Homeschooling for 3

... and very cute too! One thing that I like about working from home is that my very able husband is able to step in and help out when things get crazy for me. This past week I've been sick with a very stubborn cold. Speaking was very difficult because of my sore throat, so Super Partner jumped in and made my research phone calls for me while I worked on getting better. My girls (junior business partners) kept their little brother occupied so that I could rest while their daddy made the phone calls. And keeping Michael busy can be quite a challenge. But they met it solidly and quite creatively. I bet you didn't know that pillows can make wonderful stair sleds. I know I didn't until I saw it for myself. :-) Of all the place that I've worked before, I've never had such a supportive group of "co-workers" as I find in my own family. I just wanted to share my good fortune with the rest of you. Just another perk about working from home.

Hey, just wanted to give everybody a heads up on a great deal over at TOS for May 25 th & 26 th . They are running a subscription promotion that is too good to pass up. If you subscribe to the TOS Magazine for one year you'll also get to pick up 5 WeE -books for free! And to top off this great deal, they are also reducing their subscription price to $15 (regularly $25/yr.). Now in case you're wondering about the WeE -books deal , let me tell you my experience. The coolest aspect of these publications is that they are short, to the point and stuffed with useful information. I've done a few reviews on the ones that interested me and my family. You can check out my reviews of Fundraising , On the Wings of a Butterfly , and Work at Home in earlier blogs. Anyway, don't waste time reading this -- you need to hit this sale before it ends on Tuesday, May 26 th at midnight. Happy Learning!

Teaching my first daughter how to read was a breeze. I just read to her on a regular basis, used the Scholastic Reading Program , Leap Frog videos and a bit of whimsy and she got it. My second daughter is having a more difficult time with reading. I think part of it is because she thinks that once she can read on her own she won't be read to anymore. Another reason probably has to do with her little brother. Although she's never been actively jealous of him, she may not be ready to fully transition to being a big girl. The cyberschool program that she's been in this past year has helped, but she's still not fluent yet. So, I've just been weighing options. Alaya is an "independent" learner. Independent in her case means she wants to tell me what she's learned, not have me ask her questions or apply any type of pressure. (I shudder to imagine her as a teenager - lol!) Where Jade would sit there and try to figure out the words as I read, Alaya is happie

You know, sometimes quoting that great philosopher, Bugs Bunny "A Rabbit's gotta do what a Rabbit's gotta do!" And that's even more true if you're a busy mom, wife, homeschooler, virtual assistant, friend, sister and daughter. Although my primary personality is blue I do have a lot of yellow mixed in there. And that's when the trouble starts! I don't like to see people suffer. I try to help people as much as I can to reach their dreams and work out their problems. I try to spend time with them and make sure that everyone is okay. And it's killing me. You see, all the of the things I've described above are wonderful things to do. My problem is that I get so wrapped up in doing those things for others that I don't get to do the things that I need to do in order to be productive and happy. My children don't get to spend the amount of time that they want to spend with me because I'm on the telephone counseling others. My business

Well I've gone and finally done it. After two years of fighting with myself over the cyberschool issue, I'm now free! Free from artificial deadlines, stress and other things that have just made homeschooling no fun. So now I'm enjoying the process of finding materials to use with my girls for next year. So far I've invested in Math Mammoth , some board games (Kismet/Spill & Spell, Predicting Outcomes, Geography games, etc.) I'm going to use Susan Wise's history series "The Story of the World". The only thing I'm lacking (so far) is science, but I guess I'll figure that out along the way. I'm actually thinking of teaching cooking as a science course. I have this book that I picked up called "The Art, Techniques, and Science of Good Cooking -- The New Making of a Cook" by Madeline Kamman . Since my family enjoys following the Bible in One Year program, so we'll continue doing that. The kids like drawing pictures about the

You know, we moms are a resourceful bunch. As I'm doing research for my website , I keep running into more and more women who are changing the face of mompreneurs everywhere. With the advent of Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media we are breaking new ground and inspiring other moms to use their natural assets to help bring money into the house while taking care of our families. Yeah! One of these "mom-driven" resources is a search engine called Mamapedia. It's made for moms created by moms. It was created two years ago as a compilation of parenting questions that they gleaned from local and online Mamasources . These intrepid women indexed their questions and made the answers available in the form of a search engine. And best of all, a free Mamapedia membership allows you to not only post your most puzzling parenting questions, but to respond to other moms' questions as well! I think this is a great feature because the question database will only

Today is bittersweet for me. Today is the release of the final book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I can't wait to find out how Percy's prophecy will affect his quest to save the world. I mean, our lives hang in the balance so it's kind of important. :-D But as excited and happy I am to listen to the story, I am saddened because we it seems that this will be the last time we'll catch a glimpse of the realities that half-bloods face everyday. I mean, that big hairy guy you're sitting next to on the train just might be a cyclops or other monster from Greek mythology. It's just a good thing that we mortals are pretty much uninteresting to these beasts -- the subways of New York are savage enough without adding man-eating monsters. Speaking of New York City, Mr. Riordan, Chief Scribe of Camp Half-blood, explains that Olympus follows the pinnacle of Western Civilization, and right now is located on the top of the Empire State Building in NYC. Zeus w