Don’t Let Being a Single Mom Hold You Back – You Can Still Live Your Best Life!

November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 JayneLeave a comment

Being a single mum can be tough. You are responsible for everything and anything that goes on in your household – no one else to share the burden. It can be hard to find time for yourself, let alone time to focus on your own happiness. But don’t let being a single mum hold you back from living your best life! There are plenty of things you can do to make sure you enjoy your life, even with all of the added responsibilities. In this blog post, we will discuss some tips for making the most of your life as a single mum!

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How to Quit the 9 to 5 and Become a Mompreneur

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

A “mompreneur” is both a mother and an entrepreneur, someone who can expertly balance their roles as a parent and business owner. This may sound like an impossible feat, especially if you’re already juggling a 9 to 5 job and a family. But it’s not impossible. This guide offers advice for quitting the 9 to 5 and embracing life as a full-time mompreneur.

Start a side hustle

Before you can quit your job, you’ll need to figure out what your new business plan is. Whilst it may be tempting to give up your job and dive headfirst into starting your own business, this could be risky if you haven’t tried and tested your business plan.

The best way to get started with a new business idea is to start small and start it as a side hustle. This could be dedicating one day every weekend, a few hours in the morning or evening, or even a single night a week to your new business idea and starting it as a very small business. That way, you can see how easy it is to make money from your business idea and get the ball rolling before taking the leap. If you’re unsure how to start a side hustle and transform it into a full-time job, check out this podcast where you can learn from others who have succeeded.

Create a business plan

Once you’ve got the ball rolling with your side hustle, it’s time to create a business plan that will help you scale your business from side hustle to full-time job. You may even want to take this step before you start your side hustle as it will help you perform the necessary market research, set goals and milestones, and plan for the future.

If you’re unsure what a business plan looks like or what you should include in it, the UK government has plenty of resources for writing a business plan, templates and links to pages about self-employment and taxes. You should do plenty of research, especially before quitting your job, so that you have all the tools you need to succeed.

Get your finances in order

No matter how confident you are that your business will make you enough money so that you don’t need to work full-time anymore, it’s essential that you have healthy finances before quitting your job to become a mompreneur. Make sure that you and your family are living well within your means, pad out your savings account, and eliminate as much debt as possible.

This doesn’t mean you need to be rich to start your own business. Many mompreneurs start off with little to no investment and even take out business startup loans to get going. What’s essential is that your personal finances are healthy so that you don’t need to worry about them in addition to managing your business finances.

Take the leap

You can prepare all you like, but there’ll never be a ‘perfect time to quit your job and start your own business. At some point, you just need to take the leap and go for it. Whilst preparation and organisation are key to becoming a full-time mompreneur, it requires the courage to get started too. With the right balance of preparation and self-belief, you’ll be off to a great start.

Education · Kids · Parenting · Reading

Night Zookeeper Review and Discount Code

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

As you may or may not know, we’re currently homeschooling the girls on a semi-permanent basis. Sausage is now in year 9 and will be home educated through to college age, whereas BB is in year 3 and is planning to go back to school once she’s had her COVID vaccine. This means that we’ve been using as many resources as possible to keep them both engaged by learning and also on par with their peers. Recently, I discovered Night Zookeeper and we were generously offered a 12 month subscription to try it for ourselves.

It’s a subscription-based website which encourages reading and writing in a really creative way. It’s developed by experienced educators and brings together a compelling story, innovative digital technology, and effective curriculum-aligned educational content, to help your child boost their literacy skills.

The website is packed with games which help kids learn spelling, grammar and vocabulary and they’re so fun that the kids barely even realise they’re learning. I gave BB her login details and let her use the site without even telling her that it was a learning resource at first, and she was totally engrossed in minutes.

Parents Point of View

One of the things I like about Night Zookeeper is the fact that it encourages kids to use their imagination. Sausage and BB have always had a thirst for knowledge and intense curiosity for the world around them and they’ve both channelled that through art and storytelling, so the format of NZK plays right into BB’s wheelhouse.

The site is really well set up in that there’s a separate login for parents so that you can see your child’s progress and see what they’ve been up to on the site. It even gives you a word count of how much they’ve written in each of their mini stories and it’s really interesting to see that the word count has been increasing with each time BB has used it.

It can also be used on tablets, laptops and PCs, making it accessible without the need for expensive new tech. There are lessons, writing challenges and word games which are immersive and exciting, telling fun, modern stories that the kids enjoy. There’s even a blog area where kids can write and share their own blog posts!

Perhaps the MOST useful feature of Night Zookeeper is the fact that real teachers can comment on BB’s work and leave her comments and suggestions to help her to expand her writing. Having that type of feedback is so valuable, I think it’s worth the cost of subscription all by itself.

Night Zookeeper teacher feedback

How does it work?

“By providing thousands of fun and engaging lessons, challenges, and games, Night Zookeeper helps children to learn new words, use them in sentences, and then create amazing pieces of writing that are shared with children from around the world. They receive feedback from our team of tutors as well as other children that highlight where they can improve. In-game awards and competitions keep them motivated to continue to learn and progress. They’ll write about everything, from stories about magical animals to instructions on how to make the perfect hot chocolate. All genres of writing are gradually introduced including newspaper articles, persuasive writing, reports, and poetry.”

What Does BB Think of Night Zookeeper?

“It’s really good! It feels like you’re playing a game and you don’t even really realise that you’re doing school work. My favourite thing about it is creating the animals because I like to get creative. I also really like the mini games because they’re fun and feel like other games that I play on my iPad” – Burrito Baby, aged 7.

Value for Money

For what you actually get, I think the subscriptions offer really good value. There’s content on there which suits kids from ages 6 to 12, so it can be useful even beyond junior level, and I love the idea of the continuity that will offer as BB progresses. All subscriptions come with a 7 day free trial, so you can see if you like it before you buy and if you purchase a 12 month subscription, it works out at just £7.50 per month.

Night Zookeeper Discount Offer!

We’re delighted to also be able to share with you an exclusive link for you to use, giving you a massive 50% off of a year’s subscription! By using this link you’ll pay just £46.99 for one child for a year or a truly bargainous £57.99 for up to three children per 12 month subscription! Click on the image below to nab your half price subscription:

Conclusion

I’m really excited to see what else BB creates with Night Zookeper! We have a few different subscriptions for the girls to use during our home ed and I honestly think this is going to be the one which provides the best value for BB’s literacy. Thanks so much to the people at Night Zookeeper for giving us the opportunity to try the site.

Kids · Parenting

Some Tips for Reading a Fairy Tale Correctly to your Child

October 18, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

It is not uncommon for you to find yourself in front of two bright little eyes, looking at you, asking you to read them another story or once again the same fairy tale. The fatigue of the day may have overwhelmed you, and reading another page may seem exhausting, but the joy and satisfaction that is painted on your baby’s face completely compensates you! So here are some tips that will make your story vivid and extremely exciting!

Read slowly and clearly

Read slowly, enjoying every word. Do not forget that your child does not just listen to a beautiful fairy tale but at the same time learns and understands the language better.

Add excitement to your story

Start with enthusiasm and fun – as all fairy tales begin after all. The introduction to the story must be done in such a way that the little listener feels like he is entering a new world!

Become more vivid with your narrative

It is great for the whole body to be involved in a narrative. So you can shake your hands, make faces with your face and create heroes, trees, and anything else you want in the air with your hands. All this representation will excite your child and will entertain you too! So the story leaves the paper, gets tangled in your hands, rests for a while between the eyebrows of your face, can even be found floating in front of your eyes to return again to the pages of the book.

At this point it should be noted that there are now widespread audiobooks, which offer another intense experience to children using special narrators who can immediately convey any emotion of the fairy tale to your children. With the use of a narrator, these tales gain “life”, transporting the children themselves to imaginary worlds, with special characters and adventurous stories. You can see professional narrators at Voquent.com, which lend their voices in all kinds of content at such a short price.

Adjust the volume of your voice

The volume of your voice plays an important role. Start with a normal intensity making sure it has a pleasant and playful tone. As the story progresses, our heroes are introduced, enjoying every word staying the same style. When the upheavals and adventures of the hero begin, increase your rhythm and the volume of the voice where the story requires it. And at the peak, in the big upset, you do not need to shout and scare your listener. Maintain the stability of your voice by speaking slowly and quietly. The evolution of the story is fascinating in itself, so we do not need to burden it with “narrative” ornaments.

It is important to breathe throughout the reading. By breathing, we mean not holding your breath as you narrate but letting the air flow as if you were speaking typically. When we read a story, without realizing it, we hold our breath perhaps because we know what to say, maybe even because we are not relaxed and comfortable. When we speak, we never know what our next phrase is because it always occurs. So the air usually flows, and our breathing is normal. If you manage and maintain a proper breath during the narration, you will find that you will be less tired, and you will enjoy it more!

Also study the images of the fairy tale

If you are reading an illustrated story, take some time to look at the pictures. A new fairy tale will spring up in front of you after you discover that you are hiding the second text in the book, given only with pictures! Ask your child about colours, the sun, the moon, the heroes, what they wear, what they hold and anything else that comes to mind. This sharpens your child’s mind and stimulates his imagination.

Take real interest in your child

But the most important thing, the most important of all, is when you read a story to your baby, to do it with love. Only then will the story reach his heart and make him happy!

Education · Kids · Parenting

Fab Career Tips For Kids Of All Ages

September 30, 2021 JayneLeave a comment

Part of being a parent is dispensing advice, no matter what age your kids are.

And career tips are no exception. There’s absolutely no rush to propel children towards the world of work, but when they start to become aware of it, it’s never too early to have healthy conversations on what a ‘good job’ might be and why that can feel different for everyone.

School is also the start of a journey which might have full-time work as an eventual destination, and even children attending university or even approaching destination don’t always have well-developed career plans.

All that considered, here are a few fab career tips for kids of all ages.

Career books for kids

Yup – career books for kids are a thing. But think wonderful Roald Dahl-esque wordplay and inspirational illustrations rather than the type of sleep-inducing pamphlets you used to pick up from your school careers service. Adele Writes An Ad by top pro copywriter Andrew Boulton is a brilliant example – if you work in advertising, reading it together with your little ones will explain how you spend your days in a superbly fun way. And even if you don’t, it might sow the seeds of a creative career choice in their minds.

Work and play

Another way that kids can serendipitously discover possible careers is through play. For example, an innate skill with Lego toys could transfer to an adult career in architecture and engineering, or for older children, awesome hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity developed through video games can possibly be adapted to a career as anything from a pilot to an eSports professional. With gentle encouragement, there’s no reason that play can’t lead to a passion for an exciting professional career.

Paid internships

Once children are a little older, a paid internship is a great way of them testing the waters of a full-time career and gaining great experience to bolster their CV – there are lots to choose from, so please take your time. Consult an employee-focused comparison site like Glassdoor for a selection of paid internship opportunities, then cross-check the employee reviews in order to ascertain what it’s really like to work there. Once you’re convinced that your child’s chosen internship is not exploitative and represents a genuinely great career progression step, encourage them every step of the way.

Online qualifications

Undergraduate degrees and postgraduate qualifications can still be passports to dream jobs for your children. But depending on their experiences at high school and other lifestyle and family commitments, full-time study on a physical campus might not be possible for them. However, an online degree which they can study flexibly when it suits them best is a brilliant choice that adds a new dimension in career possibilities. Lots of reputable universities now offer outstanding degrees online – for example, you can even earn an online Data Science MSc from ARU Distance Learning and progress to a terrific career in AI and machine learning.

These career tips for kids of all ages should help steer your offspring to success and happiness – enjoy putting them into practice!