Are You Still Busy during the "Shelter in Place" Order?

Every now and then I'll interact with someone who thinks I have a lot of free time on my hands now that we are "stuck inside" due to the shelter-in-place guidelines which are in place all over the country and the world. (We are actually NOT inside all the time; we are outside quite a bit because why move to 8 acres of land with a pond and stay inside in the springtime?)

At the beginning of this whole thing, I put a lot of things on hold to make sure I was checking up on the virus numbers and checking in on the press conferences by the governors on both sides of the state line, checking in on my own city's Facebook page and county's website. I realized some things were starting to suffer and it was taking its toll on me and how I lived my life and how I was steering the lives of my children.

Teaching Children How To Be Leaders

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Leadership is an important skill that can help your children from a very young age, through to college and long into their future careers. But just like any skill, leadership does not come naturally to everyone and in order to become a good leader in the future, most people need to first learn how to be one. 

The key characteristics of a leader

Leadership can be defined in several different ways but in general, most people agree that it involves a combination of the following characteristics. 

Good communication

Confidence

Integrity

Hard work

When teaching children about leadership a good place to start is by breaking down these characteristics and working on them independently. Here are some things that you can do to help build the characteristics of a good leader. 

Set goals 

Setting goals is an important thing to learn and will set your child in good stead for further education and their future career. Help your child to create their own goals and then encourage them to work towards them. As they reach them, tick them off, offer praise and then help them to devise new goals to work towards. Goal setting not only helps to instil a good work ethic but will also help them in the future when they need to devise goals for other people. 

Learn from mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes, but what sets a leader apart from the rest is that they know how to learn from them. If your child makes a mistake, rather than dwelling on it or getting upset help them to recognise it and then devise a plan to stop it from happening again. 

Teach them about great leaders

One way to encourage leadership qualities in your child is to give them great leaders to look up to. We’re lucky enough to live in a world of great leaders, so whether you teach them about makers of change such as Nelson Mandela or business leaders such as Aubrey Ferrao, there’s bound to be someone out there for them to look up to and to learn leadership qualities from. 

Enrol them in extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities such as team sports are great for helping to build your child’s confidence whilst also improving their communication skills and helping them to value team spirit. Most children don’t even realize that they’re learning how to be great leaders while hitting a baseball or running with a football. 

Let them make decisions 

Decision making is another important part of being a leader and you can help your child to build the confidence they need to make strategic decisions later on in life by letting them make more decisions now. Start by letting your child choose between two options in their lunch, and gradually move on to harder or more complex decisions such as letting them choose how to spend their own money. 

Lead by example 

Finally, don’t forget to lead by example by trying to embody the characteristics of a good leader yourself. Most homeschooling parents already display these characteristics without even knowing it but it never hurts to have them in the back of your mind. 

How to Prepare Homeschooled Kids for College

Preparing any child for college can be extremely daunting, we only want what’s best for them and will do all we can to help them achieve their goals. For conventionally schooled children, their high-school will often help them to handle their college preparation process, but for homeschooled children, the task often lays in the hands of the parents. So what can we do to prepare them? 

Think about it early

In school, student counselors recommend that parents and children start to think about college and university as early as the 8th or 9th grade. There’s a lot to think about, including finances, career options, degree paths and of course which college or university your child wants to attend - do you want to pursue a Grand Canyon University accreditation or are you thinking about a bachelor degree in Finance?. Thinking about the process early will help to take away some of the stress that both your or your child may feel as deadlines start to approach.

Financial Benefits of Homeschooling

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If your kids are approaching school age, you are most likely asking yourself the same questions that all parents go through when they’re sending their first child off to school. Where will they go? Will they be okay? Will they do well? These are all completely valid questions. But have you paused to consider teaching them yourself from home? There is a steady rise in what was once considered to be a niche way of raising your kids, and there are several advantages to home-schooling, not least the financial benefits it might have. Read on for just a few ways that home-schooling can save you money and could be the best option for your family.

1.       Save on School Fees

You won’t be paying out thousands of dollars each year on the private school system, but your kids will have some of the same benefits that students in private schools enjoy. One of the main advantages of attending a private school are the reduced class sizes. This means the teachers can more easily cater to each child’s individual learning pace. This just isn’t going to happen in a class of thirty and upwards. When you’re teaching your children at home, you can work in the same way and tailor the lessons to suit your children so they will get the same advantages of more personalized tuition.

2.       Grants and state tax credits

This is something else it’s worth doing your research on before you take the plunge, but there may be available tax credits and grants for you in your unique home-schooling situation. the Home School Legal Defense Association offers a variety of grants for special-needs students, single home-schooling parents and families who need financial assistance to pay for a curriculum. Consult with a tax specialist who will be in a good position to tell you what you might be eligible for.

3.       Free or inexpensive resources

There is so much to bear in mind when you are selecting the school for your kids. You want to make sure it has plenty of resources and available labs, as well as confident and friendly teaching staff. All of these things are important. One of the pros of teaching your kids from home yourself is that they will be able to use the huge amount of learning resources that are available online, for free. They won’t have the same access to bigger resources (like a science lab, or basketball court) but some home-schooling parents bring their kids together for these kind of experiences so, once you start thinking outside the box, anything is possible.

Whilst it’s true that you or your significant other will have to retire, or at least drastically reduce your working hours, there are lots of other aspects to think about when considering home-schooling. Make sure you speak to fee only financial advisors before you make any decisions and weigh up the pros and cons first – you might just find that home-schooling is the perfect choice for you and your family. 

Excellent Home Renovation Techniques for 2020

You should always be looking for great ways of being able to improve your home as much as possible this year. There are a lot of changes and home renovation techniques you can look to use that are going to help you improve the home as much as possible. Do your best to ensure you are going to be able to renovate and refurb the home in the best way you possibly can. 

This means thinking about the changes you can and should be making as a homeowner, and this can be very useful. Make sure you think about the different ideas that will allow you to make the most of this moving forward. Come up with things that can help you to improve and enhance your home as much as possible, and this is something that plays a part in this. Check out these amazing home renovation ideas for 2020 right now.

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