Why I Started Tutoring

I Know What It Feels Like to Be on the Outside of the System

I ran a tutoring business from 2007 to 2012, in-person, mostly Math and Science, before returning to full-time work for a decade. When my family started worldschooling in 2021, I needed that same mental challenge again, so I restarted. Online this time, which turned out to suit me better anyway.

My family has spent the last five years worldschooling across 25+ countries. We've been living the non-traditional education experience: the freedom, the logistics, the moments of doubt, and the deep conviction that kids learn best when learning is built around their lives, not the other way around.

My daughter is proof of what that looks like all the way through. She took real coursework through TVO ILC along the way, but not a full four years of it. At 18, we sat down with a guidance counselor at LAEC, our local adult education centre, and she documented what she'd actually done: running a business, volunteering at worldschooling hubs, museums and galleries on multiple continents, learning Spanish, being fluent in French. LAEC ran that through PLAR and granted the credits she was missing. She finished the rest, the literacy requirement, English 12, a couple more grade 12 credits, as real coursework, and came out the other side with an actual Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Not a workaround. The same diploma a kid gets walking across a stage.

I'm not a classroom teacher. I'm someone who genuinely likes explaining things, gets a little stubborn when a concept isn't landing, and will try different approaches until one clicks. Having ADHD myself means I understand what it's like when your brain just won't cooperate with a standard explanation, and I've learned to teach around that. My background shapes how I work with students. I meet them where they are, whatever program they're in, whatever country they're learning from, whatever gaps they're working through.

What's different about working with me versus a traditional tutor: I'm not worried about whether your student is in a "real" program. Homeschool, online school, worldschool, public school. None of it changes what we do in a session. We figure out where they are, and we work forward from there.

I also run several communities for families and educators committed to alternative education: the Homeschooling Unschooling Roadschooling Worldschooling Facebook group (110,000+ members), the TVO-ILC Parent & Student Support Group, Pura Vida Homeschoolers in Costa Rica, and the Independent Educator Support group. And I'm building learnwitheveryavenue.com, a directory connecting families with independent educators who understand this lifestyle. None of it makes me a better Math tutor. It just means I understand the world your family is navigating, and I'm not going to look at you sideways for how you're doing it.