As the Home Schooling Steward, I am here to help you find your way around Helium. Feel free to send me a message with any questions or concerns you have, topic ideas, or anything else on your mind. If I am unable to answer your questions, you can have peace of mind knowing that I will find the answers among other Helium Stewards and Staff.

Getting to know me:

"Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Rum!" Not quite a pirate but I joined the United States Navy, as a Yeoman (secretary), a few months after graduating from high school, and served from January 1989-January 1993. My duties at Readiness Training Facility Dam Neck, Virginia Beach, VA included: typing evaluations of military personnel, leave papers (vacations) for the entire command, typing The Plan of the Day, filing, typing letters for the Commanding and Executive Officers, and more administrative type duties. Upon completion of service I was honorably discharged and also received the Navy Achievement Medal for exemplary performance.

The majority of my writing skills have come as a direct result of copy work and proofreading learned in Navy. I grew weary of having to redo papers due to grammatical errors and quickly learned how to catch my mistakes in order to hand it in right the first time...and was able to catch errors in the work of others as well. Freelance Writing is a new endeavor for me because, until I found Helium.com, the only writing I've done has been a personal blog which can be found in the "mylinks" section of my "About Me" page. Though, not a Helium.com purchase, my article, Today's Modern Mom, was posted in the Pensacola News Journal this past Mother's Day, May 11, 2008 (a freebie). Several of my articles at Helium.com are in high ranking positions and I tied for fourth place and earned $5.00 for my home schooling articles...which I hope account for something.

I live in Pensacola, Florida...home to almost snowy-white sandy beaches and lots of sunshine. My days are spent living, learning, and thriving with my husband of sixteen years and our two children, ages ten and thirteen. I am a stay-at-home mother and have been home schooling our children for over five and one-half years. Home schooling has been a wonderful adventure and as long as our children want to be home schooled, a home schooling family we shall be.

My passion is ...

Life

I know too much about ...

Nothing. One can never know too much.

My parents always told me ...

You can be whatever you want

My childhood ambition ...

To join the Navy.

My favorite memory ...

A tie...the day I married my husband and when each of my children were born

Why I write ...

Because I love writing.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

I am listening to a wonderful classical musical station, Adagio FM, via Itunes radio

My first job ...

Stock clerk and bagger for a grocery store in Northern Michigan

My best moment ...

Becoming a mother

My inspiration ...

Life, Family, and Friends

Education > Homeschooling Motivating your homeschooled child

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Sometimes we, as parents, go into panic mode when one or more of our home schooled children does not seem motivated when it comes to their learning. Advice pertaining to this issue will vary and, depending on your parenting style, you most assuredly will gear more towards authors whose style is more in-line with your views. This article is from the perspective of a more relaxed home schooling approach.

I was not always a relaxed home schooling parent, in fact, I was very structured and felt the only way to motivate our son (our daughter has always been motivated) was by threatening l...

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