Brighter Futures - April 2017 - Kip McGrath Hunter

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Christine This month’s focus is CONFIDENCE. Being confident means developing and using a ‘CAN DO’ attitude. Children who believe they can get better at things, it turns out, normally can with practice and determination. A big part of our success with children at Kip McGrath is a result of helping them restore their confidence. In fact, most of our parents say improved confidence is one of the biggest benefits their child gains from attending tutoring.

Here are a few suggestions for you to try at home.
  1. Give really specific feedback to your child when he/she does things well (I really liked the way you spent extra time clearing up, Ruby. It’ll be much easier to bake our cakes now). Ruby in this example is hearing that her effort paid off and, over time, will see how valuable it is to go the extra mile.
  2. Choose something for each member of the family, that each of you finds difficult. Make a list and pin it to the fridge door (Dad’s going to try not to lose his temper when Jim spills his cereal; Jim’s going to try and eat his breakfast without leaving a mess on the table etc). Share your experiences with each other; remember to encourage everyone to talk about any struggles they have and how they deal with them. Children learn that struggling and making mistakes are normal and healthy aspects of learning.
  3. Set goals and then plan how you will achieve them. Homework provides a good opportunity to help your child break a task down into its smaller components, think through how long each part might take, make a plan, do it and then, whenever possible, talk about how it went.
  4. Listen out for anyone who sounds as if they are being negative about their achievements and help them to rephrase it (‘I just can’t do Twitter’
‘Dad, what you mean is that you haven’t yet worked out how to tweet!’)

Remember: Confidence grows best in situations where we feel supported and encouraged. It is the result of setting and achieving goals.

How Long Will My Child need Tutoring?

scholastic-child As you know at Kip McGrath we specialise in Maths and English so the majority of our students fit into two broad categories:
1. Those wanting to learn to read and spell at a functional level and
2. Those wanting to achieve grade level in maths.

The Kip McGrath Reading Program consists of 80 sessions to move a child from a non-reader (having a reading age of less than 5 years) to a functional reader (having a reading age of 9 years).
The Kip McGrath Spelling Program consists of 7 levels with each level typically taking 20 sessions plus homework (approx 6 months) to complete.
The Kip McGrath Maths Program consists of 12 levels with each level typically taking 20 sessions plus homework to complete. Maths tends to take longer to achieve grade level than English. The reason is that while we are filling the gaps in previous knowledge, students are constantly learning new maths concepts at school.

So in answer to the question: “How long will my child need tutoring?” some students come 6 to 12 months, achieve their goal then feel confident to move on by themselves, while others need the support of coming every week. Some come for an extended period, take a short break then resume when school becomes too difficult again. I know this is not an ‘exact’ answer, but the reality is that all children are different. However the guidelines above should give you a good ‘feel’ for how long it will take your child to catch up on average.

Wisdom from Dr Seuss