they want to. Good luck in your search for a suitable tutor!

Find the Right Tutors with Prep Academy

Our certified teachers and educational experts build tutees’ confidence by providing flexible in-home and online tutoring services and personalized attention. Find your local tutor by dialling 888-995-7382 or visiting our website today!

Tips for Getting Your Child Ready for Online Tutoring

Online tutoring provides your child with the educational support they need in the comfort of their own home, at the times that are convenient for them. Prep Academy Tutors is offering online tutoring services across Canada to digitally connect students with our certified and experienced tutors.

If you are considering online tutoring to continue and enhance your child’s academic development, there are a few things you can do to optimize the benefits of the digital service. At Prep Academy Tutors, we collaborate with parents to ensure that each student’s private tutoring is a fulfilling and enriching experience that is catered to their unique needs. 

You can help your child get ready for online tutoring to make sure they are fully equipped to learn online, and continue their education journey in an environment that is focused, constructive, encouraging, and enriching. 

With the right tools and resources, online tutoring can provide your child with the tools they need to keep up with their peers, get ahead, and reach academic success. Learn how you can set your child up for online tutoring with Prep Academy Tutors:

1. Find the Right Tutor

Every child learns differently and has different educational needs. It is important to find a compassionate tutor who can create a strong bond with your child and fill these unique needs. The right tutor will create an environment that is low-pressure, personal, constructive and empowering. 

Whether your child is in need of a remedial tutoring program or subject-specific tutoring, Prep Academy Tutors will pair your child with the tutor that will best suit their unique needs, preferences, and learning style.

2. Set Academic Goals

Encourage your child to set academic goals. This gamification of learning will help encourage your child to challenge themselves to set and reach their personal academic goals with the support of an educational professional. 

The tutors at Prep Academy Tutors offer personalized one-on-one online tutoring to help students better understand course material and gain the academic confidence they need to succeed.

3. Organize a Work Station:

It’s commonly suggested that a great way to increase productivity when you work from home is to get up from the bed and work in a designated workspace. This is supposed to help you mentally and physically avoid distractions.

The same thing goes for your child when online learning; get your child up, ready, and dressed to head to their work station — the bed is for sleeping, not learning.

When you and your child set up their learning workspace, they can distinguish the workspace as a place for learning and not playing, eating, or any other activity.

It’s important that this workspace is organized (also shown to benefit productivity), and out of high traffic areas where people will be in and out of. Online tutoring requires some uninterrupted time during which your child can focus on learning and both interpreting source material and applying knowledge of said material.

Giving your child the freedom to design their workspace can help to get them more excited about their online learning as they can look forward to utilizing their personal space to learn and advance their education.

4. Schedule the Day

A schedule will help keep your child on track and encourage them to learn how to balance tasks. Routines give kids a sense of security and help them develop good time management habits.

It is important to help your child schedule their day because, the reality is, they probably have responsibilities other than online tutoring. When you schedule their day, you can help them to better manage their time and split up their daily responsibilities.

If a student needs to write an assignment, engage with a tutor for feedback, make their lunch, and fold their laundry, a great way to help encourage them to be productive and get everything done is to guide them through a schedule-making process. 

A schedule can help students visualize what their day will look like and how much time should be allotted to each task. By making daily or even weekly schedules, your child will also learn how to manage their time and schedule their tasks independently as time goes on.

5. Gather Supplies & Keep Them Handy

Not having everything handy can pose as a distraction. If your child doesn’t have a pen, notebook, or even a charger for their device on hand, they then have to go looking for it. This disrupts their learning routine, takes time away from their learning, and impairs their focus. Make sure that your child has all the tools they need on hand to settle down, and focus on their online learning.

Supplies you will want handy include:

• Chargers
• Pens/pencils
• Erasers
• Notebooks
• Calculator
• Dictionary
• Snacks
• Water

6. Secure Your Internet Connection:

An essential part of online learning is the digital aspect. If your child is receiving online tutoring, they will likely need to send files back and forth and download resources. To do this effectively, they will need a secure internet connection and operating device. There are many affordable options for laptops and tablets that will help your child maintain a seamless online tutoring experience.

7. Work with the Tutor

When you enrol your child in online tutoring, it can be helpful to form open communication with their tutor. By working with your child’s tutor, you cannot only understand their progress but also identify ways to integrate their education and learning into day to day activities like cooking or baking. 

For example, if the tutor is working on fractions with your child, you can bake with your child to help them make the connection between what they’ve learned about fractions and real-life scenarios.

At Prep Academy Tutors, our tutors offer phone calls and other means of communication to keep you updated on your child’s progress and answer any of your questions you may have about your child’s educational journey.

8. Encourage Discussions

What did your child learn today? At Prep Academy Tutors, we believe in open communication to ensure that parents are aware of their child’s progress. In addition to scheduling phone calls with our tutors, you can also work with your child to discuss what they’ve learned throughout their tutoring experience and encourage them to make connections. 

You are one of your child’s greatest educational assets as you can encourage them by asking them questions, and answering their questions.

How Your Child Can Benefit from Online Tutoring

Online tutoring is a great resource that allows students to learn and get educational support in the comfort of their own homes. At Prep Academy Tutors, our tutors are making themselves available for online tutoring to help students continue their education without needing to leave their house.

Our certified tutors execute a personalized approach to online tutoring and will work one-on-one with your child online to help support their educational journey and explain things in a way that they can understand.

Through online tutoring, our local tutors are able to provide your child with supplementary activities, answer their questions, fill in any gaps in their knowledge, and help them to catch up academically. 

Online tutoring comes with many benefits as it is remote, flexible, personalized, and doesn’t sacrifice the personal relationship between educator and student. The tutors at Prep Academy Tutors connect with students online to talk things over with them and explain things in a way that they can understand. 

By bringing education online, your child can learn at their own pace in a low-pressure environment that they are familiar with. Consider the benefits of online tutoring and how receiving tutoring can help your child to set and reach their academic goals:

Flexibility

Online tutoring means that your child can receive educational support wherever and whenever they need it. Online tutoring also removes the need for travel time and other elements that can make scheduling educational support tricky. This makes it easy for tutors to make themselves available when students need them to be.

Our tutors work around your schedule to provide flexible online tutoring that suits your child’s at-home educational schedule. Whether your child requires tutoring in the morning, afternoon, or evening, our tutor will work with you to establish a schedule that works.

One-on-One Personalized Education

At Prep Academy Tutors, we know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to education. Our tutors approach online tutoring based on the unique needs of each student.

We consider a student’s unique learning style, schedule, capabilities, and gaps in their knowledge to create a plan that is specialized to them. Our tutors work with your child one-on-one instead of applying the same general approach to education.

In-Home Learning

Online learning allows students to learn at home and at their own pace. A student’s home is a low-pressure environment where they will not be distracted by their peers. At-home online learning allows students to learn in an environment that is familiar and comfortable so that they can feel more at ease when receiving educational support. 

Learning at home also takes away the stress of classroom learning as students are less likely to compare themselves to their peers. Through online learning, students are able to focus on their personal pace and progress. 

Instead of acting like a teacher at the front of the classroom, online tutoring allows our tutors to act as a “smart friend” on the other end of the computer who can talk to your child through curriculum material and explain things in a way that they can understand.

Get Paired with the Right Tutor

Online tutoring makes it easy for your child to get paired with the right tutor. At Prep Academy Tutors, we have general tutors with knowledge of the current curriculum, as well as tutors who boast specialties in specific subjects. 

Whether you are looking for general support or an online math tutor, we will pair your child with the right online tutor who can provide them with the educational support they need.

Removed Distractions

Peers and other environmental factors when learning in the classroom can be distracting for students. By offering online tutoring we can eliminate these distractions. When your child is set up with a home learning station with little distractions, we can use online tutoring to capitalize on the familiarity and calmness of the home environment to educate them effectively.

Digital Skills

In a survey done by Statista in 2015, 49% of students stated that they had taken an online course in the past 12 months. Needless to say, digital technology and education are growing rapidly.

Technology is more and more prevalent in children’s day to day lives, and online tutoring provides students with the chance to develop strong digital skills. By sending files, understanding different programs, and interacting via systems like Skype, Zoom, etc., students are able to better their understanding of computer technology.

Independence

There is a level of independence that comes with online learning as students are able to manage their time and take control of their educational journey. This independence that comes from online learning can be applied in many facets of their life.

Through online learning and tutoring, students learn how to take control of different aspects of their life and get the confidence to make choices and create their own schedules. Online tutoring keeps students accountable for completing supplementary tasks and communicating their gaps in knowledge. This also helps students to develop a sense of awareness which, again, contributes to their overall independence.

Easy Tracking & Document Exchanges

Online tutoring makes it easy to keep track of progress and assignments, as all assignments and related resources are sent and stored electronically. This allows students and tutors to both save files and tools to track progress and use as a resource later.

In the classroom, students can struggle to stay organized as different assignments, tests, and worksheets can amalgamate into a disorganized stack of paper. By utilizing digital resources, students can more easily keep track of their different assignments and documents to see what they have completed and still have to complete. Easy file storage also enables students to use past documents as a learning resource that they can refer back to when need be.

This electronic exchange also makes it easy for students to send or copy physical classroom resources like essay assignments so that tutors can gage the assignment, and provide educational support accordingly.

Gain Academic Confidence

Online tutoring helps to increase your child’s overall academic confidence. It allows them to learn in a comfortable environment where they can gain the tools they need to better understand curriculum material and gives them an option to still receive an education when unable to be in the classroom due to illness, injury, or any other reason.

This level of personalized education is catered to build your child’s understanding, and help them catch up to their peers and gain academic confidence in the process. Our online tutors work closely with your child to provide them with all the resources they need to succeed academically and gain independence both inside and outside of the classroom.

The Importance of Continuing Education During the COVID-19 Outbreak

The Ontario Government has closed private and public schools for two weeks following March Break (week of March 23 and March 30) in response to the WHO and the CDC advising against public gatherings due to the outbreak and impacts of COVID-19. These closures are also present across the country in Quebec, where schools will remain closed until at least May 1st and all Quebec provincial exams have been cancelled, Alberta (until further notice), British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and other provinces. 

This cancellation is meant to encourage the social distancing between children and adults alike to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus. These moves are necessary for the safety of both the public and the health care system, which is why parents, educators, and the school board are all coming together to create an alternative option for continuing education at this time.

At Prep Academy Tutors, we are offering online tutoring to help students continue their education in the safety of their homes. Our tutors across Canada are making themselves available to provide personalized educational support and resources online to help students continue their education at this time.

Learn how our private tutoring services can help to maintain student’s educational progress at this time.

Although school may not be on everyone’s mind at this time, there are many reasons why continuing education is crucial right now for students:

Education & COVID-19

Global News has reported that Doug Ford has confirmed schools will likely not open on April 6th,  but the provincial and federal governments continue to look for ways to maintain education at this time. 

Toronto’s Minister of Education has shared in a statement that they “are working to ensure that students will be able to continue their coursework and credit accumulation, even when we aren’t able to be in a classroom setting.” They are expecting to do this by expanding existing online learning tools.

Educators are looking for digital ways to provide assignments, and even lessons, to help students to continue their learning. Online tutoring will help support your child with any of these online tasks and will continue to act as an educational resource.

Consistent Knowledge & Development

The reality is that not all schools and teachers will be able to continue education digitally, which means that many students’ learning will come to a halt. Even the suggested online learning assets from the school boards may take a while to establish and develop as rules and regulations have not yet been set, and different schools accommodate different needs. 

Children are constantly learning and developing, and this progress is important to maintain. By pausing learning for two weeks (or longer), it will be that much harder for students to retain information and build upon information they’ve already been taught. Continued knowledge is essential for the academic fulfillment of students. 

Our tutors teach material that aligns with curriculum material taught in the classroom so that the billions of students who are no longer in school can continue to learn while being in a safe and familiar setting.

Routine

Routine is essential for children. It keeps them on track, organized, and helps them to space out their daily tasks and responsibilities like meals, education, chores, and downtime. Education is not only essential for the knowledge and development of your child, but it also provides a sense of structure in their day to day schedule. 

A lack of daily structure can make it challenging to get your child to focus on a task, and will make it that much harder for them to get back into their daily routine once school starts back up again. That said, there is no perfect routine for everyone. 

There is no right or wrong way to react in this situation, and by bringing education into your home through online tutoring, you will have full control of your child’s new routine and educational progress. The thing is, any routine will provide them with a sense of normalcy, productivity, and empowerment. 
Even if you integrate a couple of hours of learning into your child’s daily routine, it will be beneficial. With online tutoring, you can implement a schedule that will ensure your child is learning at the times that work best for you and them. This way you can also facilitate other elements into your child’s schedule like downtime, reading, crafts, meals, etc.

Challenge Their Minds

It is important for your child to continue to challenge themselves. As much as it’s nice to give your child the opportunity to escape by playing video games and watching Netflix, it is also important to keep them thinking and mentally challenged.

This will help them to continue to develop their cognitive skills and abilities so that they can continue to problem solve, think, and both apply and develop their knowledge consistently.

Unknown Timeline

The state of COVID-19 and the government’s responses are changing every day. There is no knowing how things can change and when students will be able to get back into their school routine. 

To ensure your child is still getting the education they need to expand their knowledge and build the skill for future educational success, plan ahead. Find a means to continue education like online tutoring.

Education is still Feasible

It’s important to continue education during this time because, bottom line, we can. The internet and online resources make it possible to connect with professionals like our certified tutors through online tutoring, find resources like worksheets, and submit assignments. As long as it is possible to maintain education, albeit with a shifted approach, we can all play a part in helping your child to continue their learning.

Plan For Learning in Different Circumstances

There are a variety of reasons why a child may need to shift their approach to education in the future whether it be due to homeschooling, injury, illness, or safety reasons. By introducing (or continuing) at-home education, your child can learn how to accommodate and facilitate learning in various different scenarios. 

Circumstances are always changing, and online education is becoming increasingly more prevalent as an alternative educational resource. It is important for both children and parents to be able to pivot and continue education in different scenarios. 

Continuing to learn at this time is about ensuring your child can still get the educational support they need to learn, achieve academic goals, develop their mind and skills, and maintain physical and mental health. Incorporating a routine into your child’s life by integrating education at a pace that works for both parents and children helps students to continue to learn and creates a sense of normalcy for them.

The 4 Habits All Successful Students Share

The way we learn new information and skills may have changed significantly over the past twenty years, but no matter how many new technological tools we acquire, basic study skills are still a central part of education at all levels.

Consistently, the most effective students — the ones able to rapidly master new disciplines and incorporate new information into their understanding of the world — are those who have built a reliable set of habits that help them synthesize new information quickly and to retain what they have learned over the long run.

Good study habits can:

• Make studying easier
• Make studying faster
• Reduce the time needed to synthesize new information
• Improve grades
• Lock information into the long-term memory

So what are these habits, and how can students who want to study more efficiently acquire them?

In this article, we’ll go over four of the most important study habits a high school or college student can develop and explore some of the strategies that can help you make them part of your daily life.

1. Regular Goals

When you start out in a new subject or discipline, learning is often stimulating and fun — after all, it’s empowering to discover new things about the world. But once the initial excitement wears off and your realize just how much you don’t know, it’s easy to get discouraged. Learning a handful of words in Japanese makes you feel smart and accomplished: putting in the hard work to master the language’s complex grammar is another thing entirely.  

We often imagine that the thing that separates students who learn a few words and then give up from those who go one to achieve a degree of fluency is simply a matter of motivation and dedication. But motivation is about more than just drive, and motivated students tend to be good at providing themselves with incentives.

Setting regular goals is an essential part of this, because regular goals help students to feel that they are making a progress. Learning a language or mastering calculus takes a long time; if you are constantly measuring yourself against some kind of perfect ideal, it will be hard to stay the course.

But if you find ways to set regular goals — learning a cluster of words every week and a grammatical tense every month, for example — you can measure your progress more effectively.

Having outside help can make this a bit easier, which is why you might want to find a tutor near you if you’re worried that you won’t be able to hold yourself to your stated goals on your own.

2. Good Time Management

We tend not to think of time management as being a studying skill, per se, but effective studying is all about making the most of the hours available: the problem most students face is not that they can’t master the material, but that they struggle to balance all of their different time commitments, and can’t dedicate the time a given learning task requires.

For this reason, becoming a better student typically means finding ways to use one’s time more efficiently.

One common problem students run into with time management is that they aren’t sufficiently realistic about how long certain tasks will take. This leads to forms of magical thinking whereby students convince themselves that they can do more with their study time than is actually possible.

It is important to find out how long certain routine learning tasks actually take (how long, for example, does it take you to read a page of a history book, or write a thousand-word position paper), and then base your study plan on realistic metrics regarding what you can accomplish with the time you have.

Time management isn’t just about allocating yourself enough time to complete a learning object, however. It’s also about using that time strategically.

Cramming is an excellent example of where this often goes wrong: if you have four hours to prepare for a major test, that time will be far better spent in half hour or forty-five minute blocks of studying time spread out across the week, rather than a single intensive session the day before the test. 

While certain mnemonic techniques can help you remember key information more easily, scientists who study how memory works know that there are no real shortcuts for mastering complex material: you need regular exposure over time in order to lock major and minor details into your long-term memory.

Again, when you find your local tutor they may be able to help with time management simply by virtue of requiring you to do regular, weekly work, thereby keeping you on task and not giving you a chance to fall behind in your studies.

3. Willingness to Use the Resources at their Disposal

We are living in a time of unprecedented access to educational tools. Companies like Udemy, Duolingo, Masterclass and other online learning sites have all become massively popular by making learning software, games, and lectures widely available to the public. You can now receive high-level instruction in everything from German and literature to cooking and coding on your phone.

And the resources that are available are not only digital — even small Canadian cities now feature thriving innovation hubs that can help students of all ages connect to quality instruction and learning opportunities. And of course, tutoring services like Prep Academy Tutors can help students get hand’s-on help with English, French, math, science and other challenging subjects.

The most effective students don’t just set regular goals and manage their time well — they also look beyond the textbook to find resources that can help them learn more effectively.

Studying is, for many people, a deeply social act, and using the resources other people provide to make learning easier is an important way to make the information really stick. After all, a student who is regularly meeting with tutors and peers will have new material regularly reinforced, which plays an important role in locking it into the long-term memory.

If you want to find out how tutoring can help you meet your learning goals, contact us to learn more about our tutoring services or take a look at the tutoring opportunities we offer in your city or community.

4. Routines

Study habits are just that: habits that form an almost unconscious part of our everyday lives. The routine nature of habits is part of what makes them so effective. Once you have developed good study habits, it is easy to make learning a regular part of your life even when you aren’t preparing for final exams.

But developing good study habits is easier said than done, especially for busy high school or college students who have a lot of activities to schedule in every week. For this reason, building these studying routines into your life requires an intentional and strategic approach, one that avoids overly optimistic thinking and focuses on what is doable.

There are plenty of tools online that can help you create a study routine that works for you, but here are five easy steps that can get you started:

1. Make a list of your learning goals for the month.
2. Determine how long each of these goals will take to complete — and be realistic.
3. Sit down with your calendar and map out what your week and month look like. What activities and events are locked in? Where do you have time to spare?
4. Portion out your study time into twenty-five minute blocks, with five minute breaks between, and see how many blocks you have over the course of the week.
5. Allocate the tasks you need to complete to these time blocks, being sure to spread out major tasks like exam prep over a few days.

Like many things in life, there are no shortcuts when it comes to studying. If you want to see positive results, you just need to put the hours in.

But this can also be a liberating thing to realize. After all, if acquiring a new skill, learning a new discipline, or mastering a new language is simply a matter of studying smart enough and long enough, then the only thing holding you back from achieving your goals is proper planning.

One of the most important benefits that comes with professional tutoring is the feeling that you are not alone. Intellectual work can be tiring and isolating, and working with a tutor is a great way to feel not only that you have the expert help you need to overcome the obstacles in your path, but also have the human support you need to stay motivated.

If you want to overcome your personal learning challenges in 2020, get in touch with Prep Academy Tutors today and find the tutor in your city who is right for you!

How Toronto Students Can Help Improve Their SSAT Scores

For students planning on applying to private schools in Canada or the United States, getting a good SSAT score is an absolutely essential component of the admissions process. The SSAT sets an international standard for admissions, and can be taken at the elementary, middle, or upper levels depending on the age of the child and the grade at which they intend to enter. Some of Canada’s most elite private elementary and secondary schools, including some of Toronto’s most venerable institutions, rely on this test when deciding which students to accept.

For this reason parents who want to enrol their children in one of these schools need to make sure their children are adequately prepared for the rigours of this exam. At Prep Academy Tutors we are often asked specifically how younger children and teens can improve their chances at a good SSAT score.

While there is no shortcut for mastering the basic material and skills that are tested in the three sections of the exam (quantitative, verbal, and reading comprehension), students who are unfamiliar with the format of the test are unlikely to achieve the kind of high score that is needed to get into one of Toronto’s top private schools.

For this reason, we have prepared a few tips specifically designed to help students from the Greater Toronto Area to receive high scores in all sections of the SSAT.

Start Practicing Early

There are several different test dates throughout the course of the year for the SSAT, but one of the most common mistakes that parents make is putting off preparation until the month before the exam. While some students may still be able to turn around a good score in that time, our SSAT prep tutors in Toronto have often found that this does not give students enough time to really learn the test.

If you want to ensure a successful result, you should start planning at least six months in advance, as this will help give your child time to adequately prepare before test day rolls around. Most children who take the test successfully also use an extended test preparation package of one kind or another that will the give them an opportunity to try practice tests and to become familiar with the way the test grades performance.

Study Practice Exams

Ask anyone who is familiar with the mechanics of the SSAT, and the first piece of advice they are likely to give a future test-taker is to invest in studying practice exams. It is possible to find information about how the test is scored (and helpful tips on what to look for in areas like reading comprehension) in handbooks to the exam, but nothing will be quite as effective as giving your child the opportunity to take a practice test.

Practice exams are available as part of study packages. While free practice tests may be available at the elementary level, middle and upper-level students will generally need to pay for practice test packages. For this reason, it is a good idea to be strategic about using practice exams, and to work students up to these materials, using tools like tutoring support to help students prepare.

Given the fact that the SSAT itself needs to be completed within three hours and five minutes, it is a good idea to use the practice exams to mirror the actual experience of taking the test as closely as possible. Time management is a major component of the SSAT, so make sure your child knows how to prioritize difficult questions and use their testing time wisely.

The Enrolment Management Association, which administers the SSAT, has also compiled a lot of information and advice to help parents and students alike know what to expect from the test. It is a good idea to explore some of the test-specific webinars they have put out providing advice on how to understand things like the middle and upper-level score reports.

Hire a Local Tutor to Help with SSAT Prep

Any child getting ready for the SSAT is going to need to spend a lot of time in preparation studying on their own and with parents and peers. But this independent study will be much more effective if it is augmented by direct SSAT instructional help from a tutor who understands the test and can help provide practical help in passing it.

This is because tutoring can help make independent study more efficient by targeting a student’s particular areas of weakness. Every student has their own particular strengths and weakness, and someone who finds the quantitative part of the exam that focuses on math skills easy may struggle with reading comprehension. Hiring a tutor who can enhance the strengths while shoring up weaknesses will help build your child’s confidence heading into the SSAT.

As a Toronto-based tutoring agency, we understand the importance of the SSAT for getting into prestigious institutions like Upper Canada College, and we have experience dealing with the challenges involved in preparing for the test. If you want to know more about our approach to tutoring and how we can help your child, click here for more information.

Getting into an elite private elementary or secondary school is often the first step toward a successful career in law, medicine, finance, or the arts, and if you want your child to get the kind of lifelong advantage that attends this kind of education, you first need to make sure they make the grade for entry.

The SSAT may be a demanding test, but it is not insurmountable. With enough preparation and the right help, any child can ace it. Get in touch with Prep Academy Tutors to find out more.