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Friday, March 26, 2010

Barter is Smarter

I've been looking for a really long time, trying to find an art class for Kira and Marisa. Unfortunately, there does not exist such a thing as art classes for pre-schoolers in my local area. Actually, there is one location where I could get Kira into an art class. The fee is about $150 for a six week class. I can't even begin to afford that.

For all my good qualities as a parent, organized art projects are simply not my thing. I can find cute ideas. I just don't have the patience to assist two little monsters in the creating of such cute ideas. They both really love doing art projects, though.

Well, this past week a friend of mine approached me for help. Her daughter is struggling in Math and needs a tutor. I happen to be very good at Math. I also happen to be really good with her teenage daughter. We came to an agreement for tutoring. Then came the inevitable question...

How much do you charge for tutoring?

I thought about this for a moment. I know my friend is much like I am and doesn't have a whole lot of expendable cash. She knows her daughter needs help, but would certainly have difficulty paying what a tutor normally charges. Then a thought occurred to me. I asked my friend if she likes to do art projects with small children.

It turns out that she does, in fact, enjoy doing art projects. She has some difficulty coming up with good ideas, but the process of doing the work would be fun for her. Also, she adores my girls.

Well - it took me no time at all to suggest a barter system for our girls needs. She can do an art project with the girls while I am tutoring her daughter in Math. In fact, this works well for more than one reason. I won't have to come up with a sitter for the girls when I go to their house to tutor. I just bring them along.

They get their art class.

Her daughter gets help with Math.

Nobody has to come up with any money - beyond the cost of the art supplies.

It's a win-win situation.

Barter really is Smarter!

2 comments:

The Mind of a Mom said...

I had a tutor for The boy, she was a 1st year school teacher and we paid $20.00 for an hour. Now this was run through a program. But we did some other tutoring for him outside of that program and she was an "independent" and only charged $12.00 per hr.
Also this would have been about 8-9yrs ago.

Flash website said...

hey that was really cool! Both of you had your respective jobs done and right it was a "barter" system that you guys worked out.It would be awesome if things in life could be solved so easily like this.Thanks for the post.