A Successful October .... and Plans ....

My second month in business has been even better than the first ... getting closer to recovering my take-home pay from when I was teaching .... about $500 short this time .... but closer!! I am encouraged.

I am having some trouble collecting pay from a couple of people and that is such a pain. I hate having to chase after people and nag them for money. Everyone tells me "make them pay in advance" .... but that is easier said than done in some cases. One of the parents has 3 kids in my HERS classes (homeschool) and he just drops the kids off and drives away ... the kids come in all eager to learn and be in class ... and I am in a back room and have no idea if he has come in to pay or not .... so I teach them. Then when he comes to get them, the kids hop in the car and he drives off. I, and HERS, have both spent way too much time and energy trying to collect money from him. We were being nice and letting him pay by the week for classes ... but forget that! So this Wednesday .... if he brings the kids in ... we will have to turn them away ... and that will not be fun. The kids are basically innocent pawns and it is sad.

But overall .... things are going well. I have been working with a young man on SAT and I think he is going to do pretty well on it. He needs 100 more points on it for the college he wants and I am pretty sure he will get them. I will lose him after this next week and I will miss him.

I was also working with a young man on getting his GED .... he needed 40 more points and I am pretty sure he can get those, too! I hope so!!

My sister in Australia wrote to me and suggested I look into the competive athletes in the area ... young people who might be on dance teams or gymnastics teams or judo teams .... young people who are so good at their sport that they spend hours a day practicing and might need a tutor to learn Math or their other classes. That is a GOOD IDEA!! So .... I am going to check in with local dance studios, gymnastics trainers, etc and just let them know that I am available to help their kids with Math. There is a BIG gymnastics trainer in Plano, TX .... produced many Olympians ... so I will definitely look there.

All in all .... I am pleased ... and will keep working at building my reputation ....

Blogging and Spam ....

I have recently received lots of hits on this BLOG and almost all of them are praising me on my wonderful post titled "First Month is Over ...". Some commentors even want to re-print it, with my permission, on their website!!

I might have actually taken the bait on those because they are all Homeschooling related links ... however ... the post titled "First Month is Over ...." is such a weak post ... no opinions ... no real information .... nothing worth repriniting .... so I am guessing that I am being Spammed.

I'll be curious to see how many commentors think this post is wonderful and would like to re-print it on their website!! I have been deleting those comments ... but I think I will keep them this time.

Anyway .... I'll have my biggest, busiest day so far today. Homeschool classes from 9:30-1:00 at HERS and then Private Tutoring from 3:00-9:00. WOW ... I was thinking this was a really busy day .... but then it dawned on me that when I was teaching Public School I was at work by 7:45am ... got home by 5:00pm and did Private Tutoring 6-9:00 each night. So today should go okay ... but I am a bit out of practice!! At least I will be in my own home from 3-9:00 ... with my coffee maker and a view of birds at my birdfeeder ... and music ....

Life is GOOD ...