Teaching homeschooled kids in Fla.?

Question

I'm a certified & experienced teacher in Florida (French & Spanish). I'm currently staying at home with my daughter and am looking for home-based employment. A friend suggested giving French/Spanish lessons to kids that are homeschooled. Great idea, but how would I find them? How does that work? Any basic info or links would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Start by doing an internet search for homeschool support groups in your area.  Once you find them, you can ask about advertising to their group.  Or even try going to one of their meetings and letting the members know about you.  Many of them will have used curriculum sales during the summer and early fall; ask if you can come to them and man a table with some flyers.  Some will have informational meetings for those considering homeschooling; ask about those and whether you could come and have some flyers available about your services.

Try putting up a flyer or something at the local library.  Many homeschoolers spend a great deal of time there.  Or even ask if you can use a meeting room to hold a free class during the school day to introduce one of the languages to children of a wide age range; the library can advertise it in their bulletins or however they do things and you might get homeschoolers who'll come and you can then let them know of your services if they are interested in further knowledge of the language.  Libraries are often willing to host such things and it can possibly get your foot in the door with some interested people.

Try sending advertisements to churches (or other religious groups) in the area, since many churches have their own homeschool support groups.  And even if they don't, they may be willing to post a flyer about it on a bulletin board that might be read by some homeschoolers.

Try contacting the local school district.  Homeschoolers who send in a "letter of intent" to the school district (rather than using an umbrella school) are sometimes sent a packet of information by the school district.  The school district might be willing to list you in the information packet.  Or more likely, they'll give you a copy of the packet which might include information about local homeschool support groups.

Find local groups that allow advertising.  In our county, we have a free online bulletin board for the community which might allow such a listing.  Or Craigslist.com might be a place to list such a thing.

Look for other places in the community that homeschoolers meet.  Our community has a variety of places that homeschoolers meet--Martial arts classes offered at a rec. center, gymnastics classes offered at a gym, science classes at several museums and a zoo.   If you can find those sorts of things in your area, you might be able to post flyers at them directed to homeschoolers.

Or just place an ad in the local paper.

Answer 2

Are you planning to charge for classes?

Answer 3

See below for a link to Florida Charter Schools. In CA many charter schools are actually homeschool options. The School pays you directly for classes that students take from you.

For instance I teach sewing out of my home. People find me through their charter school and then the student pays me out of pocket or the charter school pays me. It works out well. http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/Infor...

Best of Luck to you

Warm Regards,

jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com

http://www.summerhouseliving.com

Answer 4

You can try http://www.HSLDA.org Click on Florida, and they list organizations.  Contact some of the organizations with your offer.

Ask your local librarian if she knows any homeschoolers, and leave your contact info.  If you get in touch with one homeschooler, word will usually spread (but of course, the more the better).

Try http://groups.yahoo.com Type in "YourCity homeschool" and atleast one group will pop up.  You can send information to the group owner, and they will pass it on to the members.

I hope this helps, and wish you the best!

EDITED TO ADD: Perhaps you could offer private lessons, and/or do a coop class once a week with several students.  A lot of homeschoolers participate in coop activities, and your daughter would be able to tag along.

Answer 5

Put an ad in your local homeschool newspaper.   We have copies available at our local library and I imagine you can find information at your local library.  

You may want to consider going technical and making a dvd lesson.  This would be convenient for homeschoolers so they can learn on their own schedule.