Cultivating creativity, wisdom, and joy in an ordinary life:
Homeschooling, Home Business, and Soul Care.
One reason to create multiple streams of income is to slow personal movement down the “road to serfdom.” When you diversify your streams of income, creating streams that aren’t dependent on traditional employment, you are taking a quiet step toward...
Affiliate income is another term for referral fee, commission, or revenue sharing. It can be a supplementary or substantial stream of income, and once a link is installed, it can provide passive income for as long as it remains current....
Here are seven horrifying lessons John Taylor Gatto wrote about teaching during his 26 years as a schoolteacher. Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling is adapted from a speech given at a ceremony in which Gatto was named the New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Today is Mindset Monday. I’ll be talking about attitudes that can make it easier or harder to succeed as an entrepreneur. I recently came across a sentence that...
Remember the story of Rumplestilskin and the ambitious miller who told a king that his daughter could spin straw into gold? Many people dream of finding or creating more income, but they sometimes overlook what they already have, such as...
I believe that entrepreneurship should be part of every education. Creating a small business does more than just provide a bit of extra money– it provides memorable learning opportunities.
The Blog Carnival offers inspiration and encouragement as summer winds down and school begins. Enjoy!
I hadn’t planned to read David Allen’s splendid Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity this summer, but when I found myself going in panicky circles after a recent business trip, trying to unpack, uncover my desk, plan means,...
As you try to decide what to do for your first microbusiness, you may be tempted to research trends in order to find the most profitable niche. Research has it’s place, of course, but it’s not the only tool for...
There are five stages in learning language arts, and each stage has a different focus. This graphic will help you remember what to do when.
I spoke at a conference this weekend about creating multiple streams of income, and had a lot of great conversations with people who were inspired by the idea. The first thing that many people asked was “How do I figure...
In the month of July, I always stop to give thanks for the amount of liberty we enjoy as citizens of the USA. Liberty isn’t license — it’s the freedom to make moral choices and do what we believe to...
Writing fatigue and writers cramp are the inevitable result of holding the pen too tightly or in an awkward grip, and often students don’t even realize why writing is so hard. The physical act of penmanship is such a necessary part of school, it just seems wise to make it as painless as possible. Here’s help.
Charlotte Mason recommended copywork, which she called “transcription,” as an early step in teaching language arts. In Home Education, she wrote about the value of copywork, as well as what and how to copy. I have provided her instructions and added a few notes of my own.
It’s time for our annual summer poem. This year, I chose a warm, evocative poem by Edgar A. Guest as well as a brief poem by William Carlos Williams.
Every year, the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) sponsors a Summer Challenge to help writers, editors, and other entrepreneurs get a bit extra done during the slower months of summer. It’s not meant to ruin the summer...
Instead of despairing when you run out of classroom time for art and music, just have things available so that you can allow both subjects to flow into the leftover spaces in your day.
It seems that whenever I’m in a group of writers or entrepreneurs, there are always a few battle stories stories swapped. No matter what you want to do, there will be someone (or sometimes a lot of someones) who feel...
Imogen Violet tests the effectiveness of GarageBand and the iPad2 as a teething aid.
The contrast between a true, living education and the stale, dead imitation that often replaces it continues to niggle at my thoughts. Here’s another scene that illustrates the contrast, plus a thought for the day.
Long, long ago, freelance writers used to write an article for publication, get paid, and file away the article and move on to the next topic. One article = one use. That’s not bad if the paycheck for each article...
Or maybe you’ll get somewhere, but it won’t be anywhere you were hoping to be. It takes focus to keep your eye on a distant goal while juggling present responsibilities. It also takes a bit of pruning– cutting out all...
Do you have a child who doesn’t seem to be college material? Don’t let fear keep you from encouraging him to explore the trades and other college alternatives. The “Daffodils and Diesels” essay will show you why.
I’ve seen good results from students who have used these writing programs. Choose based on the student’s learning style for best results.
By using classics and models and learning by doing, it’s natural and possible to learn to write well while using Excellence in Literature.
How important it is to study history and literature in chronological order? Here’s what we did, and why a timeline makes whatever you do work better.
There are three basic ways you can make your knowledge pay. You can Do It, Teach It, or Package It. Let’s take a look at how each of those works.
It’s possible to turn the things you love to do into a bit of extra income, but it doesn’t just happen. Here are a few examples of how it can be done.
Let’s begin by defining terms. What matters? What’s an entrepreneurial writer? And what is a stream of income?
Cultural literacy can help you decide what to teach and how to teach it. Here’s what cultural literacy is, and how it can help you focus.