As the summer months wind down and parents start thinking about their children going back to school, many parents start thinking about new clothes and supplies, but what about tutoring?
Tutor Doctor, a rapidly expanding one-on-one, in-home tutoring service designed to help students from ages six to 106, in Sherman Oaks is offering the community and students a private, easy way to catch-up or get ahead in school. Local entrepreneur Robin Rapaport has seen first-hand how valuable tutoring services can be for students heading back to school.
“Sherman Oaks students can get a significant jump on the school year by using Tutor Doctor,” said Robin. “Many students go through what we call the ‘summer brain drain’ and in many cases forget much of what they learned the previous year. We help students, and parents, achieve their educational goals with programs that are specifically designed to fit the needs of each individual.”
Tutor Doctor uses a variety of well-known books and educational materials to supplement customized programs, but the franchise primarily leverages the curriculum and text the student is currently working with to ensure the most relevant tutoring is provided. Tutor Doctor also works with the students’ current teacher to ensure that they are meeting both the student’s and teacher’s expectations.
“In today’s fast-paced world where dual incomes and high academic competition are the norm, one-on-one, in-home tutoring ensures that each student is being given the utmost attention and tools for success,” said Rapaport. “It also gives our tutors the satisfaction of seeing their students’ progress and eliminates the parents from becoming a taxi service by not having to bring their children to a tutoring center. We come to you.”
In addition to servicing school-age students needing help in various subjects, many families also hire Tutor Doctor to help students get ahead and prepare for larger challenges, such as advanced classes that could help them get into a preferred college or university. Tutor Doctor has also proven valuable for the rapidly growing home-schooled population, as well as for seniors wanting to learn technology skills.
Ideas for Preventing Summer Break Boredom from Tutor Doctor
Summer vacation is a great time for kids, until the boredom sets in. Once school has let out, many kids quickly become bored with sitting at home with little to do aside from watching television. However, summer camps and vacations are too expensive for many families to afford. Finding local, inexpensive summer activities for kids saves money for families and gives kids an opportunity to get involved with fun projects.
Outdoor Summer Activities for Kids
Many swimming pools in LA County offer a great deal of entertainment to kids. Simply going to the pool with a group of friends can offer a full day of free or inexpensive fun, and most pools offer even more than just swimming. For younger kids, swimming lessons often take place before the pool is open. Parents and children can learn to swim together and understand pool safety.
Hiking and Camping With Kids
Nature preserves and parks in LA County are also great places for finding cheap activities for kids. Going hiking or bird watching is free in most areas, and camping spaces can be rented for a small fee. Hiking is a simple way to help kids stay active during the summer. Canoeing is another activity available at many parks in and around LA County.
Parks also offer free forestry demonstrations, animal classes and other activities throughout the year to help educate children about wildlife in their particular area of California. These arts and crafts or lessons are perfect for kids who like to learn about nature. Information about them can be obtained at a local park’s website or information office.
Summer Learning for Kids
Although school is out for summer, learning can still take place. Short day camps, trips to the library and other learning activities can be fun and inexpensive, making them ideal for children and parents alike. Volunteering for local organizations can also provide learning opportunities for children and teenagers.
Colleges and universities located in or around LA County often host weeklong day camps for kids of all ages. Everything from space camps to intensive Lego engineering courses can be found. These day camps get kids out of the house and expose them to a safe and exciting learning environment. Camps like these often form kids’ best summer memories, and they have all the fun of a regular camp without the expense and travel.
Check with local universities or extensions to find out if they offer any summer programs for kids.
Summer Library Programs for Kids and Teens
Libraries are another center of fun learning. Many libraries engage kids in a summer reading program, where they are given rewards and entered into contests for reading and participating in book discussions. Exposing kids to reading in a fun and informal setting can enhance their appreciation of reading, which can help them do better in school.
Many libraries also offer teen activities for older kids. Cooking classes, movie nights and book discussions are offered; these kinds of programs get kids reading and involved with their community. Activities like these are often free, and give teens a safe environment outside the house.
Although summer can be boring for kids who feel like there is nothing to do, most communities in and around LA County offer a number of great activities for kids, whether their interest is in water sports or science fiction.
Every school year, students get a summer break, and every year students return to the classroom having forgotten much of what they learned. Educators have coined the term summer learning loss to describe this break in learning during summer break. Tutor Doctor wants to prevent this summer learning loss with new Summer Learning Solutions designed specifically for summer break.
The Summer Learning Solutions
The Summer Learning Solutions help students continue to practice and improve upon skills that might be lost otherwise. For example, if a student was having difficulties with their basic math skills like multiplication tables or order of operations they might fall further behind if they don’t work on improving these skills over summer. Or a student may be struggling with writing essays for exams and a Tutor Doctor tutor would be just the person to help them work on their written expression because our tutors are experts in their field or teachers who can really help a student understand the writing process and how to organize their ideas.
What Does Tutor Doctor Offer?
Tutor Doctor provides affordable one-on-one in home tutoring. We create an individualized educational plan for each student and match tutors based on the student’s academic needs and personality. Tutor Doctor can provide support to classroom instruction and assignments and go back and deal with building blocks that were missed. One-on-one tutoring helps students build confidence, and get individualized support and better grades. At Tutor Doctor we recognize that making a difference in a student’s academic performance involves having an impact on not only their studies, but also the student’s confidence, organizational/study skills, and dreams. We want to make a lasting difference in our students’ lives.
Three LA & Orange County Students to Compete in National Spelling Bee
Students from Glendale, Diamond Bar and San Juan Capistrano are among the 273 students in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which begins June 2 in Washington, D.C.
Jeremiah Bernal Cortez, an eighth-grader at Eleanor J. Toll Middle School, Kenley Ku Farace, a seventh-grader at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, and Mickey C. Shi, an eighth-grader at Chaparral Middle School, will begin the bee by taking a 50-word test on a computer keyboard. Only 25 words will be counted toward the students’ scores, with one point for each word spelled correctly.
The bee consists of three rounds, followed by a semifinal and championship round. The semifinal round will begin at 7 a.m. California time June 4th, with a contestant generally eliminated when he or she misspells a word. The championship round will begin at 5 p.m. California time June 4th.
The bee is limited to students in eighth grade or below, with this year’s contestants ranging in age from 8 to 15.
Cortez, 14, loves to read books, especially of the science fiction genre. His favorite author is Harry Turtledove. In his spare time he practices fencing and enjoys playing video games. He is considering careers in business or finance.
Farace, 12, enjoys dancing, singing, acting, track and field, anime, watching reality television and listening to indie music. He aspires to be a voice actor.
Shi, 13, is an avid reader, amateur artist, proficient writer and plays the cello and flute.
The winner of the spelling bee will receive $30,000 from Scripps, which owns television stations and newspapers, a $5,000 scholarship from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond from the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster, and reference works from Encyclopaedia Britannica valued at $2,700.
Southern California has produced only one champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which began in 1925, Anurag Kashyap of Poway, the 2005 winner.
If you have been reading the paper, watching the news, or surfing the web, you may have noticed how much publicity charter schools are getting these days. There is also some confusion over what constitutes a “charter school.” By definition, a charter school receives public money (as well as some private donations), but is not bound by the rules and regulations that public schools must follow, in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth by the school’s charter. This means that charter schools can govern themselves as long as they meet the goals that are set for them in their charter, whereas public schools are restricted and must educate all children in a more “one size fits all” kind of way.
The Debate
The charter school has received more publicity lately because of the great debate over its quality of education and how detrimental charters can be to the landscape of the traditional public school. Since each charter is unique, it is difficult to actually judge the overall value of a charter education. Some charter schools focus on the arts whereas others focus more on math and science. But, most charters follow a more traditional route and are similar to other public schools. As far as threatening the traditional public school, “Critics of charters tend to focus on three main arguments: Charters “cherry pick” the best students from traditional schools; kick out students who do poorly; and serve far fewer special education students and non-English speakers than traditional schools. Such practices could give charters a boost in standardized test scores, the primary gauge by which schools are judged.” (Los Angeles Times online article).
There will always be debate, just as there will always be new and alternative ways to teaching. In the end, it is up to the parents to determine what is best for their children.
Whether your child attends a public, charter, or private school they may still need extra help. Call Tutor Doctor Sherman Oaks for a free consultation (818) 789-7824.
This is sometimes the biggest problem a child has in keeping up his or her grades. If they aren’t organized they can forget to complete homework, turn in a project late, or do poorly on a test because they forgot about it. An integral part of preparing children for the real world is teaching them basic life skills, like organization, that will help them in all aspects of life, not just school. One thing that Tutor Doctor tutors do really well is incorporate organization and study skills in their normal tutoring routine. They can help your kids to get and stay organized as well as teach them some much needed study skills to prepare them for any test they might take.
There are also things that parents can do at home to help their children get organized.
1. Teach your child to use checklists and to prioritize activities.
2. Help your student organize their homework.
3. Designate a specific study space and study time.
4. Keep organized notebooks.
5. Conduct a weekly cleanup.
6. Create a household schedule and keep a master calendar.
7. Prepare for the day ahead.
8. Support you student while they are learning to get organized.
For more tips on how to stay organized check out “Ten Ways to Help Your Child Get Organized” on www.FamilyEducation.com.
Robin & Tutor Doctor Sherman Oaks posing for a picture while helping stuff 2500 duffel bags full of essentials for L.A.’s homeless in conjunction with “The Giving Spirit”
December 2009
If you’d like to help visit http://www.thegivingspirit.org .
In many parts of Sherman Oaks and surrounding areas there is a an increased need for ESL teachers and tutors. Students come from all parts of the globe and it is important that they are fully immersed in the English language from an early age if they are to pick it up quickly. Some students do not live in an English speaking home so they don’t get as much practice, but luckily for them, if they start working with a Sherman Oaks Tutor Doctor tutor they can have that extra time to work on their English. Also, because our tutors come to the student’s home, this new language can be practiced in the safety of a comfortable place: HOME.
When learning English as a second language, students must practice speaking and writing as much as possible. According to an essay by Lindsay Steenbergen, “The ESL student needs to learn grammar in the context of their speaking and writing. The best approach seeks a balance in which communication is emphasized, especially at the beginning of the language learning process, and teaching of grammar is added as the student gains confidence and fluency.” Another benefit of using Tutor Doctor of Sherman Oaks to help with this learning process is that an in-home, one-on-one tutor will help the ESL student to gain that much needed confidence when speaking and writing in English.
Language and Culture
One important idea to understand when working with ESL students is that language and culture cannot be separated. Each person learns to understand and speak their language within the context of their own culture. What may be a familiar way of expressing something in English could mean something totally different for someone from South America or Asia. The beauty of using Tutor Doctor’s one-on-one tutoring is that the tutor can help the student understand the English language by connecting it with their native language and culture. What better way to become more successful in school than to ensure that there is less of a language barrier and more understanding in the classroom? This can be enhanced when using an English tutor at home as well.
Sherman Oaks Tutor Doctor Contact Information
Contact Tutor Doctor by visiting our website www.tutordoctorshermanoaks.com or calling 818-789-7824 to set up a Free In-Home Consultation.
