Review: TOS HomeWork

I received this ebook from The Old Schoolhouse store a few weeks ago. I'm not a huge fan of ebooks because I have a hard time reading them online. However, I have to say it was very easy to read this book. The formatting in the pdf was great. It's 95 pages long so I didn't want to take the time (and ink) to print it. 

It was all choke full of great work at home ideas. There were interviews of many homeschooling turned entrepreneur families. They describe the type of business they do at home plus how they fit their homeschooling in to it. For example, one mom does taxes. She began work out of the home & when she came home some of her clients followed and the business has grown. She said that little school is done from January to April 15th but they school year round so the rest of the year is full of more formal learning. 

I wasn't sure what I would see when I began reading. I've been frustrated before when I see what I think will be a great work at home idea only to find that it's more of a sales pitch to buy their book to get more ideas - that sort of thing. If any of you are stay-at-home moms who would like to earn a bit of extra income, then you have probably seen what I'm trying to convey.

What I truly enjoyed about this book was that these are real people who took what they enjoy doing and turned it in to a business. They saw a need and filled it and it grew to either fully support their family or at the very least support many of their family expenses.

I found this also helpful since I've done a bunch of different things since coming home to help generate some extra income. When I first began at home I had been working as a medical transcriptionist in a family doctor's office. I loved the work. I enjoy typing and I was good at it. I was able to find a job that let me do my typing from home. That was fun but also a bit stressful. It's hard to type when you have a four year old and a newborn nearby. I found myself working late at night to get my work done. When we moved to the country five years ago I had to give up all transcription at that point. I had no local contacts and no high speed connection to be able to do it at home. 

I had also began to try to grow a photography business. I enjoyed taking photos and people seemed to like what I did so I began charging. Unfortunately, I didn't make enough to upgrade my equipment to keep pace with the rapid growth of digital. Now I just take photos for my own enjoyment.

However, this past fall I began babysitting full-time. It all sort of fell in to my  lap although hubby & I had discussed it about a year earlier. It seemed like an easy (ha!) way to earning some extra money. It has certainly been enjoyable watching these two little girls. All the money I earn goes towards paying off our debt. It's nice to know that I am once again contributing money to our household.

Having said that, working at home is not for the faint of heart. There are many days when I'm just plain tired and it's hard to know that I have one or two extra little ones to watch. The girls are under two so it's more worked involved that with my own boys who are five and up.

With the way the economy is heading downhill, I would encourage those who would like to earn some extra income to start brainstorming those things they are good at - their passions. Are you crafty? Can you sell what you make? Etsy is a great site for all things homemade. Do you have a knack for history or science or math? Have you written your own curriculum to fit the needs of your family? Do you have a unique take on how to organize your day? There are many self-publishing sites out there. One in particular is Lulu where you could write and sell your own curriculum or planners or anything. 

And if you are just not sure what  you can do for home, check out HomeWork at the TOS store. The last few pages of the book are full of resources to click and look in to.