Homeschool Your Child For Free

I borrowed a book from the library this week, not expecting much. As the first term of our second complete year of homeschooling draws to a close, I'm concerned that I haven't done enough education for the kids (especially my high schooler) this term. They are each taking co-op classes, so I know some of the basics are being covered, but I'm concerned about my lack of a checklist and the checks in some of those boxes.

So, back to the library: the kids were being kids while there, so it was a short stop. (Really? Hide and Seek seemed appropriate to play while we're in the library????) I threw this book on top of The Well Trained Mind (my go-to resource for measuring what we *should* be doing), thinking I'd glean a few new resources. Wow! What a surprise! If this book had been my own (and it will be soon), it would now be sporting new highlight colors and post-it tabs throughout! A few of the links are broken or missing at this time (it was printed in 2009), but the overwhelming majority are workable links, chock full of the good stuff! The book is well-organized and laid out by subject, including information and website links throughout, where you can Homeschool Your Child for Free (as the title suggests).

This is a new go-to resource in my household (and yes, I have many), as is the table in the back that gives a basic suggestion for "classes" for each grade level.

Co-op, Football, Karate, Basketball... oh my!

I've allowed this blog to go on far too long without posting. To the few followers I have left, I'm sorry. :) I am happily settling into a new routine... hopefully one that will allow me more time to blog again! :)

We joined a homeschooling co-op group in September in our area. The kids are taking Animal Science (for the little ones), Biology (for the teen), all are taking Art Classes. I'm volunteering as a volunteer coordinator for the group, and have been heavily involved in the co-op. Possibly a little too heavily, as the areas of my life that I really enjoy have been neglected.

The teenager played 6-man football this year. This was the inaugaral season for our newly-formed team, and again, I was as heavily involved as possible (volunteering as treasurer).  We had a great season, won more games than we expected to, and can't wait for next year!!!  We are enjoying the time off, though.  :)

The twin boys started taking Tae Kwan Do at our local YMCA on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They've thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although we will be taking a break from it for the month of December. Mom's a little overwhelmed. :) I've used this time to work out, making my fitness more of a priority than I have in past years. I've managed to shed 24 pounds (gained back two during Thanksgiving), but more importantly, my energy level is much better and I'm feeling more confident and relaxed.

I've switched jobs. I really enjoyed my last job, both what I did and who I worked with. But working every weekend meant that I couldn't spend time with my now-14-year-old son. So I'm now working with a company that's proving to be very flexible with my hours, and where I have weekends off. It's going to be a balancing act, as my pay is the same, but without working weekends, and with my hectic schedule, I'm only getting an average of 27 hours/week. So, big pay cut. But I'm working on a proposal now that will hopefully smooth that out and allow me to get back to contributing what I'd like to my family finances, while also helping this growing company with their needs. I'm really enjoying the job, the company, and the people that I work with, so I can see a future with this company.

My husband is still working at the job he got in January. He's gone from 4, 10-hour day work-weeks to 7*10s back to 4*10's. The extra pay was really nice, and allowed us to buy a few things we'd been waiting on buying, as well as get caught up on some bills that were sitting on the back burner. But it was also crazy-hectic, as he was able to contribute much less to the day-to-day household needs, and with me working full-time, the balance fell on me to make up the difference. I'm missing the money from his overtime days, but so glad he's more able to help now. :)

I've scratched the surface on my new venture: life coaching, Dream Teams, corporate training and business consulting. Feel free to check that out at Kim Earley, Renaissance Woman. It's still a work in progress, but I'd love it if you'd follow me over there, drop me a line and comment! I <3 comments! :)

That's about it for now. There's been loads of other things going on, but it's been so long, and I just needed to get started on the road back! :) Hope everyone is doing well, and I'd love to hear what y'all have been up to!

It's almost not-back-to-school time

It's almost not-back-to-school time in our household.  I love the weeks when school starts, and I'm NOT rushing around, trying to buy a bunch of school supplies for each of the kids, overspending on school clothes that their friends think looks "cool".  We're officially making the switch to Unit Studies this year, and we talked long and hard about whether to continue to homeschool or not, but found that we still want to.  I'm excited to start doing field trips and building the curriculum around the units that we're studying.  I think I'm even more excited this year about homeschooling!  :)  The kids are, too.  I asked each of them what they wanted to do, and surprisingly Kody was the only one that thought he might want to go to school... but changed his mind after his brothers started asking questions.  :)


I'm starting also to think about my own education and how I want to move forward.  I think I'm going to become a coach with the program Profitting from Your Passions (R).  It's a fairly good sized investment, but I think I'm worth it.  {GRIN}  Mainly, I think it's something I would be good at.  I'm an excellent brainstormer, and I really enjoy that part of it.  The follow-through?  Not so much.  :)  I love thinking up new businesses, and have several great ideas, but the idea of being tied to one location scares the gypsy in me.  What I really want is to help other people find a way to walk away from a job that they hate and earn money doing what they love.  I'd like to write books about it, do seminars and retreats, one-on-one meetings and group meetings, and I want to do them all over the world, mainly in the US, but I would love to lead retreats and expeditions to other countries, too.



So, I started out with the course to the left today (disclaimer:  this is an affiliate link, but it won't cost you any more than if you buy directly from their site, and any money earned will go into my coaching fund)... if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you already know that I LOVE Love love Barbara Sher and Valerie Young.  Today I'm listening in the background, but starting tomorrow, I'm going to start working my way through it, using the workbooks and everything.  I'm super excited to be embarking on another new adventure for myself.

I'm also taking a short 3 week writing course through LCRWA.  I'm excited about it, as it looks like great information, and may help me get another novel written this year!

In other news, we are trying to get more fit, trying to watch what we eat and becoming more active.  And I'm working on de-cluttering my house and organizing an "office" to give us a place to keep all of our bills, tax info and for me to have a place to shut myself out and write and/or study.  :)  We're also going to have it double as a school room/craft room when we need it.

My husband is scheduled to start working 6-12's and a 10... normally they go 7-12's for about three months, but the powers that be are trying to make it more manageable, so we're waiting to hear what they come up with.  :)  But they're scheduled to start next month, so I'll be looking for a babysitter for Fridays & Saturdays, possibly Sundays and Mondays, depending on what he finds out about his schedule.

So, that's what's up with us lately.  Feel free to chime in and let me know what's up with you and yours...

Hope to "see" you again soon... my writing's been sporadic lately, as my computer died in May, but I think I'll be getting another here in a month or so.

We've been busy

We've been busy lately with the struggle to get by.  Both of us working full-time has led to changes in the household, and back to the grind of never enough time to do all that we want to do.  Of course, it's also enabled us to start paying some bills and make some plans for our future, and that's definitely a good thing... but we've stayed busy.

How do you cope with making sure there's enough time for fun?  We haven't had nearly enough of that lately... fun...  And definitely not enough time to make steps toward our future.  Hopefully that will change soon, though...

There have been so many things changing in my life lately, I feel like I'm on a bit of a roller coaster.  There've been plenty of ups and downs, and tons of soul searching.  Some tough decisions to be made, some that seemed fairly easy, and a couple of major life/lifestyle changes that are still in the works.  I'm sure I'll be talking about all of them in time, but for now, I wanted to share the direction that my vocation in heading in...


I've followed the Changing Course website for a long time now.  I actually spoke with Valerie on the phone today, as I've decided that this is the direction I'm going in... (drumroll, please).  Within the next year, I hope to be a certified Profiting from Your Passions® Career Coach!!!  I want to help other people find their passions, and develop a life that they truly love to live.  All of my adult years, I've walked a tight-rope trying to balance my work/home life, and it's only been in the last couple of years that I've started to realize that it doesn't have to be that way.  That you really can love what you do, and find a way to earn money doing what you love.


My own career aspirations have often focused on teaching and helping others, in varying degrees.  And this choice, I believe, will cover both.  I'll teach (and network with) others and help themselves find a way to make a living doing what they love.


Until I've begun studying (and until I've received my certification), I can't help much with finding your passion, and getting out of the J-O-B box, but on the ChangingCourse.com website, I found the Changing Course Club, and wanted to share...



It looks amazing!!!


I'm so excited!!!  More soon!

Barbara Sher's Absolute Guaranteed Secret to Success

Love this!!! When I grow up, I want to *BE* Barbara Sher. :D

I have been thinking more and more lately about how I want my life, for my sake and my family's sake. Her books and her videos inspire me to find a way to do the things I love to do, to encourage my kids to find their passions, and follow them. Who was it that first said "if you find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life"? I'd like to shake that person's hand, because that really resonates with me. Me? I've found what I'd love to do. I'd love to do what Barbara does, to inspire people to really live their lives, rather than just drift and exist. I'll start by doing what I've always been good at... research, research, research. :D

I spent a lot of years in the self-help aisle, and what she says is pretty much in line with what I've always felt... I don't know how to "love myself" every moment of every day. Some days are just... well, excuse the language, but they're just shitty days. And I have to move and do what I need to do, regardless. So I often felt like I failed at this self-help phenomenon. As a Scanner, I've had so many life experiences (and rarely "finished" any of them), that I kept thinking of myself as immature and not really a grown-up in that way. And I continued doing a job I didn't like doing (but was good at) for years. I'm working again now, and I'm liking my job, but I'm finding that just because it's not a really creative one, it doesn't mean it defines me. So I'm continuing to polish my manuscript, taking photos (which I love to do), figuring out the finances of taking courses on becoming a coach for others, and seriously considering learning to crochet again.

Anyways, for those of you that wonder who I'm talking about when I talk about Barbara Sher, here's a clip of a video of hers. :)

Have a great day, and tell me what you're doing to Make Your Dream Life Happen!!!

Did you think we dropped off the face of the earth?

So first, I need to apologize.  For those of you that follow my blog, I have not kept up with it since switching over to Blogger.  Blogger isn't the reason why, but it has happened.  :)

We have been continuing to home school, albeit a bit slower than before, but we're continuing.  It's taken a while to get back into a routine.  So, what's happened?  Let me fill you in a bit...

Hubby was involuntarily unemployed in May/June 2009.  I was involuntarily unemployed August 2009.  We have spent the last year and 1/2 alternately applying for jobs, traveling out of state for job opportunities and freelance work, considering building businesses, and working on our house as money allowed.  I started school, then took a break from school.  In January 2011, we both were offered full-time jobs.  This is exciting, as although we haven't accumulated a ton of debt while we weren't working (which is a big change for us, as we tended to accumulate a lot of debt before we became unemployed), we have been very behind on paying some bills, and they are bills that we really want to pay.  The other reason it is exciting is that they are both (hopefully) long-term jobs, not really subject to layoffs as our last jobs were, and they are close to where we currently live.  The concern here was that for both of us to work full-time, we were going to need to put the kids back in school, where we would prefer to continue homeschooling, and we would have so little time to make our dream life happen.  However, as fate would have it, we were able to both find jobs that will work for our lifestyle.  Each of us currently work full-time, 4 days/week, but only one day overlaps.  The downside is that we have no time off together, except for vacations or other days off that we will schedule.  Another downside is that I work weekends, which leaves little time for extended family visits.  The upside is that we are earning an income comparable to what we were earning a couple of years ago, without having to sacrifice what we want to do, long-term.

We're now making plans to a) rebuilt a financial base, hopefully better than the one we had before; b) buy some things to make some repairs/remodeling to our home which we didn't have the funds to do before; and c) get medical insurance, which means that we'll finally be able to get healthier again.

Some of our current plans include:
1)  Create a garden, for both aesthetic purposes, and frugal/healthy living purposes.  We want to start growing our own vegetables, which should help cut into our food bill, as well as encourage us to eat more fresh veggies.
2)  Finish remodeling our 4th bedroom, as well as do some other projects (extend our front porch, build a back porch, etc.) around the home.  We also need a new roof, a carport/garage, and some outside lighting, which will be hefty investments.  I'm looking into wind energy and solar, but those are further future projects.
3)  Purchase a utility trailer (my parents have graciously loaned us theirs, but we need one of our own)
4)  Purchase a (used) utility 4-wheeler.  We've wanted one for fun anyways, as we enjoy riding ATV's, but this one will primarily be used with a variety of attachments:  dump bed, mower, tiller, etc.
5)  We have been considering raising chickens, but haven't decided for sure on this one.
6)  Fruit trees/bushes.
7)  Purchase a used RV for family vacations on a frugal budget.  This one is also a little further down the road for us, but it's in the longer-short-term plan.  :)



Personally, I'm still trying to determine if I will go back to school.  There are so many things I want to do (the Scanner in me) that I haven't been able to decide what for.  My passion is writing, photography, and traveling, so I'm thinking that I might just start with a Fine Arts AA degree.  But then I realize that I am not even certain that getting my degree is what I want for me.  So I continue to debate.  I'm also still playing around with the idea of becoming a career coach, but not the typical career counselor, more like Barbara Sher, Valerie Young, or Barbara Winter.  More along the lines of helping develop entrepreneurs, and helping people find a way to earn money from their passions. 



It's nice to be able to make some plans again... now if I could just figure out what I want to do!  But, there's time to figure that out, and now there are options that we didn't have before!  :)

Have you figured out how to create your dream life? What are you doing to make your dreams come true?  I'd love to hear about it!

And 2011 starts with a bang!!!

So the last year and a half has been a time of change for our family.  We've learned a lot about surviving, and thriving, on less.  We've learned to make more frugal choices, and to really shop for the best price on something we want.  We've learned a lot about our goals and our dreams.  I've completed a novel, began to submit my photography for publication.  Hubby has begun to work on his painting and his art.  We've begun homeschooling the kids, gotten involved in the homeschooling community here, and learned what our goals are in that direction.  We've made a lot of changes, and we look forward to what the coming years will bring in seeing those changes come to fruition. 

At the same time, we recognized that our dreams were still lacking one very important, and as of late, elusive thing... money.  We have gotten behind on some of our bills, need to rebuild a savings account, would like to purchase an RV, among other things.  We've both spent many months trying alternate ways to earn money, but also looking for full-time employment.  We've had a few promising interviews, some where we thought job offers were just down the pipe, but those offers never materialized.  I've interviewed for jobs paying nearly half of what I normally earn, my husband has interviewed for ones where he would have earned what he was earning ten years ago.  All of that worrying and frustration came to an end within the last week.

I got a job earning just a little bit less than I did in 2009, with excellent benefits, working with what appears to be a great group of people, with a 4-day work week (Friday-Monday).  My hubby also got a job, earning more than he was earning in 2009, again with excellent benefits.  My job started today, and hubby's starts on Monday.  His is also a 4-day work week (Monday-Thursday).  This means that we could potentially continue to homeschool the kiddos, and only have to worry about daycare on Mondays.  We may still elect to put the Kindergarteners in school for a few years, but we'll make that decision in the next few days.  Our 14-year-old will continue to homeschool at least for this school year, at which point he should be at a ninth grade level.  We'll re-evaluate at that point whether to put him back in school, or allow him to continue to homeschool.

The income we'll be earning (each of us much better than we have recently come to expect), combined with our more frugal nature of late, I hope will allow us to pay off those bills, and start saving at a much faster rate than we expected, putting us back to being debt-free (or as much as one can be, with a failed business on the books) and able to put money away in savings. 

The four day work weeks mean that we'll be able to make doctor's appointments and be actively involved with the kiddos, no matter which option we choose.  Of course, it also means that we will not have any days off together (except holidays), so there's that one drawback.  But neither of us are working overnight shifts (and we've gone that route before), so we'll still be home together in the evenings, eating dinner, watching TV, movies and such.  So we'll be good, I think.

So here's to 2011!!!  :)  How's your 2011 been so far?

Visionary Moms

I'm starting the New Year off right!!  I decided I really want to move forward with Making my Dream Life Happen, so I've joined a wonderful group of women with that exact plan!!!

Check them out, and if you join a Visionary Mom team, please tell them that Kim Earley sent you!  :)

More to come soon...