Tutor Prices

I would recommend looking on your local craigslist under the "education" or "services" sections to see what other tutors are charging in your area. In a professional situation you would take your qualifications, experience, and level of success in terms of what you charge. In a more informal situation (ie. family) I would just charge what you think is fair considering the time you will put in preparing (ie. lesson plans) and the time you will put in actually tutoring.

She's given you good advice - the only thing I'd add, is remember, it's not just that hour (or whatever) you're there.  It's your travel *time* as well as gas. 

It all depends on how far away this is (and be brutally realistic with yourself when you figure this).  Even 20 minutes (given traffic, or a few miles) has to be multiplied times TWO.  *going AND coming*. 

I learned the hard way years ago when I tutored a lot, that a half hour session suddenly becomes 90 MINUTES if you're a half hour getting there and back.  An hour session becomes two hours!  That's most of an afternoon or a whole evening pretty much.  Add to that the fact you'll have to make some preparations -- you'll have to make some lesson plans, you'll have to have books/materials ready (even if you use that child's reading material from school *you* have to look it over and prepare yourself for questions.

$25 an hour may sound like a lot in a way but it's not. 

 When I was in high school, I tutored for $10/hour.

BF's mother tutors as a major part of her yearly earnings, and, with a BA and a master's degree of some sort, earns $50/hour, which is apparently standard. BF has taken a few of her clients for high level math that she's not as comfortable with (like calculus+) and he also earned $50/hour. And that was for tutoring in their own home, with clients traveling to them.

Callie's warnings are dead-on - depending on the subject and your familiarity, there really can be a ton of prep time involved. It's fun work, though, if you can get a good arrangement and enjoy such things :) 

Edit: also, don't sell yourself too cheap. People tend to respect the things they pay considerably for, and often disrespect that which is cheap. You want to make sure your student is invested enough in the tutoring process to pay attention and do the assignments, and that the family is motivated enough to make sure all of that gets done. ;) 

Cita is absolutely right --- now *I* used to handle it a bit differently (because I taught in a private school and lots of times people were strapped financially and keeping the kids in school was already 'dear';).

The deal is that often if Mom 'n Dad are already paying dearly and they have to shell out for tutoring (especially with a teen) it may be because *they* perceive the kid hasn't applied themselves, so it can get kinda ugly and the student feels 'beat up' before you start.

So *my* suggestion used to be that the student earn part of the money to pay the tutor. I usually had that conversation with Mom 'n Dad in private but I also would 'barter' with the student -- things like getting my car washed, laundry done, etc. (depending on the age and sex of the student and how close I was to them)  But suddenly it put a whole new spin on how they "valued" their time and mine. 

But there are lots of things you can barter depending on their age -- lawns mowed, things watered, floors vacuumed, dogs washed, dogs walked, etc. 

But if you can, as Cita says, make your services valuable, you'll find out they're much more apt to work.

The other thing - don't just stick with text books - particularly with that age kid -- find out from the get-go what THEY like to read, and encourage at least part of the time you spend with them, to be reading things that excite them.

I remember back when I was teaching, one summer I tutored a 15 year old boy who was well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent.  He resented the fact that he had to be tutored, had been pretty well consigned to the "dumb class" (special ed) at school and his mother was a single parent with NO money and she was trying to keep him from failing 8th grade *again*.

I didn't know this kid  at all but I suggested she have him 'earn' some of the money to pay me.  She thot that was great.  But he was sullen when he sat down with me.  HE thot it was futile. 

I did some beginning phonics with him (I've always liked A Beka if you're using a private school curriculum) and used a very basic McGuffy reader 'primer' with him literally to teach him phonics sounds.  He'd never heard of phonics but I promised him right off since he told me "comics" were his favorite reading material that we'd do some every time I came. 

But by the time I did the alphabet chart with him in phonics, I had him "sound out" the word "bed". 

He turned to me and said "wow ... I kNEW that word was 'bed' but I never knew there was a WHY ... those letters all have SOUNDS!  No one ever told me that before!"

By the end of the summer I had him reading Tolkein (we blew past comics pretty fast *grin*) -- and not just the Hobbit -- but he was starting on the Lord of the Rings by the end of the summer ... and GETTING it. 

I felt like I'd really done something -- but if you can get them over the "I hate to read" thing you've got it made. 

 I think this is highly dependent on numerous factors, including where you live, travel, your qualifications, etc. For example, across the street from me, where I drive not even a mile to get there, I get paid by the school district $17/hr for home therapy with a child with autism. They have always paid me at $17/hr, from when I started 3 years ago with an Associates Degree and 3 months experience, to now, when I have a Bachelors Degree, and 3 years experience.  They do not care that I have been the only person who has worked consistently with the child I am working with currently for 3 years, nor do they pay anyone more for taking on a difficult case. 30 minutes away in NJ, I get paid $25/hr. I started at $20/hr, and the client told me to raise my rate back in May or June when I had been there almost a year, and confirmed that I was staying on for another year. I've from a source I don't consider entirely reliable that people in that area get paid $40-50 an hour with similar qualifications to mine, but I doubtful, just imaging what the 9 hours a week total the boy I work with gets would cost. I'm sure some people would gladly pay me that, but I actually want them to be able to afford enough hours to make it worthwhile.

Cita

Edit: also, don't sell yourself too cheap.

I've always struggled w/ that one.  Sometimes I feel like Scrooge asking for money, even though I know I should be.

Thanks for the input all, lots of good thoughts.  Thanks a lot.

I've tutored privately for about 10 years. This is the first school year I haven't tutored. Because I live in a small community, I only charged $15 an hour, but there were some cases where I charged $25 depending on the child, the situation, etc.

 If I decided to go back to it, $25/hour would be my minimum. It really takes up more time than what you think, even if you're only tutoring for an hour.