posted
I have a business idea and I'd love to take an informal little survey of the level of value you'd find in something like this:
If a qualified group of people offered enrichment classes-- not tied to a particular curriculum but merely stand alone additional instruction-- in math, science, business information systems, computer maintenance, a computer arts class (say Gimp, Word Press, and Audacity so no one has to pay for any licenses) guitar and martial arts, at levels ranging from elementary to junior college, with a student-teacher ratio of 6 to 1, and with teachers who have particular experience working with Asperger's kids, would that interest you? The teachers would have both real world, professional, experience in their subject matter as well as training accreditation.
What would you consider a reasonable fee per hour of instruction per week? (i.e. would $60 a week for 6 hours of your choice of courses seem reasonable?) is there anything that would make this appeal more to you? anything that would be a significant turn off?
Thanks for helping with my early market research...
edited to add: parents would be more than welcome to enroll in any classes that appealed to them as well. Would any of you want to?
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
If there's no minimum number of classes required and they are fairly short in duration, I would pay $10/hour of instruction. My daughter is taking ice-skating lessons now for $7/week (30 minute lesson plus several hours of open ice available). It's a seven-week course, so that's affordable for us. Obviously you're looking at much more affluent homeschoolers than us if you're thinking of people paying $60/week for instruction. The only thing I spend that much money on is groceries!
posted
$60 for 6 hours is very reasonable, but I don't know many people who'd actually be able to send their kid to 6 hours of courses in a single week.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
60$ would be quite reasonable, I think. Especially with a speciality in Aspergers - I've seen those sorts of services in the 20-40$/hr range.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: $60 for 6 hours is very reasonable, but I don't know many people who'd actually be able to send their kid to 6 hours of courses in a single week.
Agree with this entirely.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Same. Ten bucks an hour is probably the upper limit of what I'd pay, but two to three hours a week is more like what I'd (personally) be interested in.
To put it into perspective, I never spend more than three hours a day doing the actual curriculum part of homeschooling my 6- and 8-year-old. So adding another hour on average seems like a lot. And I currently pay about 7$ an hour for Japanese lessons with a student-teacher ratio similar to what you described.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Vadon, that looks a lot more in depth than I intend to get and also seems focussed on meeting state standards. My intent was to provide more of a "mother's day out" type program but with valuable instruction by accredited teachers to compliment parental instruction.
About the 6 hours-- I didn't have a minimum time in mind, but rather picked 6 hours because that seemed like a light load of instruction spread over a few classes-- say if you wanted Physics, Guitar, and Computer Maintenance, there's a couple hours a week of each there. And I am thinking of classes both during the day for homeschoolers, as well as 4-6pm classes (with school pickup) for after-schoolers.
I should also add that I don't have an actual certification for Asperger's teaching, just experience in dealing with it both as a teacher and a parent.
Again, thanks for the help Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
In this area at least, there are already quite a few such homeschooling classes/activities available for free.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
There really aren't any decent free options of the sort in this area unless you want to get involved in churches. Afterschool pickup is always great, but you've got some things to consider:
1) 4PM is not "school pickup." School lets out considerably earlier. 2) 6PM is actually a bit late; in fact, many evening activities for kids start around 6:30 to 7PM, so unless you're providing dinner, you'll probably want to end sooner. 3) Older kids are going to have other extracurriculars after high school on many days of the week, meaning that they'll be looking for evening or weekend classes.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Psi, you posted while I was writing my last so I didn't see yours till now. Your input is particularly valuable since you are in the same general area (I'm down South, towards Waxahachie).
Tom, in our district, the elementary schools get out at 3:15, everyone else at 4 (3:54, for some odd reason). I was generalizing this out to a 4 pm class. 6 pm was just there to give the Dallas commuters time to get back down here to pick them up. The basic idea would be "from school till you get off work" for those hours.
I'm not averse to evening and weekend classes, but I do need to save some time for me and mine!
mph, I'm guessing there aren't a lot of free resources in this area because I got the whole idea from a homeschooling mom who wanted to know if I did any additional instruction. She said she knew a whole bunch of parents who were looking for science instructors for their kids and would pay. I just realized I could easily put together a small team that offered a much wider variety of instruction, if there is a market for it. I figured the other classes would help expand our appeal.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I'd want to have them be fairly short but intensive classes, but only 1-2 hours a week. I'd probably do one class at a time. I'd like to have options to choose (not, for, like, science and math, but for some of the arts classes etc.) whether I put my kids in an age-divided class or a mixed-age class. (I'm okay with ability based that allow mixed ages, and generally prefer that to age-based classes, but there are a few subjects where I think an age-based class could be better.)
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Interesting suggestion, KQ. I was thinking about where to offer mixed-age and where to offer age-divided (it will be a small enough operation that I expect it would be simply divided into "primary" and "secondary" groups). My thought was to divide the more academic stuff up, but let the art and physical classes be mixed age (though obviously there would be skill- and size-appropriate pairings in the Martial Arts class).
So after the comments I'm thinking maybe $10/hr/week for a specific class, $25 for a 3-hr block that would include 3 diverse classes-- you drop your kids off for 3 hours and run your errands and pick them up (hopefully) edified .
The evening one would have to be something separate-- run a class from pick-up till 5 pm, then let people hang till their parents could get them, with extra charge for keeping them beyond 6pm, perhaps. But $50/week is more than reasonable for straight afternoon care, around here, without any instruction, so I think we're competitive there.
Again, thanks to everyone for helping refine the concept.
Posts: 3846 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
I'm from a little more south in Texas Jim, but I pay $60 a week for after school care for my child with no additional instruction time thrown in. Of course, if you were talking about after school, every day, for 2 hours that's 10 hours a week and not six, so that brings you down to about $6/hr.
It's really hard to say what the market will bear. However, my best advice to you is to look up how much places charge for summer enrichment programs, divide it out to get an approximate per/hour rate, and then you'll have a good idea of what you can charge.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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