Libraries
When was the last time you visited a public library? The other day I had a half hour of time before an appointment so I stopped in at my local library to get some cookbooks for stepping up my weekly menu planning. I lost track of time and was almost late for my appointment. I forgot how much I loved free public libraries! Every season of my life has library memories, from filling a huge canvas bag of books as an elementary kid to checking out a big bag of books as a young mom with toddlers. We have Googled local libraries on rainy vacation days at the beach, visited library story times while traveling, and found joy in perusing the shelves of public libraries and bookstores across the country whether or not we take any books home. As a young mom, I got a new cookbook every time I took my kids to the library. Recently I had houseguests with school age kids for a few months and we took regular visits to the library where I told them they could get as many books as they could carry. Benjamin Franklin started his own lending library company in 1731…
Start Tutoring and Start Earning Extra Income
What are your roadblocks to earning some extra income as a tutor? What is standing between you and some extra cash? Time? Tools? Training? Need a few extra tools in your kit to feel confident tutoring clients? We each have unique talents and areas of expertise that others need help with. Everyone can tutor something! Now is the perfect time to get set up to start tutoring this fall. My free workshop Tutor Toolkit will push aside the roadblocks and get you going! This short helpful workshop will give you the tools needed to design and individualize tutoring sessions no matter what you teach. What’s in the FREE workshop Tutor Toolkit? In this workshop, I lay out the plan to setting up an hour long session, whether you are teaching, tutoring, or coaching. You get a behind-the-scenes look at my own tutoring sessions and learn from my years in and out of the classroom. You get customizable templates for sessions and the confidence you need to tutor or coach clients, whether you have teaching experience or not. You get tips and tools for remediation, extending lessons, and building rapport, plus games and brain break suggestions. No waiting for the workshop…
Work From Home
What are your best reasons to work from home? Freedom to travel and flexibility in my daily schedule are the two biggest benefits of working from home. While I loved being a teacher, I love being a private tutor, business owner, and resource creator even more! Working from home has been a life-changer for me! We each have reasons and roadblocks when it comes to working from home or changing careers. Not everyone can or would benefit from working at home. But have you ever considered the possibility? Or have you ever considered working for yourself? Have you ever wished you could do your job a little differently but your boss isn’t on the same page? Working for myself and working from home has allowed me the freedom to individualize instruction for my tutoring clients. I get a chance to tailor a session to the needs of my client. I love it when I can see the lightbulb come on for a student, where learning and confidence meet. These are things that were possibly inside the classroom but not as individualized or as often as I wanted them to be. The health needs of my aging parents and grandfather ultimately…
Business Basics
What business have you thought about launching? I used to wonder what it would take to start my own tutoring business and if I had the courage and energy to launch a business. I’m so glad I jumped on this roller coaster! It’s been a wild ride and a fun adventure. Now I want to help others get started. Are you ready to start your own tutoring, coaching, or lessons business? My course is here to help you launch your own business and to be your own boss. From start to finish, you will learn how to set up and grow a successful tutoring business that brings you joy and freedom. Every lesson teaches you what we are learning, why it’s important, and how to do it. You will also get examples of how to put the lesson into practice. There will be a brief quiz to see if you understood the material. You will then be given a few action steps to complete. The discussion board is where you can share your ideas and ask questions. It’s that simple! In this course Business Basics, you will have 12 lessons to open that should take 15-30 minutes each to complete,…
Be Your Own Boss
What would it look like to be your own boss? Being your own boss means you work for yourself. You carry all the heavy responsibilities, but you also celebrate all the personal and professional wins. It’s a roller coaster that many people are trying to decide if it’s worth getting in line for. Some of you have been on this ride. You know the ups and downs. Six percent of US employed people are self-employed and the average of self-employed workers worldwide is about 46% with variances across countries. For me, going into business for myself means that I have the freedom to set my own hours, and I can be available for my family whenever they need me. My former jobs have not been so flexible, and, when my aging parents needed my help, I ended up quitting my teaching job to help them out. Being my own boss provides me flexibility in my hours and my location. Since starting my own business I have worked at home, in coffee shops, at relatives’ houses, and across the globe. The COVID pandemic gave many people the opportunity to try working at home, but that still did not offer the flexibility…
Vocabulary Courses Now Open
What do you do with the list of science vocabulary words your child brings home from school? Building vocabulary knowledge helps you become a better reader, writer, and test taker, yet most students do not take the time to learn vocabulary beyond being able to pass the weekly matching quiz. According to the Northwest Education Association, vocabulary can be defined as “all the knowledge a person has about a word, which includes knowing what it means, when it is used, how to say it, and how to use it in a sentence.” Do any of these sound familiar to you or your children? You just Google the definitions for vocabulary word homework. You don’t study for vocabulary tests. You just guess using the word bank. You don’t really have a good plan for how to study, but you read the word list a few times. After the vocabulary test, you do not often remember the definitions anymore. Imagine what a difference it would make if you knew some easy ways to learn and study vocabulary. You could confidently study vocabulary words. You could expand your reading and writing by making word connections. You could learn and use vocabulary words with…
March Madness College Spreadsheet
Does March Madness bring thoughts of basketball tournaments or college tours? Brain overload accompanied my first college visit with my daughter, but it got easier after that. What did not get easier was the amount of information we got and how to keep track of it all. We ended up creating a shared spreadsheet of information. This useful college spreadsheet tool helped us track the information, prioritize colleges for application, and organize the application process and products required for each one. We chose to make it a shared document which was also super helpful as we could both add information or check due dates. Having gone through this process several times with my kids and clients, I find myself suggesting a collaborative spreadsheet to others time and time again. While the decision is highly personal, the process is quite standard. Now available for sale, my College Research Spreadsheet tool. This College Research tool will help organize all the information you gather, even suggesting categories you may not have thought about. You can edit the form to fit your needs. This information will be helpful when visiting colleges, narrowing down which ones to apply to, preparing for applications and interviews, and…
Product Review: CLEP Exams
What are some ways you can save money on college? Testing out of required college courses is one way to save money on college and earn credit toward a college degree. AP (Advanced Placement) exams are sometimes offered to high school students upon completion of an advanced level high school course and award college credits for passing. However, CLEP exams (College Level Examination Program) are available to just about everyone anytime with 34 tests in 5 subject areas. These 1- 2 hour computer based multiple choice exams cost $89 per test and can award 3-6 college credits. There are even testing sites in countries other than the US. Anyone who excels at a particular topic and is planning to go to college should consider taking a CLEP exam as many colleges and universities accept passing scores as college credit. College Board, creator of the SAT test, offers AP and CLEP exams and a wide variety of test and college prep materials. By taking AP and/or CLEP exams, students may be able to save significant time and money on college or free up their schedule to take other courses. With some careful planning and research, some students have even shaved a…
Ministry Review: Moms In Prayer International
Is praying for an hour straight hard or easy for you? “Moms in Prayer International impacts children and schools worldwide for Christ by gathering mothers to pray.” This tagline says it all and it’s probably one of the best parenting decisions I ever made. For many years I joined like minded moms in praying for our children, their schools, and their teachers. What started as two moms praying together in 1984 has now grown to groups in over 150 countries with the vision that eventually every school in the world would be covered by a group of praying moms. The premise is to pray for your kids and their schools for an hour each week. I really liked the format they provide weekly, which is an outline for your prayer time and starts with highlighting an attribute of God. Since the groups are organized by schools, it’s not likely that everyone is from the same church which I found to be a strength. The best part of my week was the hour spent with sisters in Christ, passionate about our kids, schools and teachers. When I went back to work as a teacher, I also really appreciated knowing that there…
The Middle Years: Calming the Chaos
Have you ever wanted to get off the middle school roller coaster of life, either as a parent or a child? Parenting isn’t for the faint of heart! The middle years are a roller coaster of emotions for both the kids and the parents. Recently a friend asked for parenting advice for these volatile days with her tween. I’ll share advice in a 3 part series, but you can get started today with these nine tips for calming the chaos in the middle years. If you are new here, I describe the stages of childhood as the younger years, the middle years, and the launching years. I also try to keep each blog post as a short read and vary my topics often. This month will be focused on the middle years. Tips for calming the chaos in the middle years: Teach your kids the “why” behind the rules. How does this rule protect them? Allow your kids to discuss/ask for exceptions but teach them to respect your final authority. Point them to one or two acceptable people they can talk to if they feel they cannot talk to you (close family friend, youth leader, mentor, relative, etc.). You’d rather…
