How much to charge?

I've been asked repeatedly by a family to tutor their 6th grade daughter in reading. I have agreed to tutor for the summer, but now I have no clue how much to charge. The mom works in DH's office; (actually, she's his favorite employee) so I feel very weird about taking her money. She insists on paying for the tutoring though.

DH says that what she chooses to do with her money is her own business.

I feel greedy whenever I think about how the money cycles from DH to her and then *back* to me.

But an even bigger issue for me is that I have a very difficult time dealing with the fact that people pay taxes, send their children to school all day and then have to pay again to send them to a tutor at the end of the day. As a teacher I can't seem to get past this issue. When I was in the classroom I spent an hour every day after school with at least one student for *free*. Since I've been a SAHM, I haven't tutored at all.

Can anyone help me wrap my brain around this?

[DCJenn]

Re: How much to charge?

Think of it more as helping her expand her knowledge base.

I'd charge slightly less per hour than you were making as a teacher.

Jenn

[alison]

Re: How much to charge?

Think of it more as helping her expand her knowledge base.

I'd charge slightly less per hour than you were making as a teacher.

Jenn

I agree with this. Tutoring is exhausting - don't go too low. I went too low just recently. I was recently asked again to tutor and without any hesitation asked for $60/hour. There's no way I'd do it for less. Again, it is so draining!

[PrincessFiona]

Re: How much to charge?

I pay $25 for 45 minutes for my 6th grader (now going into 7th grade) for math.

To help you get past this issue, here is my perspective as a mom...

I can help Andrew with all aspects of his schoolwork, especially math. We are able to click and communicate well.

It just doesn't work this way with my daughter. When she was little and was learning the alphabet, if I showed her flashcards for the alphabet and asked her what letter it was, she would roll her eyes and say "4". She doesn't like for me to help her. She is very independent and even when I got her hooked on phonics and wanted to do it with her, she insisted on doing it by herself.

I'm fun. I think. I did things like pour sugar onto the table for her to trace letters of the alphabet. We used jellybeans to practice addition and subtraction (yummy). I think though, that she could pick up on the frustration that I had in the back of my mind. She just struggles with math and always has. I really have come to believe that she doesn't want to disappoint me.

She asked me today if she can keep working with her math tutor this summer. I told her "of course" but also added that I would love to work with her and help her. She said "that's ok mom. No thanks." I asked her why not....(I feel like such a failure ) and she said that she didn't know...but that she felt comfortable working with her tutor.

Hey...whatever works. It's a huge help to her and as such, it is a relief to me. I'm very grateful for the help and support her tutor gives her. I wish that Amanda would accept it from me, but she doesn't...and I'd move mountains to make sure that she is comfortable and is continuing to do well. I'll pay taxes, send her to school and gladly pay for the tutor to help her if that is what it takes for my daughter to keep up. really.

Kris

Re: How much to charge?

Thank you for the advice. I think I'm ready to jump in now.

I'll start out 'cheap' since this is my first upper-grade tutoring gig but after this, it's time to recoup some of those college expenses!