5 Questions Parents Fail to Ask When Searching For An Online Math Tutoring Program

Every parent searching for an online math tutoring program aspires to find one that delivers incredible results at an affordable rate. When you see big improvements in your child’s confidence and school grades, you’re going to be incredibly happy!

To find a math tutoring program that will do this, there are five questions that you must ask.

As a Customer Experience Manager with Thinkster Math, I have spoken with hundreds of parents. Not only am I sharing the five questions parents fail to think of asking, but also how I answer these questions for parents interested in Thinkster!

1. Does your online math tutoring program follow an exceptional curriculum? 

Parents want a curriculum that leads to fantastic results, which your child will get if the online math tutoring program has an exceptional curriculum.

What exactly makes a curriculum exceptional?

It’s one that includes important skills and problems that your child needs to learn – not just for in the classroom, but for lifelong success. This means that you should look for a well-rounded curriculum that emphasizes developing logical reasoning and critical thinking skills.

It’s not just about being able to solve a question or use strategies, it’s being able to pull those practices and thinking skills into the real world. Doing so helps your child on the path to becoming an inventor, engineer, entrepreneur, and more. A program that typically focuses on only math drills may not get your child get there.

With Thinkster Math, our curriculum is packed with analytical and critical thinking problems. We also include many real-world scenarios so that your child understands the importance of learning these types of problems and finds the content relatable too.  

Our goal is to help your child develop and nurture the skills that set them up for lifelong learning and success.

2. Can you provide daily feedback?

Many online tutoring programs deliver their content through math worksheets or assignments for your child to complete.

What happens after your child completes their work?

Some math programs, like Kumon Math®, might have you grading your child’s assignments. Others might have your child waiting a week until they visit their learning center to receive results and feedback.

This is not the case with Thinkster Math because your child’s tutor grades assignments every day.

Your child’s Thinkster Math tutor receives assignments as soon as they completed. Within twenty-four hours, the tutor provides corrections and feedback on every incorrect question.

When the Thinkster Math tutor reviews your child’s work, they also observe how your child is answering the questions. They can replay how your child is working through the questions and see when they are writing, pausing to think, or erasing. This is incredibly powerful because the tutor is able to understand why your child is making mistakes in order to then accelerate their learning outcomes in the shortest amount of time.

Your child can review the corrections within the assignments in their Thinkster Math Tutoring app.

This level of attention and feedback is not something that other programs can easily offer.

Receiving timely feedback from a tutor makes a big difference as your child is able to review and learn from their mistakes.

Not only that, but additional resources, like our video tutorials and video library, are available for your child to access instantly for review.

The combination of video tutorials and daily feedback keeps your child right on track with their learning plan and goals.

3. What happens if my child is working on an assignment and they’re stuck on a question?

When your child feels like they’re stuck on a difficult question, chances are they grow frustrated and develop an “I can’t do this”’ attitude.

It’s important to minimize this potential behavior before they reach the point where they become upset or shut down.

There are three ways that Thinkster Math minimizes any possible frustration your child may face.

1. Your child has constant access to video tutorials as they complete their assignments. This is a great resource for kids to brush up on strategies and see example problems.
2. Your child can flag a question by marking the question they having difficulty with. After sending in the assignment, the tutor provides feedback and special comments on the flag. The tutor also makes note that it’s a question or concept to review with your child during their one-on-one whiteboard tutoring session. 
3. If your child really feels stuck and wants to wait to review a concept during the one-on-one online tutoring session, they can move to a different topic in the meantime. When the tutor customizes the learning plan, they provide access to three or four topics at a time. Having a variety of topics available prevents your child from hitting a roadblock.

Diving into point number 3 even more – the online tutoring sessions that your child gets with their dedicated and private math tutor will ensure they get the needed support to review difficult concepts! These online tutoring sessions are always held with the same expert math tutor.

This tutor (who is an experienced math teacher and thus considered an expert tutor) will meet with your child either weekly or biweekly. The tutor will help review difficult concepts and topics, any specific math question from the math worksheets your child had trouble with, go over test prep strategies, or help with math homework. Having this feature of a live tutoring service ensures your child gets math help from an experienced math teacher – who is able to adapt the lesson, instruction, and strategies to support your student‘s learning style.

Viewing video tutorials, raising flags, and working from a variety of topics are all ways to minimize any potential frustration as your child completes their work. This helps keep your child motivated and engaged too!

4. What do you do to keep my child motivated to learn?

Keeping a student engaged and excited is one of the main focal points in parent searches! It’s something that we wish all math tutor programs offered!

I have heard from some parents that their child reaches a point where they become bored with repetitive learning methods or the presentation of paper-based assignments that certain programs offer.

This is something your child does not face with Thinkster Math!

First, your child is going to love the rewards system. Your child earns points on their worksheets and has a monthly goal to earn 7500 points. If your child reaches their goal, they earn a $5 gift card to Target, Amazon, and other cool vendors.

Second, the level of personalization and customization ensures the work is always at an appropriate level for your child. If your child finds an assignment too easy, then they may feel bored with the material. If they find an assignment too difficult, then there’s a strong chance that they may become frustrated and lose the drive to complete their work.

Having a dedicated Thinkster Math tutor means that someone is monitoring your child’s assignments and performance daily to make sure that the work is always at an appropriately challenging level. This keeps your child engaged with their learning plan.

Third, digital assignments are exciting and fun! There are visuals and sound effects that go along with the instant feedback your child receives as they complete their work.

These three pieces – personalization, digital assignments, and rewards – come together to keep kids engaged and motivated to learn. This is important because high motivation is what leads to incredible progress and big learning improvements!

5. Can you guarantee learning improvements? 

This is a big deal because you want the transparency that a program is delivering its promises and that your child is progressing.

As you ask about online math tutoring programs, be sure to ask:

• Do you offer reports?
• What’s the frequency of reports?
• Are reports easily accessible?

Timely and accessible reports aren’t something that many programs can easily deliver to you – partly because they don’t have a system for tracking and delivering progress data.

With Thinkster Math, we break down all the skills your child needs to master into topics and concepts. By tracking data related to each and every concept, we show and deliver frequent learning improvements.

We organize this information with our dynamic progress matrix. You are able to get live reports that constantly update based on your child’s progress.

This transparency is incredibly valuable and gives you the reassurance that your child is in awesome hands with their Thinkster Math tutor.

You also have access to the Thinkster Parent App, which gives you even more data and insight into your child’s performance. You can track worksheet accuracy and time spent on questions, review coach feedback, and access your child’s dynamic progress matrix.

All of this information is available for you to see anytime!

Conclusion 

There are five questions that many parents fail to ask when searching for online math tutoring programs,  so make sure you ask these questions:

1. Does your math tutoring program follow an exceptional curriculum?
2. Can you provide daily feedback?
3. What happens if my child is working on an assignment and they’re stuck on a question?
4. What do you do to keep my child motivated to learn?
5. Can you guarantee learning improvements?

If you’re already asking these questions, give yourself a pat on the back! They are important questions to ask as you learn about the different options available.

As you explore, be sure to also take advantage of opportunities to try math programs.

With Thinkster Math, we offer a 7-day free trial. It’s a risk-free opportunity to experience all of our awesome features. If interested in speaking with an Academic Advisor, like me, you can schedule a call to learn more!

Note:  Kumon®  is a registered trademark of Kumon North America, Inc. Thinkster Math is in no way affiliated with the same.