Originally posted on https://hellothinkster.com/blog/hire-online-math-tutor
If your child isn’t struggling in math class, it may be hard to know when they’re in need of extra math help or need an online math tutor.
There are many reasons your child could use the expertise of a tutor.
From reinforcing concepts your child learns in school to helping them with their math homework, we’re going to share all the signs it may be time to consider hiring an online math tutor.
After all, this one step may be enough to give your child the extra boost he or she needs to truly succeed (or at least hate math a little less).
7 Signs it’s Time to Hire an Online Math Tutor
Can you spot one or more of these red flags?
Take note of these warning signs it may be time to enlist an online math tutor for your child:
1. Your child isn’t keeping up in math and you don’t have time to give him or her the math help they need
Whether your child never liked math or attends a highly competitive school, he or she may not be at the top of their math game. And you may be too busy to help them.
With an online math tutor, the only place your child’s math skills will go is up!
You won’t have to cram 7th grade math just to help them complete their homework.
Let the experts handle the math help. You can provide help in ways more beneficial to your child’s learning (like keeping a handful of brain-boosting walnuts or almonds around for studying!).
Homework Item: Find a qualified online math tutor who can take this important task off of your already growing to-do list.
2. Your child has progressed further than the math their school is teaching
“Been there, done that,” your child says when they race through their math homework faster than it takes them to unload the dishwasher.
Your child may be at the top of their math class at school, but an online math tutor can give your child more advanced math problems to solve. This keeps them a step ahead of the pack.
They can build more confidence in themselves when they accomplish solving more challenging questions.
It also removes any potential boredom they’re facing in the classroom – something you don’t want your child to experience in school.
Homework Item: Use an online math tutoring app like Thinkster to help your child practice additional math problems.
Your child’s skills build upon what they’ve already accomplished. This sets them up for success when they tackle more difficult math problems in the future.
3. Your child needs extra math help, but you’d rather not have a stranger in your house
Private, in-person tutors are not only expensive, but they also require a dedicated block of time to work into your schedule.
If the math tutor comes to your house, you need to designate a clean, quiet work area for your child and their math tutor to use.
Choose an online math tutor instead of searching on Google for “math tutor near me”. You won’t have to worry about cleaning your home or reworking your schedule to ensure you’re home when the tutor is at your house!
Online math help from a trustworthy math learning app means your child gets the help they need from qualified and certified instructors — remotely.
Homework Item: Consider using an online math tutor instead. Get started with one today.
You have the best math educators just a few clicks away!
4. You and your child have jam-packed daily schedules
Tutoring at a math learning center requires you to travel there and back, on top of hanging around for the hour session. If the only available tutoring window is during rush hour, good luck with traffic.
Wouldn’t it be more convenient if your child could practice math whenever and wherever they are?
One of the biggest benefits of choosing an online math tutor is that your child has access to their math worksheets, math word problems, and online tutoring wherever they are.
Homework help is only a click away, be it 6 pm Tuesday night or 7:18 am Saturday morning. They can practice geometry in the car on the way to piano lessons or solve a few algebra problems before dinner’s ready.
Unlike meeting a tutor for math help just once a week, your child can practice their math problems online and get help several times a day.
Homework Item: Stop wasting time driving back and forth to a math learning center and start using an online math tutoring program instead.
5. Your child has reached Geometry and things aren’t clicking.
Children are visual learners and when they’re learning the dynamics of geometry, it’s almost impossible for some kids to progress from the basics to more advanced concepts.
Without visual help, that is.
Using an online math tutor to explain spatial reasoning, high-level geometry concepts, and visualize the steps of a proof may finally help your child “click” with them.
Homework Item: If your child is already using a tutor, it pays to double check what they’re teaching them. If visuals aren’t part of the equation, it’s time to find another tutor.
6. Your child is already glued to one or more devices or fluent in one or more apps
Kids are naturals when it comes to using electronic devices and actually learning better from them.
When children think they’re playing a game, instead of actually doing boring word problems, they have greater interest and increased concentration. No surprise here.
Online math help on a tablet or laptop becomes more interactive than learning in a math classroom. Kids aren’t bored, so they stay focused on solving their problems longer and with more intensity.
Plus, since your child is progressing through online math lessons, they’ll have a hands-on learning experience and increased engagement.
Homework Item: Your child already wants to play and use your electronic devices. You might as well make sure they’re actually learning and practicing math while they’re doing so.
That’s where an online math tutoring app can help.
Give them access to one of these and they won’t even realize they’re practicing math.
7. Your child hates admitting when they need more help
Your child likes getting good grades and excelling at everything they set out to accomplish. When they need a little boost in a certain area where they’re performing less-than-perfectly, they may not let you or their teachers know.
That’s why many kids feel empowered with an online math tutor.
If they’re stuck on a word problem, they can keep working at it without the fear of a teacher looking over their shoulder or other children in class thinking they’re not smart enough to find the answer.
Kids can choose their answer and receive immediate feedback if their answer is right or wrong from an app. It’s totally impersonal so there are no hard feelings.
Since your child receives feedback at the point of learning, they’ll be able to redirect their efforts and avoid mistakes in real-time instead of completing the problem the wrong way only to be corrected later when they forget all about it.
Give your child the right instruction exactly when they need it. If they make mistakes (which they will), they’ll learn from them immediately.
Homework Item: Consider using an online math tutor, as opposed to one in-person, to give your child more time to work through challenging math problems.
Now that you know all the signs to look for, let’s talk about how to find an online math tutor you can trust.
How to Find the Best Online Math Tutor for Your Child
Before you settle on the first online math tutor on a Google search results page, make sure your math help program has:
Certified, dedicated, personalized math tutors
The online math tutors at Thinkster are trained math educators who build personalized learning plans for each of their students. They use their knowledge of both the math curriculum and their students’ strengths and weaknesses to guide students to math success.
Our online math tutors also grade math worksheets daily to provide personalized comments for each of their students.
Look for Whiteboard coaching and feedback sessions to help your child identify their points of struggle, understand the nature of their mistakes, and focus on difficult concepts tailored to your child’s current math ability as well, which you’ll find with Thinkster.
Progression, not repetition
Thinkster Math’s world-class curriculum is aligned with Common Core and State Standards, and is designed to build analytical and critical reasoning skills.
Repeating the same type of problem when your child isn’t totally mastering a concept doesn’t work. Instead, you’ll want to find an app that offers questions that get progressively harder as your child gets the basics under their belt.
Thinkster’s patent-pending Active Replay Technology allows math tutors to playback a student’s work in real time.
Using data such as time taken to complete the problem and accuracy, your child’s math tutor will discover which concepts your student needs to work on before moving on to the next.
An engaging, intuitive user interface for kids
Anyone can throw a few algebra problems on a website and call themselves an online tutor. It’s not only a reputable company you need to scout, but one that visually engages and motivates your children to find solving math equations exciting.
Look for online math apps that feel more like games and offer achievements and rewards to keep your child going
Is Thinkster right for your child?
You don’t have to whip out your old math textbooks to help your child ace all their math tests and develop the skills to advance past what they’re learning in school.
Your job is finding the right online math tutor to do this for you.
While you may have been ignoring these 7 signs it’s time to hire an online math tutor, it’s time to let the experts take over. They know how to make math problems fun, which we all wish we could brag about.
Want to see if Thinkster’s right for your child’s math help needs?
Start your free 7-day trial of Thinkster today! Click around math worksheets and problems and get a feel for how much fun your child will have practicing math the easy way.