Leaping From The Box

You just never know what topics we will cover during our Friday Homeschool Chat. This past Friday we spent a good share of the morning discussing the pros and cons of a plan one member had for fostering her son’s entrepreneurial spirit. The plan involved providing snacks in an office environment, taking over an existing service that had continually lost money. We floated ideas about how to minimize the shrinkage of product and the resultant loss of income, discussed how much financial involvement the parents should have at start up, business licenses, child labor laws, sales tax licenses and much more. Since many members present Friday had experience in some of those areas, the parent in question came away from the chat with some answers and more questions to research. I am sure she will want to discuss the topic again in coming weeks.

Fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in our homeschooled children is a recurring discussion topic on Friday chats. Homeschooling often leads families (parents and children) to question the “worker” model that public schools teach their students. Many of us hope that our children will be able to avoid the “worker bee” mindset and find ways to make their interests and passions also provide their income. The question becomes, how to foster this entrepreneurial growth in our children, especially as they enter the teen years and (hopefully) begin to define their passions and focus turning them into career goals.

It seems as though we have always had a side business in addition to my husband’s main career income, businesses in which one or more of our children could participate. When they were very young, I had a two-acre garden in which I grew vegetables for sale. The children worked side-by-side with me in planting, weeding, harvesting, marketing and sales. Their favorite, by far, was the selling and collecting the money, which was fine with me, as I enjoyed the other aspects more. Unfortunately, after we moved from New York, that sort of business venture was no longer a possibility. But I believe it laid the seeds of an entrepreneurial spirit in at least two of our three children. Today, as teens and young adults, those two children have stated goals of owning their own businesses. The recent purchase and playing of Cashflow 101 (see my January 4th review) has only intensified that goal in the eldest.

I would love to hear how you have fostered entrepreneurial spirits in your children. Leave me a comment.  If I get enough ideas, I will make a future blog post listing all of them!

For several years now, so many that I’ve lost count, I have hosted a weekly homeschool chat on IRC. Every Friday I “meet” other homeschoolers from across the globe and we chat. What do we chat about? The list is endless. Here are just a few topics that we have touched on recently:

• Handwriting skills
• Math curriculums and websites for the elementary aged student
• Changing food diets
• Field trips
• Co-ops, what they are and how to find one
• Finding social avenues for homeschooled teens
• How formal learning should or should not be for Preschool and Kindergarten
• Parenting techniques
• Housecleaning tips
• New pets
• Decluttering ideas
• How to begin homeschooling
• How the weekly chat has helped some members get through the burnout state of mind
• Having a schedule vs. not having a schedule
• Planning for college
• Online virtual schools

As you can see, we do not stick solely to homeschooling topics. As long-time homeschoolers know, almost everything that affects homeschooling also affects our daily lives, and vice versa. So homeschooling becomes life. Maybe I should promote my chat as a “Life Chat” in the future? What do you think?

Our chat members come from the fifty states along with several countries, which is why I call it an “International” homeschool chat. One of our regular chatters is from London and is currently visiting the U.S. with her family. We had fun exchanging ideas of places she and her family should see on their visit.

We meet every Friday, 9 a.m. US/Canada Eastern time, GMT -5. You will find the details for joining on my Homeschool Chat page.

Do join us! We love assisting new homeschoolers and talking life with the long-time homeschoolers!

A couple of months ago we were discussing toddlers and temper tantrums on my Friday morning homeschool chat. One chatter mentioned that using the Signing Time series with her pre-speaking toddler had brought about good results in reducing temper tantrums. Since Miss Munchkin seemed to be just entering the temper tantrum stage, I sent away for the Baby Signing DVDs without even telling Kat about them! Was she ever surprised!

I just posted up an article telling about Miss Munchkin’s experiences with sign language. It has been fun watching pure unschooling in action. When you have teens, you miss seeing the joy and excitement that little ones express when they learn something brand new.

Come on over and read American Sign Language (ASL) for Toddlers and Children.