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Creative Ways To Prepare Your Child For Kindergarten!
Shaye seemed eager to participate, proud of her accomplishments and enjoyed the variety in the program. Materials were excellent.
Evaluation comment from a mom
Did you know?
46% of suburban and rural children do not understand relative size (an early math skill).
Kindergarten Readiness Questions
Teacher Kit
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are common kindergarten readiness questions that moms ask about the Teacher Kit. Feel free to send your questions via contact form or the "Mom Talk" blog and we may add the answers to this list too.
To access the answer to an individual question, click on the question and it will expand to reveal the answer. To make the answer disappear again, just click on the question.
1. How do I start my home-based business and how long will it take me to set it up?
Starting a home-based business is an exciting venture. It will require setting up a simple business foundation including basic financial, legal and organizational systems to keep your teaching business separate from your personal business. After purchasing your Pre K Scholars kit you will prepare to set-up your location, find a teacher partner if you so choose, review the materials in the kit, purchase the start-up supplies, talk to parents, find your students, enroll your students, and you are on your way.
Starting a home-based business is an exciting venture. It will require setting up a simple business foundation including basic financial, legal and organizational systems to keep your teaching business separate from your personal business. After purchasing your Pre K Scholars kit you will prepare to set-up your location, find a teacher partner if you so choose, review the materials in the kit, purchase the start-up supplies, talk to parents, find your students, enroll your students, and you are on your way.
2. How much will it cost to start my business?
The Pre K Scholars Teacher Kit plus your first eight class binders will cost $499 plus shipping (introductory price for a limited time). Depending on the quantities you decide to purchase up front, a reasonable start-up supplies budget may be $200-300.
Business start-up costs will vary depending on how you want to set up your business at home and what you need to purchase. For example, office furniture, computer equipment, business cards and stationery, and small table and chairs for class will increase your start-up costs. A fictitious business name, new checking account and organizational systems will be fairly inexpensive. We recommend you budget a minimum of $300 to set up your new business structure.
3. What is the potential income for a home-based teaching business?
The income is limitless if you have the time, commitment, market and ability to promote and secure enrollment for your classes. Here is one real-world example of the income potential for one 22-week class session:
* 8 students @ $75 materials fee = $600 starting income for binders and supplies
* 8 students @ $35 per class = $280 income per 1.5 hour class (or approximately $1,120-1,400 per month)
* $280 per class X 22 classes per session + $600 materials fee = $6,760 for teaching 1.5 hours per week for 22 weeks
That's over $200.00 per hour!
Note that in this example you should be able to pay for your initial investment in one month and begin making a profit in your second month.
4. How do I find the initial money to start my business?
You're a mom—you're used to making things happen, so tap into your resourcefulness and creativity. If you cannot use your credit card to pay for initial supplies and start-up, find a friend or family member who will partner with you. Grandparents are sometimes happy to loan the initial costs. Save up until you have the money, have a garage sale and sell your old things, or provide some extra child care for friends. Your sacrifice and ingenuity will pay off, and you will have so much fun along the way.
5. After purchasing the Teacher Kit, what additional supplies will I need?
The amount of supplies you buy is at your discretion and there is a master list of materials listed in the kit to make the shopping easy for you. Weekly lesson materials may include such items as stickers, candy for counting, markers and crayons, paint and construction paper, to name a few.
You can choose to purchase a recommended reading book for each of the 22 lessons, purchase only a few or borrow children's books from the library. The extent of your class library will be totally up to you. Shopping and preparation can either be done weekly or all at once prior to starting the course. Charging a one time enrollment or "materials fee" will help defray the cost of some of these items.
6. What kind of room do I need in my home for classes?
You will need a room that can accommodate eight children and one or two teachers to work in a whole group setting, plus in smaller groups of four children at two stations in the room. At least one group will need to work at a table and sitting properly. Clip boards are a great resource for creating a "lap desk" for working on the floor.
If you do not have the room at home look for a community center, mom's resource center, a friend's home or church facility that will allow you to rent space for your classes.
7. Can I conduct classes with my kids in the other room?
This depends upon the ages and independence level of your own children. To ensure an optimum learning environment with no interruptions to your class, we recommend finding an alternative solution for children at home.
8. How much preparation time will I need per class?
Time varies each week, but no more than an hour photocopying pages, purchasing any outside supplies and setting them up inside the home.
9. How do I set up my pricing and billing structure?
Pricing will depend on what your local market will bear, but we recommend $20-35 per class and billing at the beginning of each month. Remember, although it may look like play time, you are teaching children valuable academic skills that will give them a solid foundation for early success in school. Your pricing should reflect the quality of your small-group learning program.
10. Where do I find students and how do I promote my classes?
Talking to other moms, handing out class post cards, joining local groups and online moms groups, and e-mailing your friends to spread the word are the easiest ways to find your students. You may find parents who are interested in kindergarten readiness at preschools, play groups, arts or sports programs, churches, and at the park.
Talking to other moms, handing out class post cards, joining local groups and online moms groups, and e-mailing your friends to spread the word are the easiest ways to find your students. You may find parents who are interested in kindergarten readiness at preschools, play groups, arts or sports programs, churches, and at the park.
11. Can I allow more than eight students per class to enroll?
Eight is a nice number of students for optimum learning.
12. What ages should I accept?
We recommend enrolling only students who will be entering kindergarten in the coming fall season. Having said that, you can still expect 4, 5 and 6 year olds in your Pre K class.
13. How can I communicate to parents that their child will be in a safe and secure environment, and that I am a capable instructor?
Through conversation with moms, conducting an informational open house in your home for interested parties, by including your background in enrollment material, or through a program "orientation" time with parents. Most students will probably be a friend of a friend to start and your reputation among friends will speak for itself. Once your classes begin, positive word of mouth about your program will spread.
14. Instead of one 90-minute class per week for 22 weeks, can I teach two classes per week for 11 weeks?
This is not recommended because there are home activities that are related with each week's featured letter. By increasing the number of students' classes each week, you increase skills to be learned, concepts taught, and home activities to complete. Accelerating the course may increase the stress of children and families, which is not what Pre K Scholars is about.
15. If I can earn $200-280 per class for each 22-week session, why wouldn't I want to offer five different sessions a week?
That certainly is a possibility if you have the time and the interested students. In that instance, you would need to be sure to purchase more My Activities student binders through the Pre K Scholars Web site. They are sold in class sets for eight students.
16. How do you find a mom to help out with the class and do you pay her?
You can usually find a friend, retired teacher, stay-at-home mom, a member of a church or social group you belong to, or a family member who would like to help. The sources are unlimited and it is amazing what word of mouth will do for you. Sometimes a mom will want to help out with the class in exchange for free registration for their child. Other times a mom will want to be paid a little extra money. In that case, you will want to talk to your accountant about independent contractor laws and tax procedures for contracted support.
17. Are parents allowed to stay and watch classes?
In our experience, this has not been an issue. If there is a need for them to observe and it is not disruptive then it is welcomed; or they can sit in the next room and simply listen.
18. How do you handle slow children and how do you help a child who is not doing well with an activity?
The small groups of 4:1 student to teacher ratio make this easy to accommodate. Simplifying an activity is always helpful. For example, you can guide them through the correct response or get them started and ask them to complete the rest of the activity.
19. Some parents are against homework, so how do you handle the My Activities Binder the kids are supposed to take home in that instance?
Let the parents know that the children take pride in sharing what they have found at home with their classmates. Parents are free to simplify the home activity to meet their child's needs and their comfort levels. Again, the Pre K Scholars philosophy is not to overwhelm the child or the parent. Understanding how to learn outside of the class room is key to a child's sense of discovery.
Try some simplifying solutions. Tear out catalog or magazine pages in advance so the hunting for beginning sound objects is easy and offers quick gratification. Perhaps start off finding a few pictures and work your way up to completing the page, or find one or two pictures a night. There are many ways to achieve the completion of the home activity while instilling pride in your child and spending some quality time together, without any pressure.
20. Why are the lessons not taught in alphabetical order?
For several reasons; one is to avoid rote memory and to take the letters out of order context to make them unique and special. Also, letters are introduced based on speech/pronunciation development. For example, many four and five year olds have trouble pronouncing the sound "S" makes, so it is introduced closer to the end of the program.
Finally, the Pre K Scholars program develops multi-disciplinary skills that build on each other based on the order of letter introduction. For example, a child will need to know number value and number sense covered in "N" week before he or she can add two numbers together in "A" week.
21. What if I have additional questions about setting up a business or teaching this program?
We are always available to help you. Refer to our prekscholars.com Web site for ways to contact us or participate in our Mom Talk blog.
22. Why do you ask for my e-mail address?
So we can help you be successful! We would like to follow up with you by e-mail to send you helpful tools, see if you need additional information, or to gain feedback on how you are doing with your program. We promise not to sell or share your e-mail address with anyone. We know how annoying it can be to receive unsolicited advertising and do respect your privacy.
23. How can I network with other moms who may be teaching the Pre K Scholars program as well?
The prekscholars.com Web site will be providing you with a variety of ways to network with other moms, starting with the Mom Talk blog and listing of classes offered around the country. You can also learn what other moms are doing in our Teacher Profile section and see photos that have been submitted by other teachers.
24. How do I obtain the student activities binders after my first 22-week session?
You can order packages of eight binders, as well as other supplies, through the Pre K Scholars Web site.
25. Are you allowing preschools to purchase this program?
Pre K Scholars is currently working on a formal program for preschools. Because the preschool setting is a little different than the home-based classes, we are adjusting our curriculum to fit the specific needs of preschool instructors.
26. How will I know if someone else in my area will be starting to teach kindergarten readiness classes with the Pre K Scholars curriculum as well?
All moms who purchase a Teacher Kit will be asked to submit their class offerings to us online so that we may promote them on our Web site.
