The last day of school is five days away and your summer nanny just backed out.
One child has piano lessons and the other is begging to stay home.
Today is your long awaited date night and your sitter just called in sick.
You're headed into a big meeting at work when you get a call from the school nurse's office that your child has a fever.
Have you ever been in one of these situations? Finding a last minute sitter or nanny can be stressful. But it no longer has to be thanks to College Nannies + Sitters + Tutors -- now serving Bloomington-Normal! Read on as Owner Tara Cox tells us all about it:
Tell us about College Nannies + Sitters + Tutors and the services you provide.
The vision to “build stronger families” is what most appealed to me and why I made the decision to introduce this franchise to the Bloomington | Peoria area. We are committed to bringing college educated individuals into your family home and creating an exceptional nanny or sitter experience. I consider our nannies, sitters and tutors to be role models. Because of that belief, we bring them onto our team as Role Models. While in the home, we focus on creativity and innovation through crafts, imaginative play, science projects and more. As your needs change, we change with you. When the child needs a little extra help with school, we offer customized tutoring in which we partner with the school to determine the gaps and help fill those gaps. Another key offering is that we help older students understand whether they are better at the SAT or ACT and then work with them to improve their scores. This cradle to college support is something that was important to me because I have had struggles finding the support I needed at different points in my children’s lives and I didn’t feel others have to have those same struggles.
Why is College Nannies + Sitters + Tutors a better choice for finding these services than say asking for referrals from people on Facebook?
I am one of the first ones to reach out to people to ask for referrals! When it comes to nannies, sitters or tutors, it is really about asking the right questions for the referrals. For example, let’s take a sitter…every family I have met has different needs and expectations of sitters. If you ask…do you know a good sitter…everyone defines “good” differently especially when the topic is around their children. When we meet with the family during the family consultation, it is important we identify their expectations and understand the personalities of the children. A sitter that is great for one family…may be a terrible match for another family. It is important through our personal consultation with the family that their needs are understood and then we can meet or exceed expectations.
Care.com and other classified type sites have similar challenges for families in that the family has to be very careful of who they are selecting and whether or not the nanny, sitter or tutor has the experience they have indicated on the site they have. All of our Role Models go through a rigorous interviewing process with an extensive background check at the Federal, State and Local level. The managers interviewing them have previous experience in child development through their education, teaching and/or working in daycares. So when we select someone, we want to be confident that they will be able to represent our core values to the highest levels.
What kind of backgrounds do your nannies, sitters and tutors have? Are they local students?
We don’t limit our role models to being students. We look for college educated individuals who share our passion for building stronger families and already share our core values of Can Do, Results Matter and Leave it Better. Much of the time, our role models are recent graduates or currently in college studying to be teachers, speech pathologists, nurses, occupational therapists, early childhood educators, special education teachers and other career paths dedicated to children. Once they are on our team, we provide additional training in early childhood development, behavioral modification techniques and much more. We also ensure that each one is CPR and First Aid Certified prior to them completing our orientation.
It is a win/win for our role models because they are able to do what they love and place on their resumes that they worked for the national leader in in-home child care, gain additional experience to help their career growth and when possible, if they relocate either for a period of time or long term – we transfer them to other franchise locations that are local for them allowing them to keep their position year around.
What kind of process must service providers complete to join your team?
All of our role models go through a rigorous four step process. Similar to most companies, the first step is an initial screening to ensure what they documented is accurate. We then follow that up with a face to face interview using the behavioral based method. We ask questions around our core values to determine if how they reacted in the past, would be a good match for the future in our positions. If they pass the interview, we then check references and ask any additional follow-up questions that may come up. Finally, if all looks good we then move forward with our background checks at the Federal, State and Local levels – this includes a search of the National Criminal Record database and the Sexual Offender Registry. We don’t conduct the background check ourselves but instead have hired one of the top companies in the US to conduct this check on our behalf. Once they have passed these four stages, we bring them on board. Right now, only approximately 20-25% of individuals who inquire pass through our selection process.
What kind of things can children look forward to doing with the nannies and sitters?
Our role models love interaction! Your children can expect to have the full attention of our role models. We limit TV time so we can play board games, work on crafts, do science experiments or just have some good old fashioned singing and dancing time! Every child is different and our role models will ask the children what they want to do – it could be Nerf Wars, working on reading skills, or going outside to play…all depends on the children’s interests.
Are tutors available to cover every grade and subject?
Generally speaking yes. Sometimes we may need to find a tutor for a special subject such as French or Latin. We also assist with GED studies and preparing for the ACT/SAT. Where I feel we are different is that we don’t have a pre-set program. Instead we work directly with the student, family and school to identify opportunities for improvement (or acceleration) and customize our tutoring to fill their specific needs. This ensures they are not receiving extra work but instead focused on increasing the quality of the work they are being asked to do in school. I feel this is an excellent approach for public, private and home based schools because we leverage what they are doing and create a stronger foundation for the student where needed. We also tutor using different methods for different students…some students learn through visual cues or audio cues…others need hands on tactical learning. We match the students learning style to the tutor’s teaching style to create a positive outcome. This is why one on one tutoring is instrumental with our approach versus a group tutoring session. We make it unique to the student learning style and needs.
Are you currently recruiting more nannies, sitters and tutors?
Absolutely. This system only works if everyone is committed to building stronger families and that includes our role models’ development. Part of why I selected this franchise is because it is equally as important to me that we support our role models and help them in their long term career path. I provide career coaching and resume help so that when they are ready to move on they have as much help as we could provide. So this means we are always looking for exceptional role models to bring on board.
What is the average cost range families will pay for College Nannies + Sitters + Tutors?
Bringing a college educated, insured role model into the home who is also in compliance with Federal and State labor laws is different from bringing in a family friend for cash. Our range is typically between $16.50 - $21.00 per hour for sitting. We consider the number of children, the needs of the children and any additional work that may be requested while in the home such as transportation and cleaning. Tutoring’s range is quite large because it can be tutoring a first grader on reading all the way to helping an accelerated student achieve higher scores on their ACT/SAT exams. This range is normally between $35 - $70 per hour and is dependent on the needs of the child and the subject. As a note, we invoice every 2 weeks and no tips or cash payments are made to our role models. Our prices are all inclusive.
How do we sign up and get started?
Simple. Your first step is submitting a family inquiry request online by going to https://www.collegenanniesandtutors.com/bloomingtonil and submitting the “Let’s Find Your Help” form. A CNS+T team member will then contact you to schedule the Personal Family Consultation and together we decide if we are a good fit for one another. And then we get started.
How do I book a sitter?
I LOVE THIS! This is one of my favorite parts of the entire business! Mostly because I very much needed this when my children were younger! Once we have completed the family consultation, you will then have access to the proprietary “My Sitter” App. Select the date you want and the available sitters will show. The sitters that have been matched to your family will show on top of the list. With just a couple more clicks – You have a sitter. A sitter that you know will show up, a sitter you know you can trust, and a sitter the children will love! So EASY!
Do you offer backup care or overnight care?
Yes. If your little one can not go to school or daycare that day because they had a fever yesterday. We can help. Or if you have to travel for work or are working third shift..You don’t have to frantically call all of your friends and family looking for someone. Just contact us. We have role models available every day of the week at all times. For overnight care, we provide sleep rates.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know?
Only that I am very excited to bring this service locally to Bloomington and Peoria and hope you find your experience with us exceptional
College Nannies + Sitters + Tutors is a BN Macaroni Kid Sponsor. Learn more about them by clicking HERE.
