GOT A BUSINESS? TIPS ON MANAGING IT AS HOMESCHOOLING MOM

MANAGE A BUSINESS AND HOMESCHOOLING IN CRISIS

by LM Preston

Business owners have a survivor nature. They are adventurous, take risk and think outside the box more so than most anyone. An entrepreneur knows about risk. However, knowing how to plan for challenges and crisis isn’t always a priority until it is too late.

PUT PRIDE ASIDE

The main issue most run into that have the ability to work at doing something they love, is to start to do something they don’t like – in order to make enough money to survive. This means, possibly doing things you originally considered out of scope of not a focus for your household or business.

There was a time when we were launching our real estate business that we needed to find money to advertise, my husband took a paper route delivering newspapers and started delivering pizzas on the slow days to put that money aside for our advertising. He fell back on those jobs throughout our marriage when we needed money fast and wanted the flexibility to make it. I also, took on babysitting other people’s kids overnight that worked night jobs to supplement. We did what we needed to do – not what we liked to do – to reach our goals.

ALL HANDS-ON DECK

If you live with others or others are invested with your business, everyone should do their part. Setting expectations for sharing the financial load of maintaining a home, a business is important. There will always -always, be a weak link. That is the case even among stars. However, identify the person, resource, or issue and mold it into the best representation of itself.

INCOME AND JUGGLING BUDGET OBLIGATIONS

Any household, business, or person, should strive to have multiple streams of income. Even if one parent decides to stay home, finding another source of income for the family that takes little effort to cultivate is important in relieving stress.

For a business owner, they need to have methods their business can create and funnel in income without it being as time or energy dependent. Some quick tips on how to do this:

-Compress resources: for example, instead of purchasing or doing a long term lease for an office space, do a Day-Office instead where you rent an office for the day or times you need it. This works well for micro-businesses.

-Don’t be the only source of income for your business: For micro-businesses it’s great that you can run everything yourself to make money, but what if you get sick? Fine other sources of income besides your time/body. For instance, I am a career re-imagination coach, education coach and writing coach – but there isn’t enough hours in the day for me to service everyone. I created online courses to support my readers, clients and students.

-Barter and Trades: If your business doesn’t have the funds or your household doesn’t, fine ways to trade your skills, time, efforts with others that will be able to do the same for you.

HOMESCHOOL DOWN TO BASICS

Now with many being forced to homeschool their kids, try to work from home, and deal with the stress of crisis, taking things bare bones can relieve stress. When homeschooling and working, own your flexibility. Have a schedule of work your kids can do independently based on their learning styles, attention span, educational gaps. Then assess how much one-on-one time you can spend with them each day. Only focus one on one time on Reading, Reading Comprehension, Writing and Building Math Skills. Make all other subjects secondary. Homeschooling is MUCH easier when you do it without state oversight by withdrawing your child from school and stating that you are officially a homeschooler. Doing so, reduces the amount of work required for your child to do and allows you to customize their education. Please see the HSLDA (Homeschool Defense) for the laws in your state: https://hslda.org/content/laws/

By LM Preston, Author of Building Your Empowered Steps and Homeschooling and WorkingWhile Raising Amazing Learners.

Purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Website: www.EmpoweredSteps.com  Blog: http://homeschoolandwork.blogspot.com/

SEEMINGLY UNPRODUCTIVE DAYS ARE NOT WASTED

HOMESCHOOLING, WORKING, REVIVE A BAD DAY

By the time the holiday’s roll around, most parents are a bit burned out by the hectic pace of managing parenting, schooling, work and more. Use your FREEDOM IN HOMESCHOOLING and be flexible on days and times of the school year that you need to re-ignite your love of managing it all.

First, give yourself permission to goof off a bit. Be thankful for the power you hold to be flexible. Find that freedom and use it wisely.

CHANGE UP LEARNING EXPECTATIONS AND METHODS OVER THE HOLIDAY

This time of year, we take it easy and redirect learning to more movie based, experience based, project based learning approaches. This allows us to lay around, watch videos, do craft projects, go on field trips
, notebook what we are learning, have deep discussions on topics of interest. Mainly, it’s about interest lead learning with the exception of math, reading and writing.

THINGS THAT DERAIL US

Moodiness, holiday burnout, lack of focus, and much more. Let's face it. Our home students have good days and DOG days. You know, they don't want to wake up. They argue with you for hours about how BORING the work is. They want to take tons of bathroom breaks and you want to scream. Sometimes you do. This is a sure sign, a redirection is needed.

IT's OKAY

Give yourself permission to just take a week off, heck the holiday’s off. Refocus and redirect what you are grateful and thankful for, but need to have a break from. When I have days like that at work, I leave early or I just don't go. Sometimes,  I even take a long lunch break just to get my head back in the game.

TAKE A SIESTA

Times like this. I give us all a 'timed' break. I set the alarm and tell the kids they can do anything BUT play video games or go outside. Usually, they just get a snack, watch a show, or read a book of choice. Me - I take a short nap.

Why? Well because if Mom's cranky, her kids know it and mom/teacher can't redirect when cranky.

MAKE UP DAY...

Sometimes the day is a totally wash. So...we make it up. I move the work and lesson to the following day. Or do school on a day I had plan to have no school.

SHORTEN THE LESSON

This is another secret weapon. On days where we have somewhere to go, the kids are not engaged, or I'm too distracted to do an entire lesson. We shorten it. I don't do their DVD teaching section, I teach the new subject myself to the student. Or we don't do every homework practice problem or even cut our any of our electives for that day.

REMIND YOURSELF TO BE THANKFUL and CREATE A LIST FOR ALL TO SEE

Remembering why we are doing all we do is a good way to ignite passion back into a hectic schedule that is compounded by holiday expectations. Thanksgiving seems to come at the right time. Include the kids in the creation of a Be Thankful board that you place on your walls, in your room, on your refridgerator to remind you just how much you have to be thankful for, then tell your kids just how much you are thankful for a particular trait or action they did to make you happy. Words have power and using them to get ourselves on track is a great way to prepare for the holidays ahead.

By LM Preston, www.empoweredsteps.com and www.lmpreston.com blog: homeschoolandwork.blogspot.com/  

There is an Independent Learner in Every Child

 MY TIPS AND TRIPS to RAISING AN INDEPENDENT LEARNER

MY METHODS

I believe in giving my children a challenge and watching, observing how they respond to it so I can figure out how they best are 'sparked' into the hunger for that topic.

Kids love playing games, challenges, and rewards. I created these scenarios with them at various times by giving them something to 'hunt' for within a chosen topic.

MOTIVATING LEARNING THROUGH ADVENTURES

We used the Sue Patrick Workbox Method to keep us organized. Also, to allow my child to go to one place for their assignments, turning in their work, and letting me know when they needed help. This was an invaluable training resource for their INDEPENDENCE at a young age.

SCAVENGER HUNTS

Creating learning and topical scavenger hunts for information is a really good way to stir up additional and directed learning curiosity. Allowing the child to use whatever source, method or type of research material to gather the pieces to the puzzle for their learning really solidifies the topic. My kids did this a lot with HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, SCIENCE and TOPICS OF THEIR CHOICE. This is a great way to add to a topic or completely teach a subject. You can get really creative with this and end in a DISCUSSION, PROJECT PRESENTATION, or a SHOW AND TELL of their findings.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS

This assignment should include all the makings of a scientific experiment and argument building exercise. With research methods including outward discovery and even finding or coming up with solutions that are not presented within their findings. It can include a paper, artwork, a collage, and a scientific demonstration of their newfound facts. ~Make it fun ~ and validate the child's responses and retention. Make the topic something that they are interested in. Give them methods for research, analysis. Consider the outcome being *creating a game to discover the findings, a video, acting out the finding ~ do whatever you can to make it fun.

DISCOVERY MISSIONS

Discovery missions is a way of opening up a learning opportunity by sharing one piece of the study at a time and in different ways. You could experience literature by reading a comic together, then going to see the play, then watching a movie, and going to the location, creating the food for that adventure, or artifacts, or creating a room that represents that adventure, or even have your child plan the adventure to show you the way to their discovery.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Part of making the experience fun, is to figure out how to ask the right questions to lead your child to share, desire discovery, and to interact through the learning experience. They should be fueled by questions, that 'spark' a desire to research to find out more about their topic.

GO ON THE ADVENTURE WITH THEM

The best part of the experience, is when they are finished their discoveries, they take you on the adventure with them. Let them do it alone first, to 'map the route', then have them take you on the journey to share their methods of discovery, learning, pitfalls, and wins.

VALIDATE THE EXPERIENCE by EVALUATING THE LEARNING

Lastly, you want your child to have ownership in validating the exercise. The topic areas, the ways you can improve the experience of their learning journey for them. What they learned from it? How they responded? Did it make them more independent?

HOW DID THIS WORK FOR MY HOMESCHOOL

My kids don't want me to help them initially. They seek to work through their assignments independently first. Then when I check and review their assignments, I ask them about their responses. Then I suggest a method to use to get or confirm their answers.

WHERE DOES INDEPENDENT LEARNING BENEFIT MY CHILD

All of my children have become confident in the discovery of information to support their interest. They do ask for my advice and guidance, but usually only after they have done extensive research themselves. Most times, they just want guidance, not the answers. The answers, they love to discover for themselves.

Planning The Next Semester

LESSON PLANNING IS NO FUN

But Someone's Got to Do it

We do lesson planning for the year, then a weekly plan, and a re-evaluation plan for the 2nd semester. It's usually when we clean out curriculum that isn't working, add curriculum we want to try or pause curriculum in place of adjustments to schedule or the child's progress.

Breaking down the school year into 4 quarters and 2 semesters has helped our family make adjustments as needed. Filling in educational gaps is something the shorter quarters or block times help us focus on. As working and homeschooling parents, it gives clear time frames for us to make adjustments and to deep dive into subjects.

TIME FOR CHANGE

It never fails, we always need to drop a curriculum item, condense something or elongate lessons. We've learned to expect it and not get too upset about it. Math and Writing are always an issue for our current student and we have had to prolong lessons in certain areas in order to strengthen and solidify understanding and skills in these cornerstone subjects.

THE QUICK AND DIRTY WAY

Creating a topic list with the subject, page/reading or videos to watch is a fast way to add a new subject or curriculum into the mix. Setting a weekly review of the student’s accomplishments of the list we do with the student’s weekly presentations to the family.

BREAKING IT DOWN

After taking note on how long it may take to finish a subject for the semester, we review areas that can be combined or removed in order to fit the shorter timeframe. We make sure to focus on the key points of the topic. Also, using visual aids and posters to show the information in a condensed manner. This is a great approach for Science, History, Language Arts, Grammar, Reading and Remediation of subjects.

PLAN IN BREAKS

Never forget to plan in for time off. Realistically planning for a four day week with one day of makeup work is doable for most working and homeschooling parents. However, we planned for a five day week with the kids having the weekend as their ‘homework’ period to finish any work they haven’t completed for the week or to review any work that they had problems with.

DON'T OVERBOOK ~ I MEAN IT ~ DON'T

This is one of the major mistakes we made early on in our homeschool and working adventures. Slowly, we learned what our challenge was and fixed the issue (mostly). Once we 'underbooked' it was easier to have time to focus on topics and skills that the students really needed the most help in.

Helping My Kids to Work Through A Gap

The Last Week Of Our Season But Work's Not Done

Tiger Lilly Working On a Chatbot 

Program for her Game Server and Friends

Speed Racer and Pops Paintballing

Preparing for the Holidays was harder this year.

We used to travel every holiday from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but now that we live here, traveling is very expensive and well, we love it here and aren't anxious to go. So we are struggling to redefine our traditions. We aren't big tree families, and so we are doing a Christmas Chair, and going to volunteer on Christmas day as we did on Thanksgiving day. Hopefully, this will spark a heart of giving in our kids. They have been less forthright in asking for presents and have instead told us to just pick another name off the angel tree at church.

Working Through Some Writing Gaps

Speed Racer can write well, however, he can't write fast. We discovered this during his pretty intense college Writing course this semester. Therefore, I had to actually work with him two nights a week to edit his work, give it back to him, and have him fix it to motivate him to write faster. The class is over and he passed with a good grade, however, this is something we need to triage. During the break, he will be doing some speed writing drills to prepare for the next class. He will also be finishing his homeschool Java class to prepare for his college Java class he is starting in March.

Working through learning or skill gaps is a good way to keep moving your child forward, despite their struggle.

KIDS PROGRESS

SPEED RACER's extra activities are slim this season. 
Since his classes were pretty challenging for him, we decided not to sign him up for any outside of his martial arts the last few months. He complained, but we all needed a break from ripping and running for sports. He now just has a Monday and Wednesday obligation until January when dance is thrown back in. April is when canoeing season starts and it's hectic again.

SPEED RACER desired more one on one time this semester.

This school year has been challenging for Speed Racer becuase his sister Tiger Lilly isn't home with him. He spends the day sleeping until noon, waits for me to get home at 2:30pm to actually start his work, and sometimes doesn't finish until 10:30pm since he is having to redo some work for improved quality.

College Online Courses:

Wrap up of Fall Semester Classes

Finished all with 'B' or better

8 week courses

UMUC.edu

Biol 101 and Biol 102 (lab) - 4 credits

Info Sys in Org - 3 credits

Research Writing - 3 credits

College Algebra -3 credits

Business Writing - 3 credits

Homeschool Classes:

Wrap up of Fall Semester Classes

Investing: The video course on Youtube was informative, we even purchased stock (that tanked) and played the investing game (which the kids hated by the way). The game was a bust, the kids found it frustrating and even I thought it was a bit depressing, so we shelved it.

Recreational Pilot License Training: Speed Racer is enjoying the self-directed, online course. He doesn't love it, says it has boring moments, but he desires to learn the information. He is about half done this course and will pick up on it in January.

Black History: We spent this semester watching movies, documentaries and having long discussions about them. We both learned from this class.

Astronomy: We failed to work this into the schedule this semester.

Bible Review: He is actually enjoying the TruthUnedited Bible videos, and we are almost finished them. We watch them together, and discuss the topics.

Cooking and Car Repair: He cooked dinner about two times a week and did great at it. The videos were a bust, because he said they were boring and he'd rather just fix a car. So he helped his dad change the oil and do some minor checks of our vehicles.

PE: Started with three sports and went down to one by October, we need to step back and focus, and mom needed to relax.

JavaScript and Unity 3D Programming: He finished the Saturday classes in November and started with CompuScholar (formerly Homeschool Java) in December and is getting through it pretty easily. This class is to prepare him for his college Java class starting in March. He's had to have some help from his sister in the Compuscholar course.

TIGER LILLY the Homeschool Graduate

BS Degree, now Working on MS Degree

17 years old

This is the last semester I'll be updating Tiger Lilly as she is officially working full time, found hobbies such as group meetups for Dungeons and Dragons, gym workouts 3 days a week, and completed two semesters of graduate school.

WORK and HOME BALANCE Working and Homeschooling 

MEAL PREP: These few weeks we've been just tossing something together. Eating out, and making sandwiches have been getting us by. 

HOUSE CLEANING: The chore chart only works when I go to it, point to it, and tell these older teens to do it or else.

LESSON PLANNING: I did more day to day lesson planning. I would send Speed Racer a 'what to do today' email, call and check on his progress from work, then call on my way home and tell him what better be done...or else, no video game or cellphone. That seemed to work since his sister is no longer home to make sure he stays on task.

MARRIAGE CHECKUP: Weekly date nights haven't happened in the last few weeks, but I purchased tickets to see Sheila E. and some comics my husband likes to get us back on track.

SELF CARE: I decided to take off several days from work to just relax, help my son catch up on his work and ...clean my house (but I didn't get around to doing that so...)