Just last week, our babysitter was asking if I'd tutor her daughter in Math. I'm not a math pro by any means, just good at it and use it a lot in my career. So I did some asking around.
I was shocked at the fees I heard. Many "profesional tutors" around here (e.g., retired/former teachers) charge $40-45 for an hour sesion per child *with up to 3 keds at a time*. That's $120-135 an hour income. To me that seems like an aweful lot. Maybe for 1 on 1 though....
I haven't officially started doing it yet, but here is what I've realized already. Not sure about 4th grade.... but the real time sink is in preparation. In order to be ready fto help the student, you have to be 1 (at least) step ahead of them. Thi means reviewing and making sure you know what they did in class since your last session, and what they have coming. You have to know all teh answers and a way to explain it that (1) jives with their teacher but (2) may be a slightly different way of explaining, since the point of the tutoring is to help out what theyt didn't understand from the teacher.
The point is it's a lot of prep work. So that 1 hour w/ the students could easily be 2-3 hours total. As a teacher your wife will be aware of this aspect i'm sure.
I have heard some teachers literally justify the cost they ask according to their salary; e.g. the county pays me ~$20/hour, i lose 2 hour per session, so that's $40 fee.
