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cost of buying your own washer and dryer. If the laundromat is still less costly, look for a used washer that you can buy and string a clothesline down your hallway or buy a folding clothes rack that can sit in the kitchen drying clothes when there's no one home.

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Become familiar with the school you're going to be attending. Find out what free services or activities are offered (these are likely to include access to computers, materials for career exploration, guest speakers, and possibly some social activities). If you're lucky, you'll meet someone who's in a situation similar to yours and will begin to develop new friendships before you start school. Make a phone call or an appointment to speak with the staff person you last encountered to determine where you are on the wait list and to keep the school apprised of any changes in your contact information.

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Take care of health issues now so that you won't have a series of appointments staring you in the face when you're supposed to be in school. Have your teeth checked, get a full physical check-up and start some sort of exercise program. If you're spending your afternoons now watching soaps on tv and planning to walk to school every morning, home for lunch at noon, back to school after lunch and home again after school, you may find yourself falling asleep on the couch instead of making supper for the kids after your first day at school.

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Get a library card and start reading. Read a chapter from a children's book (that you select) to your children, as a group, every day and read each one a bedtime story, of their own choosing, every evening. This creates a quiet family time together, and a shared experience, while empowering even very young children to develop their own taste in literature. Don't resist if a child wants the same book over and over he's likely memorizing the story and beginning to develop reading skills as you read to him.

Take the kids to story time at the library so that you have a half hour to yourself to find books or magazines that you can take home to enjoy after the kids are in bed. Learn about an author. When you find a book you enjoy, look for other books by that writer and read them all. See if you can find a biography about that author and discover what it is in his or her life story that resonates with you. In doing this, you will be learning about yourself, and you need to know a lot about yourself if you're going to succeed in a full-time schooling situation while raising

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