Showing posts with label working and homeschool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working and homeschool. Show all posts

Monday, April 6, 2020

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





Wednesday, November 23, 2016

There is FOOD around the Corner!

We can't wait for our short Thanksgiving Break
Off School for Thu and Fri! Woot!
 Recap of the fun we've had over the last two weeks.
Still recovering from the shock of Politics.
But that isn't holding us down.

We went to the beach! Dad's watching the boys surf.

The boys played basketball after church.

My girls snagged a hug with a teddy bear.


SPEED RACER's Review

Overall:  We had some Curriculum Changes and some Mental Health and Rest days off but we got a lot done and  have found a great pace.

End of Subjects in this Block Schedule

Sequential Spelling FINISHED and in comes SPELLING YOU SEE
Spanish (Landry Academy) WE DROPPED THE CLASS and will not be replacing it until I find him a live tutor.
Body Language class (Udemy) is finally finished!
Prodigy Math Game is now his to do on his own time. Which he tinkers with here and there.
English Literature is being retired as we got through 70% of the course
American Literature is being retired as we got through 70% of the course
 
The kiddos took off Tuesday to hang out with friends at the beach. So glad my friend came and scooped them up for me. Also, my oldest son, Razor Ray has his best friend since Kindergarden visiting us and we have been entertaining him.

Easing into new schedule and subjects
Clep Prep books for Sociology, Humanities and Psychology
Weekly Grammar Practice
Spelling You See
IXL Basic Math Review
Algebra Practice Workbook

CHALLENGES: Algebra and oh, did I say, Algebra. Now the child is getting a HUGE helping of PRACTICE which makes perfect and WRITING OF STEPS since he keeps forgetting them.

Day Classes that he is doing Independently

(7am-8:30am) [MON and WED] - BLOCK Classes
Landry Academy Classes [October Break started this Monday-this schedule is last week's]

Writing ER: is live on Monday's. He had to update a Wiki page description of a grammar fact and write a biography about one of his classmates. He also had to do some editing in his Editor and Chief book.

Python Programming is live on Wednesday's: He is working on his 10th project and creating a critter game.

(8:30am-9am) Snack Break

(9 am-11am) DAILY Independent
STUDY.COM
*These take him 20 minutes to watch the video and do the Quiz or Test.

Psychology
Sociology 
Macro Econ
Physics
Algebra 1 review
Information Systems (Study.com)
Humanities
Earth Science



(11am-12:30am)
CTCMath (Algebra 1 - Supplement): DAILY surprisingly he is doing well in this. We may get his Algebra facts solidified yet! He does a 10 to 15 minute lesson per day.

Membean (Vocabulary Builder) he had some slacking going on. He didn't do a few days of this.

IXL (Language Arts - Review)  he is doing better on these than he did last year. It could be his Landry class or the fact that he is taking 2 English courses this year.

IXL (Basic Math - Review)  He does about 10 minutes of drill practice.

(12:30-1:00pm) - lunch

(1pm-2pm) DAILY Independent

Geometry (Teaching Textbooks as our Math Lab) these few weeks he's been skipping doing the PROOFs. He claims they are too hard but he does them just fine with Abeka.

Ace Reader (Speed Reading & Comprehension) He finished reading practice everyday. The lessons are about 10 minutes long.

(2pm-2:30pm) DAILY Independent

Copy work is doing Great Writer's Quotes in cursive, he writes so well in cursive and to think he's a lefty! It takes him 10 minutes

Wordly Wise he finishes these pretty quick and have been making between 75% and 85% on his test.

(2:30pm-3pm) Snack Break

Mom or Dad 'Assist' with these courses

(3pm-4:45pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Geometry AbekaAcademy he is doing well in this class now. He has a firm B and passes his quizzes and test. However, for his test, I do allow him to have it open book.


Algebra 1 (Saxon with DIVE dvds): He has a test every Monday, then we go over the questions he got wrong with the DIVE video. He typically doesn't watch the videos unless he needs help with the questions.


2 to 3 days a week Interchangeably

Spelling You See  He doesn't like the 'writing' but he is learning the words and that's all that matters.

Bible Devotions he does this with his dad two times a week. He reads the scripture and lesson and he and dad discuss.

Daily Grammar this offers hand on book practice of grammar facts.

(7-7:30pm) Dinner

(7:30pm - 8:15pm) DAILY with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.

Chemistry he had two test each week. He didn't do well on one of them so he re-did it over the weekend.


(8:15pm-9:15pm) 3 or 2 days a week with Mom / Dad or Sibling assistance.
Psychology, Humanities and Sociology CLEP Prep We read the chapters of the REA and AP books together, take notes, and he finishes the end of chapter test.

Tiger Lilly's Week: High Schooler /Dual Enrolled 15 yrs old


CHALLENGES: Getting her games and papers done in her 'unschooling' curriculum. Yeah, she said she wanted to do the Game Design, but now that she is realizing all that goes into it, she is trying to bail. I won't let her, so her phone will be held hostage until she created her portfolio this year.

Changes:
Her 'See the Light' art class is done.
Research (Dual Enrolled College Class) is done. It was only 4 weeks (yay!)

New Class:
Youth Digital Unity 3D and C# course to start Dec. 9th
Japanese - In person class starts December 2nd

(9 am-10:30am) DAILY
Landry Academy
Network Pro she has class on TUESDAY . She thinks the class is boring since most of the work is on TestOut. However, she is learning and doing the interactive test.

10:30am-11:30am - 2 days a week
Software Development class (Homeschool Class by mom) she is working on her racecar game. She is writing her Game Design Specification .

11:30am-12:30pm- 3 days a week [DUAL ENROLLED COLLEGE CLASS]
Calculus  She completed 2 weeks of instruction. So far I've had to hire her a tutor to work with her 2 times a week. It's working out well so far.

5pm-6:30pm - 3 days a week - PE
Soccer and Martial Arts . She basically quit soccer. So I am planning to add to her martial arts. She does go to the gym with her dad.

7pm-8:30pm - 4 days a week
Japanese is coming to an end with the tutor. She has a live class for the month of December.

Build Video Game using Unity 3D she is using WebUcator (javascript) and Udemy (Unity) to learn the programs for this. This week she is working on a astroid game.


8:30pm-9pm - 2 days a week
3-minute Devotional for Girls I haven't had the time to do it with her. We may have to move this to Saturday mornings.


WORKING PARENT's LOG


Meals with a houseguest over, my cooking has been crazy bad. We've been eating out here and there. We plan to have friends over for the 1st Thanksgiving at home in over 5 years. We used to just go on cruises for that time.

Cleaning. The house is still wrecked (going on week 3) but we are cleaning for Thanksgiving.

Work & Life Balance. Working, looking for a new job (my consultant contract time is running out) and trying to juggle kiddos. Wild, but fun.

Lesson Planning. My printer broke. So, this is difficult. We are getting a toner and will be back on board soon.

Rest. Did I mention how I love my new sleeping mask and earplugs. I love them! I am getting great sleep. No more coffee for me.

Marriage Check Up. I've been neglecting my husband. I didn't make his lunch or coffee and he is not happy about it. So I traded him a back massage, and even made his favorite for dinner for the Sunday football game.