Nanny / Tutor / Early Literacy Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Two Children, Ages 5 & 8 | In Person

You Might Be Exactly Who We’re Looking For If...

You’re an educator who genuinely loves being with children .

When you walk in the door, you’re excited to see them, and they can tell.

You love hearing their stories. You remember what they’re interested in. You laugh with them. You’re curious about how they think. You can sit down for focused literacy instruction in the morning and spend the afternoon exploring a museum, going to the zoo, finding books at the library, doing an art project, cooking together, or following a completely unexpected question one of them asked.

You believe children need strong academic foundations , but you don’t believe childhood should feel like school all day.

You’re knowledgeable enough to teach intentionally and confident enough to follow a child’s curiosity when something interesting happens.

If you’re reading this thinking, “This is how I already work with children,” we’d love to meet you.

About Our Family & The Role

We are a warm, involved family looking for an exceptional Nanny / Private Educator / Early Literacy Specialist for our two children, ages 5 and 8.

This is a hybrid position, but education is an important part of the role . We are not looking for a traditional nanny who can also help with homework. We are looking for a trained educator who also loves the relationship-building, outings, fun, flexibility, and everyday experiences that come with being a nanny.

We want our children’s days to have a rhythm rather than feel like a classroom schedule: focused learning, books, conversation, play, creativity, movement, outings, exploration, lunch together, and downtime.

Some days will be planned and structured. Other days might change because the children discover something they’re fascinated by.

Both are valuable to us.

Meet the Kids

Our 8-Year-Old

Is bright, exceptionally articulate, curious, funny, and highly conversational. Loves understanding ideas and talking about the things that interest him.

He has already received substantial one-on-one literacy instruction and has made meaningful progress. We are not looking for someone to start over with a generic curriculum.

We want an educator who can figure out:

What does he already know? What’s missing? What simply isn’t automatic yet? What needs to be explicitly taught?

His work with you will focus on:

• Reading and literature
• Spelling and encoding
• Handwriting and handwriting automaticity
• Written expression
• Phonemic awareness and phonics where needed
• Vocabulary and language
• Reading fluency and comprehension
• Proofreading and independent writing

His oral language and ideas can outpace what he currently puts onto paper. We want someone who can strengthen those foundational writing skills without lowering the intellectual level of what he reads, discusses, or thinks about .

He already has a wonderful private math teacher who will continue working with him, so you will not be responsible for his math instruction .

Our 5-Year-Old

At a completely different and very exciting stage.

Naturally interested in learning and has already begun writing her name and practicing letters and numbers on her own.

With her, we want to start the foundations correctly from the beginning while keeping learning joyful.

Think:

• Wonderful books and interactive read-alouds
• Sounds, rhyming, letters and early phonemic awareness
• Beginning reading and spelling when she’s ready
• Correct handwriting habits from the start
• Storytelling, vocabulary and conversation
• Number sense and counting
• Subitizing and understanding quantity
• Number formation
• Patterns, shapes and spatial reasoning
• Early addition and subtraction concepts
• Games, manipulatives, art, movement, cooking and play

We do not want preschool to become worksheets at the kitchen table.

We want her to learn because she’s playing, wondering, talking, building, counting, reading, creating and discovering , with a knowledgeable educator intentionally building the right concepts underneath those experiences.

What Your Days With Us Might Look Like

You should enjoy planning the children’s days and taking initiative .

We would love someone who looks for interesting things happening around town and says, “There’s a great exhibit this week. I think the kids would love it.”

You might take them to:

• The zoo or aquarium
• Children’s or art museums
• Science centers
• Libraries and bookstores
• Nature centers and botanical gardens
• Farms
• Children’s theater or performances
• Art or creative experiences
• Parks and outdoor adventures
• Seasonal activities and community events
• Somewhere completely unexpected because it connects to something they’re interested in

Sometimes an outing can have an educational purpose.

You might read about an animal before visiting the zoo, let the children explore when you arrive, talk about what they notice, and later help one of them draw or write about something they loved.

Other times, the outing can simply be fun .

We don’t need every experience turned into a lesson.

We want someone who understands the difference.

What We’re Looking For in You

The relationship you develop with our children matters enormously to us.

We hope you’re someone who:

• Is genuinely happy to see the children and naturally shows it

• Truly enjoys children’s personalities, humor, stories and questions

• Is warm, playful, energetic and emotionally attuned

• Can make learning fun without losing the purpose of the lesson

• Knows how to create structure without being rigid

• Notices when a child is confused, frustrated, tired or simply needs a different explanation

• Gives children time to think instead of immediately supplying the answer

• Is interested in why a child made a mistake

• Understands productive struggle and knows when to help and when to wait

• Communicates respectfully with children and never uses embarrassment or shame as motivation

• Can challenge a child while still making them feel capable

• Enjoys getting out of the house and experiencing the world with children

• Can plan ahead but is comfortable changing plans when curiosity takes the day somewhere better

• Is proactive. You won’t need us to plan every activity for you.

• Communicates openly with us about what you’re noticing, what’s improving and what may need more attention

At the end of the day, we want our children to feel:

She knows me. She likes being with me. She believes in me. And I’m excited she’s coming back.

The Educational Background We’re Looking For

This is where we are more selective. Because of the individualized literacy component of the position, we’re looking for someone with real professional training and experience , not simply someone who enjoys reading with children.

Required or strongly preferred qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Elementary Education, Early Childhood Education, Reading/Literacy Education, Special Education, Child Development, or a closely related field

• Professional teaching experience with preschool through early-elementary-aged children

• Strong working knowledge of the Science of Reading

• Training and practical experience in Structured Literacy

• Orton-Gillingham training/certification or meaningful experience using OG-aligned methods strongly preferred

• Strong knowledge of phonological and phonemic awareness

• Strong understanding of systematic phonics, decoding, encoding and spelling development

• Understanding of orthographic mapping and development of automatic word recognition and spelling

• Experience explicitly teaching handwriting and written expression

• Ability to identify whether a child needs a missing skill taught, needs more practice for automaticity, or needs a different instructional approach

• Understanding of developmentally appropriate early-childhood instruction

• Knowledge of early number sense and foundational mathematics

• Ability to teach early math conceptually through games, manipulatives, stories and real-life experiences rather than primarily through worksheets and memorization

• Experience individualizing instruction rather than simply moving through a packaged curriculum

Experience as a reading interventionist, literacy specialist, early-elementary teacher, special education teacher or private educator would be especially relevant.

Previous nanny/private-family experience is wonderful, but not required . An exceptional classroom teacher or literacy specialist who has dreamed about working with just two children and having the freedom to teach this way may be exactly who we’re looking for.

Nanny & Practical Responsibilities

Because this is also a nanny position, we’re looking for someone comfortable with the everyday parts of spending a day with children:

• Planning activities and outings
• Driving the children to outings and activities
• Making a simple lunch or taking them out for lunch
• Preparing snacks as needed
• Keeping children’s materials and areas organized
• Light housekeeping related to the day’s activities and the children
• Helping the children participate in cleaning up after themselves
• Providing attentive supervision and care throughout the day

A valid driver’s license, safe driving record, reliable personal vehicle, and comfort transporting both children are required.

CPR and First Aid certification is preferred or should be obtained upon hire.

This Probably Isn’t the Right Position If...

This likely won’t be a match if you’re primarily looking for a traditional babysitting position, prefer worksheets and packaged curricula, aren’t comfortable teaching foundational literacy explicitly, don’t enjoy getting out of the house with children, or prefer a highly rigid daily schedule.

We’re looking for someone who wants to teach, nurture, explore, laugh, read, play, talk, discover and build a real relationship with two children.

Why This Role Is Different

You will have the opportunity to know two children deeply and tailor their experiences to who they actually are.

You won’t have 25 students competing for your attention.

You won’t have to rush through a curriculum because the calendar says it’s time to move on.

You can notice that a child needs another ten minutes with a concept and give it to them.

You can notice that they’re fascinated by something and spend the afternoon exploring it.

You can provide serious, evidence-based instruction without recreating school at home .

And we’re looking for a person who finds that opportunity as exciting as we do.

If you read this and immediately thought, “That’s me,” we’d genuinely love to hear from you.