Back-to-school reading tutoring that builds real fluency before September arrives.
Reading struggles don't disappear over summer — they deepen. Our 4-week 1-on-1 program closes your child's reading gaps before the new school year begins, so they start with confidence instead of anxiety.
- Covers phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary by grade
- 1-on-1 with a matched reading tutor — same tutor, every session
- Custom plan built around your child's specific reading gaps
- Preparedness Promise: if you don't feel the difference, we add 2 free sessions
Pay in 2 installments — $110/$110 or $160/$160
Book Free Call →Reading gaps don't pause for summer — and September doesn't wait.
If your child struggled to keep up with reading last year, the new school year isn't a reset. It's a continuation — and the gap just got a few months wider.
A child who can't read fluently doesn't just fall behind in reading class — they fall behind in science, social studies, and eventually math word problems too. Reading comprehension is the single skill that determines how much a student can access across every subject they take for the rest of their education.
Research consistently shows that students who don't read over summer lose one to three months of reading progress. Unlike math, where the slide is mainly conceptual, reading loss affects fluency — the ability to read smoothly and automatically — and once fluency regresses, comprehension follows quickly behind it.
Children who fall behind in reading develop strategies to avoid being noticed — skipping words, guessing from pictures, memorizing text rather than actually decoding it. By the time a parent realizes something is off, the child has often been compensating for a year or more. A skilled reading tutor knows how to spot these workarounds in the first session.
Every grade level assumes the child can read at or above the previous grade's level. A 4th grader who reads at a 2nd grade level isn't just behind — they literally cannot access the content their teacher is presenting. The longer this goes unaddressed, the steeper the climb back becomes.
What reading fluency actually means — and why it's the key to everything.
Parents often hear "reading fluency" and assume it means reading fast. It doesn't. Fluency means reading accurately, at a reasonable pace, and with appropriate expression — the kind of reading where a child isn't spending cognitive energy sounding out every word, so their brain is free to actually understand what they're reading.
When fluency breaks down, comprehension collapses. A child who has to work hard just to decode words has no mental bandwidth left to think about what those words mean. This is why so many kids can technically "read" a passage but can't answer questions about it — they were spending all their energy on the surface level.
The building blocks of fluency are phonemic awareness (understanding sounds), phonics (connecting sounds to letters), sight word recognition, and practice with connected text at the right level. Most reading struggles can be traced back to a gap in one of these areas — and when a tutor finds it and fixes it, the improvement in comprehension often feels sudden and dramatic to parents.
Our reading tutors are trained to assess all four components in session one and build a plan that targets the actual root cause of your child's reading difficulty — not just assign more books and hope for the best.
- Reads slowly, word by word, even in familiar books
- Skips words or substitutes similar-looking words
- Can't summarize what they just read
- Avoids reading aloud or becomes visibly anxious when asked
- Reads text without expression or natural rhythm
- Has to re-read sentences multiple times to understand them
- Reads below grade level but teachers say they're "trying hard"
- Gets frustrated quickly and gives up on longer passages
What we focus on at every grade level
Reading development looks completely different in kindergarten versus 6th grade. Our tutors know what each grade level demands — and where the gaps typically form at each stage.
- Letter-sound correspondence (phonics)
- Blending sounds to read simple words
- High-frequency sight words (up to 100)
- Reading simple decodable sentences with confidence
- Reading longer words using syllable patterns
- Oral reading fluency (words per minute)
- Retelling stories with beginning, middle, end
- Answering who, what, where, when, why questions
- Main idea and supporting details
- Context clues for unfamiliar vocabulary
- Reading both fiction and nonfiction texts
- Making inferences from text
- Summarizing and paraphrasing longer texts
- Identifying theme and author's purpose
- Comparing two texts on the same topic
- Academic vocabulary across subjects
- Point of view and perspective in texts
- Figurative language and literary devices
- Evaluating evidence and author's argument
- Reading complex nonfiction independently
- Citing textual evidence in responses
- Central idea vs. supporting details in nonfiction
- Word roots, prefixes, and suffixes for vocabulary
- Comparing across multiple texts
- Analyzing how an author develops a theme
- Evaluating argument and claims in nonfiction
- Distinguishing fact from opinion
- Reading at 7th grade Lexile level independently
- Reading and analyzing primary source documents
- Synthesizing information across multiple texts
- Identifying bias, tone, and rhetorical strategies
- Reading stamina for longer texts independently
Not sure what reading level your child is working at?
Our free call includes a quick skills conversation so we can identify exactly where your child is before session one. No testing required — just a conversation.
Book a Free CallFrom your first call to your child's first confident school day
Here's exactly what happens when you reach out — start to finish, no surprises.
You tell us about your child — their grade, how reading is going, what you've noticed at home, and what you're hoping to see before school starts. We'll ask a few specific questions to understand their reading history and identify where we should start looking.
We match your child with a reading tutor based on their grade level, the type of reading difficulty they're experiencing (decoding vs. fluency vs. comprehension), and their personality. A child who is embarrassed about their reading needs a different kind of tutor than one who is just bored.
The first session includes a structured reading assessment — your child reads aloud, answers comprehension questions, and works through a few phonics and vocabulary tasks. The tutor maps exactly where things break down and uses that to build the custom plan for every session that follows.
Each session has a consistent rhythm: review what stuck from last time, introduce the next skill, practice it together with guided reading, then read independently at the right level. Sessions are 50 minutes. Between sessions, your child reads for 15–20 minutes daily using books or passages matched to their current level.
After each week, you receive a written summary of what was covered, what your child is improving at, and what's still being worked on. If your child's fluency rate is improving, we'll tell you. If comprehension is still lagging behind decoding, we'll tell you that too — and adjust the plan accordingly.
The last session reviews everything covered, does a final fluency check to measure progress against session one, and gives your child a preview of what reading will look like in their next grade. They leave knowing they're ready — not just hoping they are.
Built specifically for the back-to-school window — when reading progress matters most.
Camp Homework isn't a reading center you attend year-round. It's a 4-week intensive designed for the summer window — focused, structured, and built around the individual child, not a generic curriculum.
- Matched by reading profile — decoding struggles need a different tutor than comprehension gaps. We match based on the type of reading difficulty, not just grade level.
- Same tutor, every session — reading confidence is built through consistency. Your child works with one tutor from assessment to final session.
- No long-term commitment — 4 weeks by design. Enough time to make a real difference without dragging on all year.
- Tutor rematch guarantee — if the fit isn't right after 2 sessions, we rematch and add a free replacement session. No questions asked.
- Preparedness Promise — if your child completes the program and you don't feel more prepared for September, we add 2 sessions at no cost.
Three steps to a confident reader
Reading struggles feel overwhelming from the inside. Here's the clear, simple path through them.
Tell us about your child — their grade, how they feel about reading, what you've noticed at home. We'll ask the right questions and figure out together where the gaps might be. Takes about 15 minutes. No commitment, no pressure.
Within 24–48 hours, we match your child with a reading tutor based on their grade, the type of reading difficulty they're experiencing, and their personality. Sessions start within days. We build a schedule that fits your summer.
Four weeks of focused, customized reading work. By the end, your child reads more smoothly, understands more of what they read, and walks into the new school year without dread. That's a different kind of September.
Everything your child needs to catch up in reading
Every Camp Homework reading program includes all six of these from day one — not as extras, as the program.
Session one maps your child's fluency rate, decoding accuracy, and comprehension level — so every session after targets the actual gap, not a guess.
Private sessions, every time. Your child's tutor gives them 100% focused attention — no waiting, no group dynamics, no performing in front of peers.
Built specifically around your child's grade-level reading standards and the gaps identified in the assessment. No two plans look the same.
Between-session reading passages matched to your child's current level — building fluency and comprehension at the right pace without frustration.
Written updates after every week. You'll know exactly what was practiced, what improved, and what's still being worked on. Never in the dark.
If your child completes the program and you still don't feel more prepared for September — we add 2 sessions free. No fine print.
What your child builds — week by week
Every week has a clear focus — and every week is built around your child's specific reading gaps, grade level, and pace. No two programs look exactly alike.
- Full reading assessment in session one — fluency, decoding, comprehension
- Gaps identified and ranked by priority
- Custom plan confirmed and shared with parent
- First 2 sessions delivered; tutor adjusts to child's pace and confidence level
- Leveled reading materials sent for daily practice between sessions
- Priority reading gaps addressed directly — phonics, fluency, or comprehension depending on your child
- Guided oral reading practice at the right level — not too easy, not frustrating
- Vocabulary strategies introduced to unlock harder texts
- First parent update: what's improving, what's still being targeted
- Daily reading practice materials matched to sessions
- Reading speed and accuracy building on weeks 1–2
- Comprehension strategies applied to longer, more complex passages
- Mid-program check-in with parent — you share what you're seeing at home
- Plan adjusted based on what's landed and what still needs reinforcement
- Preview of next-grade reading expectations begins if child is ready
- Full review of every skill covered across the program
- Final fluency check — measurable comparison to session one baseline
- School-year readiness: what will reading look like in the new grade?
- Final parent summary with progress notes and recommendations
- Child walks in knowing they can handle what's coming
Every reading program is built around your child — not a template.
A child who needs phonics work gets a completely different plan than one who reads fluently but can't comprehend what they've read. We find the root cause and target it — every week, every session, customized.
Book a Free Call to Get StartedHonest answers to what parents actually want to know
We'd rather set realistic expectations than overpromise. Here's what 4 weeks of reading tutoring actually looks like — the good and the honest.
We measure fluency at the start and end of the program so progress isn't just a feeling — it's a number. Most children improve their oral reading fluency rate by 10–25 words per minute over 4 weeks of targeted practice. Comprehension improvements are harder to quantify but consistently noticed by both parents and teachers.
Children who struggle with reading often develop real anxiety about it — refusing to read aloud, avoiding books, shutting down during homework. As fluency and comprehension improve, this anxiety typically eases. Parents often notice their child picking up books voluntarily by the third week, even when they weren't asked to.
Four weeks is enough time to make a meaningful, measurable difference in 1–2 key reading areas. It's not enough to address years of accumulated gaps across every skill. We'll focus on what's blocking your child most right now — and be honest with you upfront about what that is and isn't.
15–20 minutes of daily reading between sessions is where fluency actually develops. Sessions build the skills; daily practice builds the automaticity. We make this as easy as possible — leveled passages, not long books — but we do ask for daily reading commitment. Families who stay consistent see dramatically faster progress.
Reading progress can be hard to see from the outside. That's why we send written updates every week — what was practiced, what improved, what your child found hard. If something isn't working, we tell you and adjust. You're not waiting for a report card to find out if the tutoring is actually helping.
The Preparedness Promise is real. If your child attends all sessions, does the daily reading practice, and you still don't feel more prepared heading into September — we add 2 sessions at no cost. We've never had a family leave the program feeling like it didn't help when they followed through on both sides.
Camp Homework vs. other reading tutoring options
There are a lot of ways to help a struggling reader. Here's an honest comparison of the main options for back-to-school catch-up specifically.
| What matters | Camp Homework | Private reading tutor | Reading program (e.g. Reading Eggs) | School summer reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back-to-school focused | ✓ Designed for it | Depends on the tutor | ✗ Self-paced, no deadline | ✗ Rarely available |
| 1-on-1 live instruction | ✓ Every session | ✓ Yes | ✗ App-based, no live tutor | ✗ Group or self-directed |
| Reading assessment first | ✓ Session one | Varies widely | ✗ Placement quiz only | ✗ No |
| Customized per child | ✓ Every session | Depends on tutor quality | ✗ Fixed curriculum path | ✗ No |
| Results guarantee | ✓ Preparedness Promise | ✗ None | ✗ None | ✗ None |
| Cost per session | ~$25/session | $60–$100/session | $10–$15/month (app) | Free (if available) |
| Weekly parent updates | ✓ Written, every week | Inconsistent | ✗ App reports only | ✗ None |
Reading apps like Reading Eggs or Raz-Kids have their place for daily practice — and we actually recommend pairing them with tutoring between sessions. But an app can't diagnose why your child is struggling, adjust on the fly when something isn't clicking, or give your child the experience of reading successfully in front of someone who is rooting for them.
Simple, transparent reading tutoring pricing
Private reading tutors typically run $60–$100 per session. Camp Homework's structured program comes to $25 per session — with a results guarantee built in.
- 8 × 50-minute 1-on-1 sessions
- Reading assessment (session 1)
- Custom 4-week reading plan
- Leveled reading practice materials
- Weekly parent progress updates
- Preparedness Promise
- Tutor rematch guarantee
- 12 × 50-minute 1-on-1 sessions
- Reading + Math or English
- Assessment for both subjects
- Custom 4-week plan for each subject
- Leveled reading practice materials
- Weekly parent progress updates
- Preparedness Promise
- Tutor rematch guarantee
Find the right program for your child
What families say after the program
"We've really enjoyed the program and working with everyone. Seems like she's enjoying it too — which is the most important part for us."
"I just wanted to let you know what a wonderful job you are doing. She just loves it! I emailed three tutors through the school and not one got back to me."
"He started out a bit resistant — now he signs on with absolutely no complaint and has told me it's helping."
Everything parents ask about reading tutoring
Picture your child picking up a book in September — and actually wanting to read it.
That's what 4 weeks of the right reading support can do. The window to make it happen is open right now.
Join our free parent workshop and learn exactly what to expect in the weeks before school — and what you can do to make the most of them.