Finding the right tutor for home-educated kids can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. So, when Tutorful gave me the chance to test their platform, I jumped in—because if there's a way to make learning easier (and save me a few grey hairs), I'm all for it.

Why We're Trying Tutorful.co.uk - A Tutorful Review by Dad Blog

If you've been following Dad Blog for a while or keeping an eye on our home education journey, you'll know that my wife and I are always on the lookout for ways to keep our children engaged and learning in a way that suits them.

Between Twinkl (where I'm an ambassador, no big deal), our ever-growing collection of home-ed games, Math-U-See, and plenty of hands-on learning, we've got a pretty solid system. But sometimes, you need an outside voice to shake things up.

Enter Tutorful—an online tutoring platform where you can book lessons with tutors in just about every subject imaginable.

I was curious—could this actually add something valuable to our routine?

• Is it easy to use?
• Is it worth the cost?
• Would my kids actually enjoy it?

After a chat with Tutorful, they credited my account so I could properly test the platform. Never one to turn down a challenge (or an opportunity to sneak in extra learning), I jumped in to see if Tutorful could really add value to our home education routine.

Tutorful First Impressions

Using the Site & Registering for an Account

The site is fairly intuitive and, thankfully, doesn't try to strong-arm you into signing up before you even know if it's useful. You can browse tutors without registering, which is a nice touch.

When you do decide to sign up, the registration process is quick and painless—exactly what you want when juggling multiple home-ed responsibilities.

Managing Lessons & Credits

Once you've actually booked a lesson, checking your existing ones is simple enough. Tutorful recommends messaging five tutors before picking one, so you can find the best fit. But let's be real—I have five kids and zero time to waste, so I went straight in with a targeted search instead.

Booking Lessons

I initially used Tutorful on my phone, and I'll be honest—it was a bit clunky. Searching for tutors and navigating available time slots was frustrating, since times were listed but there was no clear way to actually book them.

Then, in true ADHD fashion, I missed a tutor's messages about scheduling and my daughter's learning needs (oops). After that minor fail, I switched to the Tutorful app, which was much smoother. Let's be honest, my ADHD brain was never going to handle a booking system that relies on me remembering to check messages.

Once I got past my own incompetence, finding and booking a tutor was easy—the process is straightforward once you know what you're doing.

The Lessons We've Booked So Far

I wanted to test a mix of subjects to see how well Tutorful could fit into our home education setup.

🎵 Music Lessons for My Eldest

After my initial failure at replying to messages, we rebooked and finally had our first lesson yesterday—and it went brilliantly.

My daughter is already asking when her next lesson is, which is nothing short of a miracle, considering I usually have to drag her kicking and screaming into anything remotely structured (hello, waking up at 7:59am for the 8:05am bus).

The tutor's approach was phenomenal. While I stuck around for the whole lesson since my daughter wasn't feeling her best, I left with a rekindled joy for music theory—it even reminded me of my own piano lessons as a child—and, as fate would have it, I may have accidentally purchased a vintage 1970s EKO guitar from a charity shop two days ago (£35 was a bargain I absolutely couldn't pass up).

Naturally, this seemed like the perfect excuse to bring it out, which led to an impromptu half-hour jam session with the kids before bed.

📚 Maths & 11+ Prep for My Other Two

I found a tutor to help with maths for my daughter and 11+ prep for my son—because, frankly, I really don't want to have to write an addendum to my How I Won My Daughter's Grammar School Appeal post to include him.

The tutor was fantastic—she was engaging, patient, and incredibly perceptive. My kids are really looking forward to their next session.

Considering how well Numberblocks has helped with their maths confidence, it's great to have another engaging way to reinforce key skills—but this time, with actual human interaction.

How Does It Fit into Home Ed?

If things keep going this well, I'd love to make weekly Tutorful lessons a staple in our home education routine. Home-educating isn't cheap, so adding paid tutoring isn't something we'd take lightly—but so far, it's looking promising!

The biggest win? It gives my kids something extra to look forward to every week—because, apparently, dance, Scouting, Cadets, and every other club and meet-up still isn't enough!?

At least this way, they're reinforcing key subjects at home, much like how we keep learning engaging through books, games and summer learning activities.

Parental Involvement – How Hands-Off Can You Be?

For my eldest, I set up the music lesson and wanted to leave her to it—independent learning for the win. (But I know she'll be fine next time)!

With my younger two, I sat in on their first session to make sure the tutor understood what I was looking for. My son, in particular, still needs a little more support (his ability to sit still is… let's call it a work in progress).

Ideally, I'd love to step back and let them take charge. I'm sure, in time, I'll be able to leave my boy to it, but for now, I'll be hovering just enough to ensure he actually stays focused.

If there's one thing I've learned from my own experience with ADHD & Autism diagnoses, it's that understanding how they learn best makes a world of difference.

Pros & Cons – What You Need to Know

SO what's working—and what isn't? Here's a quick breakdown:

The Good:

✅ Tons of tutors, covering all budgets – Expect to pay £35-£50 per hour for most standard subjects, which is in line with private tutoring IRL. Specialised subjects cost more, but overall, Tutorful offers great value for money.

✅ Easy to use (once you figure it out) – The mobile site was a bit clunky, but the app is much smoother. Using a laptop or desktop? Even better.

✅ Safeguarding features – You can search specifically for DBS-checked tutors, which is a huge plus for parents.

✅ SEN support available – I'm currently looking into speech therapy and CBT options for my neurodivergent kids, which could be a game-changer while we wait for diagnoses.

We've already tailored our home education to their needs, but finding external support like this is a huge bonus. I've written before about home education resources for children with ASD/ADHD, and Tutorful (non-affiliate link) looks like it could be another great tool in that toolbox.

No platform is perfect, though. Here are a few things I ran into:

The Not-So-Good:

❌ First booking attempt failed – I searched for a tutor "for my child under 18" and didn't realise not all tutors in the results were DBS-checked. This seems like a one-off glitch, but was hit with a warning that the tutor cannot be booked because she didn't have a DBS check.

❌ You NEED to check your messages – If a tutor has questions about your booking and you don't reply, they'll cancel it. Not really Tutorful's fault, and I've since set up push notifications on the app, but a blunt pre-warning like "If you don't respond now, your tutor is gonna yeet your booking" would have been appreciated. 😂

My Thoughts on Tutorful (So Far)

We're only just getting started, but Tutorful is looking like it's going to prove itself as a solid supplement to our home education setup. If you're looking for a flexible way to introduce one-on-one tutoring into your child's learning routine, it's absolutely worth trying.

🚀 Want to try Tutorful for yourself? 🚀
New users get £25 off their first lesson—no strings attached!

One feature that really stood out—and something I'll dive into next time—is lesson playback. Not only is this a fantastic safeguarding measure, but it's also a great way to review past lessons.

I'll be testing this out in detail in my next post—so if you're curious about whether Tutorful's lesson recording really makes a difference…

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