I tutor a 5th grader for $30 per hour. His parents asked if I’d teach his friend as well, and I agreed. To compensate for the extra student, we want to do 1 1/2 hour lessons. I could charge the same rate, but that doesn’t compensate the child for my divided attention. I could charge $45 total, but that’s letting the second kid ride for free. So it has to be somewhere in between.
Neither the parents nor I care about the money, so whatever I quote them, they’ll agree to. So what sounds fair to you?
Off the top of my head, I would probably charge both families $30 for the 1.5 hr sessions. At that rate you’re making $40/hr for for two students instead of $30/hr for one.
If I was the parent $60 would seem fine to me - that is your per student per lesson rate for 2 lessons. The fact that you figure you can achieve the same thing with both of them in 90 minutes, rather than 2 one hour lessons, wouldn’t matter to me.
What he could teach to one student in an hour (and thus to two students in two separate one-hour lessons, one hour per student) can be taught to two students in 90 minutes. The additional 30 minutes as compared to having just one student is for the time needed to interact with a second person (presentation of the material takes the same time regardless of how many students, but dealing with questions etc. takes longer with more people).
I play tennis and take private lessons from the pros. It doesn’t matter if it’s just me or me and 5 of my closest friends, his hourly rate is the same. We split the cost evenly among all participants.
I would charge 50% more than for a single person, so $45 per hour in total, split equally between them (or however they want to do it). Tutoring two kids is definitely more work than tutoring one kid, but not twice as much.
You should create your fee based on student.
Just like in any school, it doesn’t make a difference if there is 1 or 20 in your class, they all pay the same.
Plus, do you want to agonize over this again if yet another student wants to join in?
I think more students actually HELPS learning - you get interaction and keeps the student(s) more involved.
