Two Chickens in Every Pot

I started homeschooling about ten years ago, so I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work for our family. Everyone’s situation is different, but I’ve decided to share the following tips, which will hopefully give you some ideas to implement in your own homeschool. We have a large family and will have four students in the upcoming school year, but the following tips could apply to any sized homeschool: Stay Organized With Binders Each of my homeschooled children has his or her own binder. I select quality binders with built-in zip compartments for pencils, and the binders themselves zip for containing any loose books. Keeping just about everything in these binders makes it easy for the kids to take their work on the road when we travel or just have errands to run. It also allows me to check all of their work at once or quickly have someone move to another work station. I also have my own binder for myself as the teacher, and there is another binder for answer keys. The ACE

For the last couple of weeks, I've been writing off and on throughout the day, but I really want to start limiting my content mill work to early mornings when the kids are still in bed. While I'm writing those content mill articles, I tend to feel agitated when interrupted. For one thing, the subjects I've had to write about lately aren't that fun. For another, I find myself checking the time while I do them and then working as fast as I can to prove I'm getting a decent hourly rate. Staying Present Most of my day is dedicated to quality time with my family, and of course, housework. That said, I don't mind doing a little bit of light work on the computer when I'm in the same room as my kids--like writing this blog post. Because right now, I'm present. I'm sitting in the living room with my four youngest children. I know that the bathtub is filling up for the first of three baths that need to happen tonight. I know that my teenage daughter is

       Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash Writing for a content mill is the quickest way to start earning a few bucks from home with your writing, but at 1.3 cents a word, it’s not very lucrative. If you’re a perfectionist like I am, you’ll find yourself going over an article again and again, which makes for a quality piece but decreases your hourly pay rate. Necessary Skills The good news is that you will gain experience as a writer, hopefully leading to landing better-paying gigs. Writing on your own blog is much different than writing in “AP Style” and to a client’s specifications, but those things are easier than they sound. Including the client’s requested “keywords” in a natural way is pretty much a no brainer that I was nailing from day one, so I won’t even go into that in this post. If you have good grammar and punctuation skills and a knack for wording things, you’ll probably just need to fine-tune a few weak areas. Comma Rules It was easy for me to adjust to n

   Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash So I made a little over 19 bucks today, and I'm exhausted. The last piece I submitted this afternoon before breaking to make dinner seemed way more valuable than the eight bucks I got paid to write it. I don't mind selling content about mundane subjects like shipping methods or eyelash extensions. But that last post was about a subject I was actually interested in--writing guest blog posts. Now my baby will be out there in cyberspace with somebody else's name on it. It's been adopted by a less capable parent who won't fully appreciate it...Can you tell it's been a long day? Gaining Experience I'm not complaining, though- I'm thankful to be able to work from home, and I'm looking at this as a learning experience. I am using the feedback I am getting, both positive and negative, to help me grow as a writer. Much Needed Break I was feeling a little depressed holed up in my room a lot of the day writing, but th

    I haven't blogged in a while since I've been pursuing other hobbies lately--not to mention our recent major move back to our home state, but I'm back to writing again, and I'm praying that this time I'll be able to make a decent living at it. So I'm back to posting on this blog, which will be a place to discuss my writing adventures mixed in with the usual fun household stuff I like to write about.  I'm Writing for a Content Mill It has taken me several days of applying at various websites to figure out what pays and what doesn't, but I am now officially working from home as a freelance writer!  So far, I have found one "content mill" that had a pretty straightforward registration process and seems to have plenty of work. I won't post the company's name here because I don't need any competition at this point, but I may give out the information in the future if I am able to secure a better paying gig. I'm Making Money