September 7th, 2011 
admin 
Home schooling and the WAHM.
The decision to home school is rewarding in more ways than you could ever imagine. For moms who work at home, the decision to home school can be a wonderful way to take charge of your child’s education and to give them the education they deserve.
Public schools are often unsatisfactory or may not address your child’s individual needs and private schools are expensive. Home schooling allows you to fit school time into your work schedule and can give you more time to really be involved in your child’s education. Home schooling allows you to tailor an education that is based on your child’s educational needs and their learning styles.
There are many programs available that meets state requirements, which are very user friendly and make home school planning much easier. The variety of options can be overwhelming but first consult the laws about home schooling in your state. It is a good idea to talk with others who home school and to consult homeschooling websites for information about your best options. Choosing a home school program and how to implement it is one of the most discussed topics among those who home school.. Talking with parents who home school can help you make informed decisions and can give you support along the way. Home school websites connect you with other parents who have experience with home schooling. These websites are a resource for information and recommendations for products and programs, as well as providing moral support and feedback.
Home schooling parents benefit from networking with each other and this interaction can help to fill the social void left by not attending a traditional school. Many home schooling parents organize regular get-togethers to give their children to opportunity to interact with other home schooled kids. No matter how you choose to home school, the important thing is that you have actively made a choice in your child’s education and that choice makes all the difference in the world to your child.
SHOULD YOU HOME SCHOOL?
MONEY SAVING GROCERY TIPS
Money Saving Grocery Shopping Tips
Everything is getting more expensive today. From gas to groceries, our hard-earned dollars are challenged to stretch further. Now, we may be able to ride a bicycle around town if we can’t put gas in our cars. But, we have to eat. There’s no getting around that. So, we have to find ways to spend less on groceries while still getting the things that we need to feed ourselves and our families. Here are six money saving tips to try the next time you go grocery shopping.
1. Clip coupons. They put those in the newspaper for a reason. If there are new items you want to try, use a coupon to get it at a discount. If you like it, you have saved some money. On the other hand, if you don’t take a liking to it, you didn’t pay full price. For me, coupons save an average of ten or more dollars per visit. That’s money in my pocket that I can put towards gas for the car.
2. Buy more staples than prepared foods. It is easier to buy a box of macaroni and cheese, but is it more economical? A large box of macaroni and a block of cheese will make more servings for your family than one box of prepared macaroni and cheese. The next time you go shopping and pick up a box or bag of an already prepared item, ask yourself if you can make that at home for less. If you can, then put that item back in favor of less expensive staples.
3. Buy in bulk. Consider the food items that you use most often. Cereals, meats, vegetables, condiments, juices, and paper products can be bought in bulk usually at a lower price at food warehouses like Costco, BJ’s, and Wal-Mart. If you have a coupon, you’ll save even more money.
4. Don’t shop when you are hungry. This is a definite no-no. Shopping on an empty stomach means that you will pick up more things than you need. You are more likely to pick up that bag of chocolate chip cookies or that box of donuts when the growling gets underway.
5. Take a grocery list with you. This is another protection against picking up things that are too costly. Check your cabinets and the fridge to see what you need and write them down. Remember, the goal is to stick to the list as much as possible.
6. Shop at the same stores. This is more of a frustration reliever. In a new store, you spend most of your time looking for things and walking up and down every aisle, which oftentimes leads to forgetting an item or two. Going to the same store each time makes you more familiar with the prices so you can estimate your bill as you write your grocery list.
Rising prices don’t have to mean a lean dinner table. There are ways to make your food dollar go further and if you take the time to implement the ideas listed above as well as others of your own, you’ll see savings each and every time you shop.
JOB SECURITY?
Looking for a lucrative, secure future? Consider a career with numbers
(ARA) – Ask an elementary or high school student what they want to do when they grow up and rarely do you hear the answer “accountant.” But increasingly it seems that the very profession that conjures visuals of the comic character “Dilbert” and his colleagues is one that offers staying power and opportunities for growth, given the right training and education.
“As we move to a more global marketplace and the use of International Financial Reporting Standards, the importance of professional accounting education and experience will become even more pronounced,” says Professor Donna DeMilia of Grand Canyon University’s Ken Blanchard College of Business.
Apparently college students are taking notice. DeMilia notes that at Grand Canyon University, the number of undergraduate accounting students has grown seven times in the past three years, and enrollment of master’s students has more than doubled. That makes accounting the fastest growing program at the school during the past three years.
“Students are looking not only for stability in their career path, but also how their life experiences and education can affect their work in the field,” DeMilia says. “In accounting in particular, our students seek guidance in business ethics from a Christian perspective, rather than strictly from a societal viewpoint.”
Dakota Serna, a 22-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz. offers a prime example of how appealing the industry has become. Before declaring accounting as his major, he experimented with subjects as varied as kinesiology and religious studies, and while he enjoyed those subjects he realized that he wanted something that secured his future. A career that left little room for interpretation was appealing to him.
“Accounting is very systematic – if you’re doing it right, it’s black and white with few gray areas,” Serna says. He already has a job lined with an Arizona-based risk-management company and believes the internships he pursued while in college gave him an edge when looking for a full-time position.
Despite the troubling economy there are glimmers of hope in the accounting field. According to Robert Half International, 30 percent of those who responded to its annual employer job outlook survey anticipated adding entry-level accountants within the next six months, and 12 percent indicated that finding skilled applicants in accounting was their greatest challenge.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) recently published in its Job Outlook study that starting offers for accounting majors are on average up 2.2 percent to $49,022. That type of compensation makes the industry sound pretty lucrative, especially when compared to the annual starting salary of just more than $35,000 for liberal arts majors.
“I anticipate job growth in accounting not just in the United States, but globally,” DeMilia says. “While jobs may not be as prevalent in these recessionary times, those with accounting degrees can feel relatively secure that there will be opportunities, especially as our country and others look from a broader perspective at how reform of the international financial reporting system plays out.”
KEEP YOUR KIDS IDENTITY SAFE
Stealing Your Kids’ Identities
by Cathy Watson
Children are often the victims of identity thieves because their credit and backgrounds are clean, Social Security numbers are not linked to their owners’ names or ages, and victims typically won’t realize there is problem for many years, according to Linda Foley, founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center.
Maybe you can remember the tongue in cheek headlines mid-April, 1987. “7 Million US Children Disappear Overnight!” This was the first year that the IRS required a Social Security number for all dependents claimed for tax purposes.
This new IRS requirement was intended to prevent tax fraud but it also opened the door to a new crop of identity theft and scams. Many of the victims did not know that their Social Security number was being used to obtain credit or to create a clean identity for employment until they came of age and applied for their own credit or for a job.
Their numbers had been harvested by persons working in hospitals, doctors’ offices, schools, or any place that has access to the child’s personal information … including parents or other family members!
How do you know if your child’s identity has been stolen? One clue is when you begin to receive those annoying offers for credit cards; in your child’s name!
Get your child’s credit report. Everyone is entitled to a free credit report annually from each of the three major companies that create the reports, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Companies like LIFELOCK can also help protect your child’s identity. Don’t wait until it’s too late. The problem is harder to fix than to prevent.
MANAGING YOUR TIME
Managing Your Time In a Home Based Business
Audrey Okaneko
People decide to start a home based business for a variety of reasons. Some people want to be home when their kids get home from school. Some people are caring for a sick parent and wish to be home. Some people just can not conform to the 8-5 mold.
When you work at home, you are in charge of your time. You will decide how much time is spent talking with customers, how much time is spent marketing your business and how much time is spent doing the laundry.
It is so easy to run out to the grocery store, or do a load of laundry, or finish up those dinner dishes; however none of those activities are contributing to your business.
One of the cutest stories I can share with you is the time I spoke with a woman who just couldn’t find her first customer. She and I had created a list of 50 activities she could do that would help her find that first customer. At the end of the week, she still did not have a customer. She was upset and frustrated. We began to talk about the list of 50 activities. She had not done one of them. What she had done was rearrange her office space twice, buy and put labels on several folders for the paperwork she knew she’d have down the road and read some articles on sales.
When you work at home, there is no one telling you when a project must be completed. There is no one asking you for your completed work. You have to have the desire and the motivation to take the steps needed to create sales for any business you start.
I am strong advocator of goals, both short term and long term. What is it that you want to accomplish today, this week, this month and this year? Put it in writing. If you want to find one new customer this week, that’s a great goal, but how will you find that person? Will you place an ad? Will you write articles? What steps will you take to find that new customer?
I know that sometimes we don’t hit our goals. That’s ok, rewrite them. Allow yourself 30 minutes per day to reread your goals, make a plan to execute those goals and if necessary, rewrite them. Remember there is no boss to tell you how to spend your time, but a goal sheet can help guide you through your days and weeks.
About the Author
Audrey Okaneko has been working at home since 1983. She can be reached at audreyoka@cox.net or visited at http://www.recipe-barn.com
Fake “EBAY” emails…beware!
Beware of fake “EBAY” emails.
Because we here at SmartWAHMs use Ebay to buy and sell a variety of items, we are constantly bombarded by scam emails trying to imitate an official notification from Ebay.
These are just scam artists trying to get your personal information with the ultimate goal of cleaning out your bank account or using your credit card information for their evil deeds.
Sometimes these scammers cash in on the holiday seasons in the hopes that inexperienced Internet shoppers will believe their fake emails and click on the links inside them.
Both Ebay and PayPal will head up their real emails with your name… the one you signed up with. Anyone can get your Ebay ID, so just because it shows that… don’t think that you are safe and can click on any links.
NEVER click on a link in any email that you feel is suspicious. You should be able to see the actual URL by doing a mouseover on the link.
FORWARD suspicious emails to Ebay (spoof@ebay.com) or to Paypal (spoof@paypal.com).
Here
is another Ebay scam that is reported to be making the rounds. Scammers are getting the Ebay ID of the second-highest bidder for an auction and then making an offer to that person pretending to be the original seller.
The scam is that the “seller” tells the losing bidder that the winning bidder has failed to pay and that they are offering a “second chance” purchase. Second chance purchases are a legitimate Ebay tool, but beware!
The victim then pays the scammer for the auction, but of course never receives the item. By the time they complain to the real seller, it is too late.. the scammer has their money.
Don’t let your holiday season be ruined scammers! Learn all about Ebay’s safety and security measures here…http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/
Welcome to SmartWAHMs
What’s a WAHM?
A WAHM is a “Work At Home” Mom. If you are a work at home mom or stay at home mom or aspire to be one… this is the site for you! We have information about work at home jobs, tips on organizing and running your home-based business, recipes and time saving ideas that really work from real WAHMs. Please bookmark our site and check back often as our content changes on a regular basis.
