Education And Care: Take Your Teaching Career In A New Direction

If you’re well and truly in the swing of January and are ready to take all the new adventures and challenges that 2018 has
in store, then this is the right post for you. Often, a new year encourages you to access the past twelve months so that you
can better understand your successes and the areas of your life that you want to push forward, improve, and develop. A
common thread for many is their career, and getting as much job satisfaction and reward as possible when they get to the
weekend with their family. If you’re happy and enthusiastic about your line of work; your motivation will filter through into
each aspect of your life, which is great if you’re a working mom and have a busy household to maintain.

If you’ve worked in education for a while; you’ll already have developed a variety of skills that could lead you to all sorts of
different avenues. If you’ve been considering taking your job and career in a bit of a new direction and heading for your
ambitions this year; there’s no time like the present to begin planning your actions and discovering all the potential options
that await you. As a mom and a teacher; you’re already pretty prepared for an array of challenges, and you can make this
the year that you take on some new ones and ensure that you’re happy with your work/life balance. The following are some
ideas for those who want to take their qualifications and experience in education and do something different, for a fulfilling
and exciting year ahead.

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/homework-paper-pen-person-267491/

Counseling And Health Care

If you love working with kids and young adults, and your experience have developed your understanding of their behavior
and how to help them through life; heading towards becoming a counselor could be a great option for you. If you’re
concerned about taking up studying on top of your working and family hours; check out accredited online counseling degrees
so that you’ll have more flexibility regarding your time. The work you’re doing within a school or college can often complement
studying counseling, so talk to your colleagues and senior members of staff about your goals so that you can work out the
best plan of action for your future career. Extra qualifications can lead to opportunities to work with young people in a variety
of different environments, so it’s worth thinking about where you can best utilize your skills and the sort of challenges you’re
ready to take on.

Private Tutoring And Flexible Hours

If your resolution this year was to work independently and remotely so that you could focus more on caring for your family
and have a better work/life balance; you could consider becoming a private tutor. You’ll need a space in your home that will
provide an effective learning environment or the means to travel to various homes, places of education, and public spaces
where you can meet your students regularly. You’ll get all the rewards of helping to educate young minds and could assist
students in getting the grades they need to fulfil their potential or gain entry into the college they desire. There are all sorts of
ways to have a positive impact on a young person, so use this time to explore your many options, and you’ll have a year to
look forward to ahead.

Is Your Child's Playroom Ready for a Makeover? - How to Make it Happen on a Limited Budget

Your child’s first playroom or play space is an important part of their development. It gives them a place to explore, create, and learn to be independent. As your child grows from baby, toddler, to school-aged it’s often necessary to give the playroom a makeover as their tastes, toys, and needs will differ as they grow older.

If your child is of school-age and their playroom still looks like something meant for a toddler, then it’s well overdue a makeover. The good news is that you can make some pretty transformative changes that are relatively easy on the budget, giving your child a much more age-appropriate place to play in.

Start with Paint

The very easiest and cheapest place to start is usually with paint. When you first decorated a playroom for your child as a baby or toddler, you probably picked something bright and cheerful. This time around, why not let your child be involved in picking the color. By now they have their own likes and dislikes, as well as unique personality. Their playroom can be a reflection of them, which helps to make them feel more comfortable and happy with the space.

If you want to take the involvement one step further, they can even help with the painting if they are old enough. They may choose to do an accent wall too, complete with their own creations. Remember, it’s just paint and it can always be painted over at a later date.

Work on a Theme Together

As discussed on mashoid.co, your child may also want to pick a theme for their playroom. This can be helpful for you when it comes to décor, as it will give you a basic idea to work with. Popular themes include space, science, superheroes, dinosaurs, animals, under the sea, Lego, and nature.

If your child is stuck on finding a theme, it can be helpful to take a look at Pinterest and show them various ideas.

Get Creative with Storage

One of the most important parts of a playroom is the storage. You want to be sure you have plenty of it and that it is easily accessible to your child. This is where you can get a bit creative in order to save money. Sure, you can purchase those pre-made shelving systems with cubby boxes, but they don't tend to be very cheap.

Instead, look for ways you can repurpose furniture already in the room, or in other areas of the house that you aren’t using, and look for inexpensive items you can purchase that can be turned into a storage solution. Things such as milk crates, buckets, hanging shoe organizers, old tins and jars all make for great ideas. You can add personality to the storage solution with paint, fabric, and other details.

An Age Appropriate and Fun Space

These tips will help you to transform your child’s playroom into a space that is fun, creative, imaginative, and age-appropriate all on a budget.

How to Take Excellent Photos for Your Blog or Website

We all want to take awesome photos. Whether it’s for a blog or website, or for social media, we want our photos to be the best and to have the most impact on viewers. Unfortunately, not many of us have the tools or skills required to take those world-class photos.  However, with a bit of know-how, you can be taking great photos in no time. Today, we’ll be having a look at how you can take awesome photos for your blog or website.

Upgrade Your Camera

Today, most photos are taken on a phone. While a DSLR or mirrorless camera would be ideal, many will have to make do with a phone. If you own a cheaper phone, consider upgrading to the latest Android or iPhone since the more you spend, the better the photo quality will be. If you want to get serious with your photography, consider buying a cheaper DSLR or digital camera. Lenses are important too and Sigma makes a wide variety of great lenses. Sigma Rumors is a great website which will keep you informed about Sigma lenses. Bang-for-buck, getting a dedicated camera will be better than simply upgrading your phone, but who doesn’t like getting a new phone and camera in one?

Consider the Purpose and Focus of Your Photo

If you’re taking a photo for your blog, what’s the story behind the photo? What do you want to emphasize? If you’re trying to show your awesome holiday, give your photos variety and focus on the story. Don’t get too focused on things that might look good but don’t add to your story - the main reason for a photo should be to complement the writing and to strengthen the story. If you want to emphasize something in the foreground or background, you can use a shallow depth of field on your camera to blur out the rest of the photo. If you’re on a mobile phone, it might have to be done manually, but on most cameras, simply opening the aperture and focusing on the object will blur everything else out.

Learn How to Use the Camera

Great, so you know what you should be taking a photo of and you have a great camera. If you simply switch to auto mode, you might come away with some great shots, but for an amazing photo every time, you’ll want to learn how to use your camera in its entirety. Learning how to use manual modes will enable you to take photos in conditions outside the normal operating range of auto mode, so you’ll be able to get awesome shots, even in extremely low or high light situations.

This concludes the list of how to take excellent photos for your blog or website. With these tips, you should be able to take awesome photos day in day out. Whether it’s for your traveling blog or your website portfolio, these tips should ensure that you take great looking photos. 

Final photo in the old basement at 9028 Grant Street ... my readers love pictures of my husband because he's cute and also because they see plenty of the kids :-)

How Are Business Credit Cards Different From The Consumer Credit Cards?

A consumer credit card is a credit card that pretty much anybody can get. You can buy Visa and MasterCard credit cards from different financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, community banks, large banks, insurance banks, and finance companies. But business credit cards are very different in the sense that they are supposed to be specifically for small businesses.

So, in other words, they are for people who own a store, who have retailer outlets and for small business owners. Business credit cards and consumer credit cards look very similar to each other. Both have a credit card number, magnetic strip, and the same type of overall layout.

Liability and Credit Reporting

The primary difference between the two types of credit cards is liability and credit reporting. With a consumer credit card, whether you use it online or go to a branch, you are signing to be liable for that card yourself. It means that if you make charges on the card, then you are liable for the debt and if you do not make payments on that card it will be reported on your credit report.

Personal Guarantee

A small business card application is filled out on not only your name but also on your company’s name. So, a company that is essentially applying for the card and is, therefore, liable for the payments of that card. There are many scenarios, however, where the small business owner or the principal is being asked to sign, which is referred to as a personal guarantee.

In this case where you sign for a personal guarantee, not only does this make your business liable for the debt incurred on the card, but the owner or the principal of the company is also personally liable for the debt incurred on the card as well. It means that if a debt is incurred on the small business credit card and it is not paid then the bank not only goes after the company for the payment but they can also go after the business owner or the principal because they have signed to be personally liable for the debt.

Credit Score

When this happens, the bank can employ the same type of activities or tactics that any normal consumer credit card company could employ. This will include: negative credit reporting, outsourcing of the collection of debt to a third-party debt collector, and they can even sue you, not the company but the individual who signed the guarantee for the debt on the credit card. That’s bad news.

However, the good news is also there. It is when the card is being paid on time, and then the credit card activity will not be reported to the principal of the company’s consumer credit report. It is done because in many cases the small business owners use their best business credit cards to fund operations of the business. What happens in this scenario is that the debt that is incurred on behalf of the company ends up showing on the credit report of the owner of the company, and it can cause harm to his/her credit score.

Another thing to keep in mind is that many credit cards have rewards associated with them that have tangible benefits. If you have a small business credit card which has a reward program, the company realizes the benefit of the reward program and the company has to report it as some income or benefit.

Small Business Credit Card – A Win-Win Option

A good business survives only when you have an adequate level of liquid cash resources. You must always be ready for some unforeseen expenses so you should always have some cash resources to be utilized on time. Cash is something you can’t always keep in your pocket. The alternate way is to keep a couple of credit cards. If you own business, then you must apply for a business credit card. Don’t worry if your business is not big enough; you can always apply for small business credit cards even if your company is not big enough or even when you are only a sole proprietor.

Having one or more small business credit cards gives you multiple advantages to you and your business. Some of the advantages are mentioned below which can help you gain the dual win.

Track Your Expenses

Whether you are running a business or not, you must always keep an eye on your expenses. Keeping track of your expenses is the key to financial success. Your habit of tracking expenses can give you several advantages in your personal and business life. The easiest way to track your expenses is to spend every penny using a credit card. The first benefit is no doubt the bonus points and miles that you can cash in later. The main benefit of spending through a credit card is that you will have free expense tracking. You can see in every credit card bill what you spent on what and when.

Free Points and Bonuses

If you have a small business credit card, then you will have an extra advantage in the form of points. With every purchase you make using your credit card, you are given some points. These points can buy you some amazing prizes, bonuses and even some free travel. Make all business payments using the credit card and earn points and utilize these points for the dual benefit of your business.

Improved Credit

Credit cards are credit boosters. If you have credit cards and you spend a lot and pay bills on time, then your credit rating will improve swiftly. An improved credit rating will open new doors of financial success for your business. If you have bad credit, you can still get some credit cards. Once you get one, start paying your credit card bills on time, and you will have better credit soon.

Extra Cash Resource

This benefit should have been mentioned at the top, as it is the major benefit of having a credit card. In business, there come the days when you urgently need some cash to make payments. Sometimes you find some resource, but sometimes it becomes hard to arrange some ready cash to meet the expense. In such situations, small business credit cards become the blessing in the pocket. If can be used as an extra cash resource in case of need. You should have more than one credit card so you can always have one spare card which can be used only in case of urgent need.

Having read the advantages mentioned above of small business credit cards, you must apply for at least one credit card today so that you may have the win-win situation for your business.