But are these just excuses?

They probably are. I just haven’t had the umph in me to really get going. It’s there in the mind, but not in practice.

It probably hasn’t helped that I have been ill. At the beginning of November I suffered a recurrence of the post-viral fatigue that kept me off work for an extended period three years ago. Although this time my symptoms are not quite as severe, it has still been enough to mean that I have not been at work for a month and the doctor has signed me off work until the start of the new term.

One of the main problems I have found has been the ability to concentrate for any period of time as it often leaves me feeling extremely light headed. The doctors have said that the best way to recover is through rest.

This has left me thinking about how I can move forward in small blocks of time.

For several years I have subscribed to Flylady. It began as a site to help get your home decluttered, but has grown to be much more than that.

One of Flylady’s sayings is “You can do anything for 15 minutes – except whine!”. I have that posted up on the wall over the computer, so I see it regularly. Although I have taken some of the ideas on board and tried to do the things that she suggests, I have not been particularly disciplined with it. Perhaps that is why I am still living with lots of clutter around me!

That is also true for working online.

Time and time again I have read that you must have goals, be disciplined, put in regular effort etc etc. My head knows that, but I so often find excuses and don’t carry through with what I had intended to do. Yet once we actually start those jobs which we think will take us a really long time, they take a lot less time than we expected.

So why do we do this to ourselves?

For my own part I know that I am not as disciplined as I should be with my time management. I use the excuse that as a mum I have so many other calls on my time and energy which often change at the last minute. I don’t have the luxury of being able to put everything else on one side whilst I concentrate on writing a blog post or article, working on our online business etc.

For example as I write this I have washing in the washing machine, Christmas letters and cards to write (it’s the last posting date to USA, Australia and New Zealand today and I haven’t written any cards, letters etc!) as well as the 101 other things I have to do to keep the household running smoothly. Yet I know that I have used this as an excuse and even a small change in the ACTION I take on a regular basis will make a huge difference.

It is a year since I began my coaching with Alex Jeffreys who is giving away free places on his next coaching course. One of the first things that he taught us was to make our plans and to be disciplined in keeping to them. I’ve done this in my head, but have I done it in practice? Not really and that is where I have come unstuck.

A couple of nights ago I clicked on the links in my blogroll to the other blogs set up by Alex’s students a year ago. I was saddened, but not really surprised to find many of those blogs where the domain had lapsed. For several others the last post on the blog had been at the beginning of 2009.

I was more heartened to see those where they were not posting on the original subject of the blog – i.e. the list building that we were learning with Alex Jeffreys and that particular type of internet marketing – but they had found a new route to take and were using the blog for their new line of business.

One or two blogs were still providing the useful and entertaining content that I have become accustomed to over the past 12 months.

It is not my role to speculate about why this has happened – it is merely an observation; but as for me, I have not been as consistent in posting as I should have been. My blog is metamorphosing (very slowly!) into a new area, but I am still here!

Added to all of this I have been working together with my husband Richard on our new enterprises. We attended the Entrepreneurs Bootcamp run by Andrew Reynolds at the O2 Arena in London at the beginning of October and we signed up to Brett McFall’s Warp Speed programme.

The good thing about this is that we have begun to work together on this enterprise. We have different skills and if we put them together we can cover more areas. At the moment we are not as accomplished with this as we could be but by practising a little each day we can improve.

Isn’t this what life and business is about?

I had intended to write about our new enterprises in this post, but I think my musings have gone on for long enough now. I’ll start a new post about what we are doing and save it for later publication – now that would be a first! But in the meantime if you want to have a quick peek at what we are doing you can look at our Eminently Ebooks site or at our Positive Lifestyle Choices site. We’d be interested to know what you think about them.

So what are your ideas on this matter? Is it just because we are all human and have so much to do that we don’t dedicate the time we need to if we say that we want to have our own online business? Or are there other factors that stop us in our tracks?

I’d be really interested to have your feedback and comments on this.

Let me introduce her:

“Amanda van der Gulik is a homeschooling momepreneur and very savvy young woman who is giving away a terrific e-book called, “Allowance Secrets: To Give Or Not To Give?”, which will help you make up your mind on whether or not to give your kids an allowance.

She has spent months compiling over 200 pages of valuable and helpful information about the financial repercussions of giving your children an allowance, or not.”

Amanda knew that I shared the same vision, although I am focussing more on teenagers upwards and she asked me to write a chapter for her “Allowance Secrets” ebook.

I was extremely flattered to be asked as I am still just getting involved in this area, but I wrote my chapter and I have since had the opportunity to look at this ebook myself.

It is an amazing and thought provoking collection of ideas and suggestions about allowances. Most importantly the overall idea behind the book is that there is no right or wrong answer to this question and that parents should make their own decision about what suits them best.

This is a really useful book which is broken down into various sections so that you can look at the one that suits your own ideas and read what each author has to say, but you can also look at the other sections and have the information to weigh up for yourself.

With the amount of work that has gone into this ebook I am surprised that Amanda has decided to give it away, but she, like me, is passionate about getting this information out to those who need it. By not charging for it she can make sure that those who will benefit from it can have access to it.

I applaud what she has done and I would definitely recommend that you download a copy for yourself or for someone you know who has children or grandchildren – or might be planning to have children!

Here is what Amanda has to say about the book itself – I thought that I would let her own words speak for themselves:

Kids Allowances

People seem to ask the same questions about kids allowances again and again.

“Should I give my child an allowance?”

“How much should I give my child as an allowance?”

“When should I start giving my child an allowance?”

“Will an allowance ruin my child’s entrepreneurial spirit?”

Allowances are a very touchy subject and it really comes down to each individual’s personal strategies for financial education for their child. Teaching children about money can be very difficult and confusing for the parent as well.

Most of us were raised with the value that “money is evil”, or “you don’t need to have money to be happy.” But have you had a good look around you lately? Can you find me a family who are in a lot of bad debt that are not stressing about their finances? Maybe money doesn’t make you happy but not having money will make you a lot more unhappy, I can tell you that for sure.

Just imagine, you have a recurring income of more than $10,000/month. How would that feel? Would you feel stress-free because you are now able to pay off all of your expenses and thereby not create any bad debt? How will you feel when you have money left over at the end of every month instead of living paycheck to paycheck?

What if you were financially able to give away 10% of your income, every month, without even noticing the financial impact? What would you give it to? Who would you like to help? How would it feel to be able to help others in need with the extra money that you are earning without even feeling the financial impact? It would be a pretty awesome feeling right?

So how does this tie into the topic of allowances?

Some people suggest that allowances are a way to teach their children about money. Others suggest that allowances gives their kids the chance to learn to handle money without losing their shirt.

Here are some of my own suggestions on the topic to get your financial juices flowing.

Maybe when we give our child an allowance it might start to create the feeling of entitlement in our child?

What if by giving our child an allowance we were actually hindering their financially creative minds?

Would they be so used to just getting money that they wouldn’t even bother to come up with creative new ways to earn their own money?

And what about pride of ownership that comes when we are finally able to acquire our dreams by our own means instead of just as a gift from someone else?

These are just a few of the topics discussed in Allowance Secrets.

Allowance Secrets is the ultimate Guide to allowances. Over 20 experts have contributed to this project.

I would love to hear your feedback about this book. Was it useful to you? Did you learn something new? Did it make you change your ideas about allowances? Was anything missing that you would like to see?

I can then pass this feedback on to Amanda so that together we can all help to get the best information out to as many parents and grandparents as possible. After all these will be our future business leader, bankers, politicians etc!

I grew up listening to Abba and given their recent popularity again, I often have these words in my head.

Many of us would say that we would like to live in a rich man’s world, but would we be equipped to do so? Would we know how to cope with the responsibility of the money or would we be like many lottery winners who within quite a short time find themselves falling back out of that world with a bump?

Financial education is vitally important to us all, whether we have very little money or a great deal.

But how do we obtain that information? Most of us probably get a great deal of what we know about money and our attitudes towards it from our parents, but given the way that the world has changed so rapidly is this always the best form of education?

I have been reading a report from September 2004 by the Financial Services Authority entitled Young people (18-24) and their financial information needs. Now I know that this might not sound the most riveting of reports to read, but I have found some really eye-opening snippets of information like although the majority of people did not like the idea of debt, many did not consider 0% credit cards and balance transfers or student loans to be debt, especially if they were able to keep up with the payments!

Thankfully when I asked my own son this question, he was able to see that this was still debt, whether you were paying interest on it or not.

In their general attitudes to money, all respondents felt that money was an essential part of life, and as a necessity to be able to do the things they wanted to do. Most saw money in terms of spending power and the empowerment it gave them, with the ability to display material wealth.

As many of you know I work with young people age 16+ and have spoken to many of them about their attitudes towards money. In addition to having a somewhat negative attitude towards what information about money is available, most of them are not interested in it, except in how they can get more money now.

I also have two teenagers of my own and I want to be able to help them to grow into financially educated young people who are able to make and manage their own money responsibly.

Over the past few months, this has become my passion, to be able to get this information out to young people in a way which is meaningful, relevant and will keep their attention so that they can learn now, instead of the hard way later in their lives.

I have spent a great deal of my available time reading lots of information from classic literature about wealth to up to date sites with information for children and young people.

From my research so far I can see that there are some excellent resources available for the younger children to begin teaching them young about money and I will add them to a new resources page as soon as I have the time. I have also found some useful information aimed at students going to university, but I feel that there is something lacking in between and for those who are perhaps working as an apprentice, earning a lower wage than their friends who are working in the local burger place.

My aim is to bring together a collection of resources to reach these young people, which can be used interactively both on the internet, individually or with others or can be used in an educational environment. In this way I can combine my skills and experience as a teacher and a mother with my ever growing experience in the Internet world.

In the near future I will begin work on transforming my blog into the valuable resource I would like it to become. Please bear with me whilst this happens.

In the meantime so that I can make it as relevant as possible, I would like your help and that of any young people you know.

I already have several ideas from earlier posts both on this blog and elsewhere, but I would really like your comments about:

What is the most important thing you (or a young person) would like to know about money?

What sort of resources would you like to see? Would you like links to other resources all in one place?

Are there any areas that you are struggling to understand or to get information about?

What is your attitude towards money? Is this typical of that of your friends? Do you feel peer pressure to conform where money is concerned?

How do you think this information could best be presented – on the internet, in the home, in the classroom?

Would you like to see the information available through interactive workshops with others, or access the infomation alone?

Would you like the information to all be freely accessible, or do you think some could be presented through a members’ area?

Would you be prepared to pay to access that information?

If so, how much? For a one-off set of information? For a monthly site?

Would you like a physical product? Videos, games, worksheets etc or would you be happy to download it all?

And any other information that you think would be useful?

Although I am aiming at the age group of probably 14 to 20, this is not restrictive. Please ask any young people you know what they think about this and either ask them to leave the information themselves or leave a comment for me yourself.

I really do want to provide a growing resource that will adapt to various situations and circumstances and provide at least some young people with the information that they so desperately need to grow into financially aware adults.

I look forward to all of your comments and thanks for your help with this.

I am sure that I am not the only one who has gone through these thoughts (and plenty others in the same vein).

As I learned more about Internet Marketing, through Alex’s coaching, my contacts with other students and general reading and observation, I found myself focussing more on why I was doing this.

I came to the conclusion that it was because I was sick and tired of all the struggling in my life, that I knew I was capable of more and that my life (and that of my family) could and should be so much better.

So what has been holding me back?

After all I am an educated, intelligent person. I am honest and hardworking. Why have I had to cope with so many difficult situations relating to finance, work, family etc?

I deserve better and I certainly want more freedom in my life than I have had until now.

So I have been looking into the power of my own mind and those things which have held me back. I have been reading about the Law of Attraction and other related subjects.

Although there is so much to learn and try out in these areas, one thing that I have realised is the power of our mind is so great if it is correctly channelled.

There are many diferent ways of doing this and one is through the use of written affirmations.

I have to admit that I have struggled with this, so I was looking for something else that would help me to focus my mind and to use its power to achieve those things that I was aiming for.

I had heard about Mind Movies through Amanda van der Gulik and her Teaching Children about Money website (as many of you know this is the area that I am working in now).

I hadn’t really done much about it, but she emailed me recently that Mind Movies were doing a new launch and were giving away six pre-made Mind Movies. I decided that I had nothing to lose and since I have started working with Amanda I trust her judgement.

Well I went to have a look at what was on offer and I was really excited by what I saw and by the possibilities it presented.

I downloaded the pre-made Mind Movies and began looking at them regularly. Now not all of the images and words in these pre-made versions will suit us all, but they are written and designed to touch many aspects of our lives and there will be something for everyone. If you want to see these pre-made movies for yourself then check them out here.

By looking at these pre-made movies I have been thinking about what I wanted to put into my own movie(s) and so far I have come up with some things, but I know that there are plenty more to come – after all I want the best for my life and that of my family.

Mind Movies has just reopened and so I have bought the information on how to make my own Mind Movie. This includes $2000 worth of bonuses which are really good – including Amanda’s pre-made Mind Movies for Kids and a free upgrade to the next version of Mind Movies when it comes out later on (though this is a limited offer).

There are some other upsells with this package, including 7 Secrets to Happiness by Natalie one of the Mind Movies team and Lynda Dyers’ How To Series of videos, which I have also purchased. Finally there is the option of the coaching course, which I haven’t currently taken because I am doing other coaching at the moment and need to concentrate on one thing at a time!

There is a 30 day trial to Subliminal Success Accelerator which can be cancelled before payment begins. This allows you to watch the Mind Movies in the background of your normal desktop view. You can continue to work as normal whilst it is running, but you can adjust both the sound and opacity levels to suit your own working environment.

I tried this out this morning with one of the pre-made movies (as I haven’t yet made my own). It is a really excellent way of keeping images, thoughts, words and sounds (if you want) in front of you without having to stop and look at something else. We recognise the power of subliminal images, so this is a great way of putting our own images in front of us, instead of being bombarded with negative and other unwanted images from outside. You can set up several movies which can be left to run all day if you want to, just turning up to full viewing at the beginning and ending of the day (or whenever you want to).

There is plenty in this package to keep me occupied for a long while and as it helps me to achieve my goals (and keep me out of the gaols of negativity, self doubt etc.) I know that it will be worth it.

However I need to take ACTION. Last night I read Gary Simpson’s new ebook: “The Internet Marketing Mindset – How to Program YOUR ‘Newbie’ Mindset For Internet Marketing Success.”

Well, as I commented on Gary’s blog he has been reading my mind again. This is so much in tune with where I am at the moment. I urge you to go and download it as there is so much great information in there, as ever. Then do leave Gary a comment once you have taken advantage of his generosity in giving away this ebook.

Without action, all our reading, looking, and imagining will remain just that – dreams.

So to keep myself on track I have decided that I will post regularly here about how I am progressing with both the MindMovies and the other upsells I have purchased.

I would love you to help keep me on track with this by following my journey and subscribing to my RSS feed for new updates. Please feel free to comment on this and if anyone else purchases this Mind Movies creation kit let me know how you are getting on with it too.

I am sure that by using this tool well I will start to achieve my goals – Amanda van der Gulik says that since she started using Mind Movies last year she has achieved 3/4 of hers and there are plenty of other testimonials from people who have used this method.

After all if Frank Kern has used this method to help him achieve his success then I’m sure that Mind Movies can do this for us too!

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During the past month I have spent a great deal of time reading everything from classic books such as ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill to lots of information on other websites about financial literacy for young people and courses for writing all kinds of things from novels to ebooks, newsletters to short articles.

As you may know, these areas are where my real passions lie and I feel that I need to feed these areas as much as possible. However along with the two week break from school for Easter, which has meant that my usual schedule is disrupted, my research has kept me quiet here.

Is it possible for us to do too much research?

Well it can be if we don’t then get on and do something with the information that we have gained. After all as Alex Jeffreys said at the beginning of the course ‘You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going’.

I first came across this saying from Mike Litman, who is a very motivational writer, speaker and coach with his own inimitable style. He is currently doing a series of motivational videos on his blog and if you have not seen them yet then I suggest that you have a look at one of them here.

Mike says this in his video “Too many people follow money and not their divine assignment and they get screwed up in life” – does this ring true with you? I certainly does with me. I’m listening to him again as I write and it is well worth while listening to more than once!

“You know that there is something great about your life”.

“Chase the greatest you and give yourself the chance”.

We need not only to plant the seed and hope to reap the harvest, but also to cultivate in between these events and this is what I have been doing. “Don’t judge yourself on results, judge yourself on activity – make your life a masterpiece.”

Wow, that is such an inspiration to me. It has taken me a while to really move forward on this and I have felt frustrated and overwhelmed at times this week, but I hope that as you listen you too find the inspiration to do what is right in your life. Like Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent, what is your dream?

Take that step and follow it. Leave me a comment about your dreams. We can achieve them, if only we cultivate them.

Hilary

P.S. I planned to write much more in this post, but I feel that this is so relevant now that I will add further posts with other ideas later.

Please let me know where your motivation lies in Making Your Life a Masterpiece

What does communication mean to you?

As you may have already seen in my previous posts and comments on other blogs, I have a great love of books and words. I grew up in a home where we had several dictionaries which I would spend hours reading, crosswords formed part of our everyday life and we all played word games such as Scrabble and Lexicon. But does this knowledge make us a good communicator?

I recently went to see Twelfth Night in London with Derek Jacobi as Malvolio. As I enjoyed watching the performance I reflected on the fact that a play written 400 years ago was still entertaining audiences of a very different age.

How could this be?

So many people who have had to study the works of Shakespeare at school will tell you how they have been put off for life.

Yet here was a theatre full of people (and more had been queuing for returned tickets) on a cold January evening. Surely this said something about both the playwright and the actors who were performing the play.

Shakespeare had created a comedy about disguise, love and double meaning which was reaching out to a modern audience through the use of more contemporary ideas and props.

I know that this is not everyone’s idea of an enjoyable night out (and a good job too!) but it expresses just how good communication can overcome so many barriers of time, language, culture and other distractions.

Shakespeare’s words had to be given life by those acting on the stage. Without their skill and talent the audience would not have heard or understood what they were saying. It also required a director to bring the play to life and other staff to support those on stage.

I think that this shows just how complex communication can be. There are so many layers, places where there can be misunderstandings and where words can go unheard.

Yet it is a vital part of all our daily lives. Without it we would be unable to interact with other people and we would be unable to function to our full potential.

I realise that I have made some observations here that some people might not see in quite the same way that I do.

I teach young people aged 16+ communication skills and so often I hear from them comments such as “I can’t do that”. Yet after explanation something starts to click for them.

I had a student recently who gave me a piece of work with no paragraphs in it and told me that it was something she did not understand. Yet as I explained to her how to paragraph and pointed out places to do so, she was able to see those new paragraphs for herself.

In a sense this is the same sort of thing that happens with our financial education. If you have read my previous post, you will know that this is something I feel passionate about. My eBook on this will be forthcoming soon – other family issues permitting.

Communication is the base on which our lives revolve and the more we can improve our communication with one another, the more we can open the possibilites in all areas of our lives, including financial independence.

So let us take every opportunity to improve the ways we communicate. Watch and listen to great communicators, read their books and other literature, take and make recommendations to one another.

I am always looking at ways to improve my own communication. What ways do you use to improve in this area? What literature, sites or individuals do you recommend?

I look forward to hearing from you.

I went away for three days on family business and when I got back the comments on my last post about what we should be teaching our children massively outweighed my original post.

This is just what I had hoped for!

This sort of response gives me so much to ‘get my teeth into’ and so many things to learn.

I have now come back to writing this post which I started a few days ago. I have so much more information buzzing around in my head that I need to order it all so that it will make sense!

Well my first response HAS to be to Nikki Stephen’s rant. Thank you so much, Nikki, for being honest here about issues that affect you personally. I have to say that I agree with you about so many of the inequalities to be found in our system in the UK and the resulting mindset.

I caught part of a TV trailer last night for a programme set in a school where one of the girls was pregnant and the boyfriend referred to the fact that baby = house and money, kerching! What example is this setting? I admit that I didn’t see the programme so I don’t know how it was played out, but…

Children need to be taught the basic values of honesty and integrity, and that hard work pays off.

I really couldn’t agree more Nikki, and that is really behind what I am looking at here. We as parents should be teaching our children these things, but I know from the experiences I have had working with my students that many of them have not had that parental input, sometimes because the parents do not understand these things themselves.

We can moan about this, or we can get on and do something about it and help those who have not had a chance to learn so far. Surely this will help future generations, even if the current generations do not understand these principles?

I know what it feels like when a student I have been working with tells me that they bunked off school, but now realise that they have to work hard at their literacy / numeracy etc if they want to be able to move forward in their lives.

I know the encouragement that I am able to give them and the sense of achievement when they say to me “I finally understand that now”. I want to be able to help young people like that, who perhaps have not had the best start in some of these matters.

But I also want to be able to provide help and resources for young people like my own children and others who have good, positive parental or other support but would like somewhere to go for resources and other information. I believe that these two areas can cross over, but it is something that needs to be worked on and that has given me a goal to work towards.

Other ideas to come out of the comments on my last post include:

Internet safety – I couldn’t agree more and I know that I have perhaps made the odd comment that should not have been made, so I will need to go back and cover my tracks there.

Thom Swartwood made a great observation:

I think it is great they want to get out there and blog, just remember there is nothing better in this world than a concerned parent, a parent that watches over what their children are doing. Communication is the key.

Other commenters also expressed the same concerns and I agree that we must do our utmost to make sure of the security of our young people on the internet.

I was particularly interested by Stephen Bray’s comments:

In my work as a family therapist, lately consulting almost exclusively to business owning families I found:

Children of successful business owners frequently are cared for by a host of au-pairs or nannys, go on to boarding school, and may well develop a dislike for their entrepreneurial parents and their enterprises.

The parents frequently cannot understand that the time and effort that they put into their businesses is no substitute for regular quality time at home. Indeed they believed that the long hours and work they undertook to build a better future was an act of love.

Obviously this is a situation that we want to avoid wherever possible and must be borne in mind – and I think that this applies not only to entrepreneurs. However if we can teach about the balance between working and living, that is a really important step forward.

I have just read a Quick Reads book (106 pages) by Richard Branson called “Screw It, Let’s Do It – lessons in life” (ISBN 0-7535-1099-5) which has some wonderful short thoughts at the beginning of each chapter as well as the information he gives about his philosophy in life.

In Chapter 7. Value Family and Friends he says:

Whatever you might think of him, Richard Branson has built up and run a very successful empire and his views towards the making of money are refreshing.

So if you want a quick morale boosting read, I really would suggest reading this book – I read it in just over an hour, but will be returning to it regularly.

I have been doing some other researching since I made my last post and I have discovered that there is some excellent information out there already for young people. Some of it has to be paid for, but much of it is free.

As I have gone about this research, I have realised that I do not want to be reinventing what is currently available, especially when some of it is already so well researched and tested.

I have decided at the moment that I am going to follow one of the available programmes with Lizzie and hopefully also my son, so that I can have a better understanding of how this works.

The programme is run by Chris and Jenny Ford whose three girls have all started their own businesses whilst at elementary school.

You may have heard of “That Internet Girl” on YouTube – their 12 year old daughter:

Anyway if you want to check out the free information they have and the programme they offer parents and children do have a look at www.cash-smart-kids.com. I will try to make regular posts about how this programme is going for us so that you can follow us and see if it will work for you too.

I have already found a number of really useful sites, blogs and other information. I have decided to put this together in the form of an ebook, so I shall be working on this in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any other information, websites, blog, links etc that you have not yet sent me please let me know so that I can add it onto the list and I will acknowledge you as the contributer of a link or information. I will also be emailing the commenters on my last post to request permission to use quotations from those comments, where appropriate.

At last I feel like I am getting my teeth into something that I feel passionate about!

There is a long way to go, but learning begins early in life and should continue throughout it.

You may have seen the comments on Gary Simpson’s blog about both the educational system and also whether we are teaching our young people the things that they need to know to survive and flourish as they grow.

This was partly prompted by a comment that my daughter Lizzie left on Gazz-Man’s blog about the motivational moments video he had produced (go and take a look if you haven’t seen it yet!).

Lizzie has been following my journey with Alex Jeffreys with interest and has started her own blog. Initially it was a free one where she had to have adverts, but now I have bought her own domain name and sorted out hosting for her. Do have a look at http://lizziedickinson.com (there is also a link to her blog under ‘Blog Links’ on the sidebar) and leave her a message.

The upshot of this comment and Gazz-Man’s replies including:

and:

is that I have been thinking about this issue of helping our young people.

Both Garry Parkes and Denis Caron have children in the same age bracket who want to follow their parents and have their own blogs.

In general the responses have been to encourage them to do so, but with the proviso of some overseeing by us as responsible adults. In this way we can teach them the things they really need to learn.

So what I would like to ask you all is:

Do you think it is a good idea to allow our children to follow us in what we are doing and to have their own blog?

What do you think we should be teaching them, both on and off line that is not taught at school?

Do you think it would be a good idea to have a junior community supported or encouraged by the adults in initally the F500, but could be further extended? Are there enough young people interested?

I had been thinking about a niche of my own and am still definitely thinking down another line. I had started drafting another post about that, but I felt that this was even more important at the moment.

As many of you know I teach at a Further Education College with students of 16+. Many of them come in with poor literacy and numeracy skills as well as often non existent study skills. It is my job to help these young people to learn these skills which will help them in their daily life as adults.

The more I have thought about this over the weekend, the more I have been wondering if this is the route I should take at the moment, to be someone who could oversee the development of our young people whilst they learn alongside us.

Perhaps they could have their own version of Garry Parkes’ excellent Profit Pulling Newsletter with articles written both by them and by adults to help them on this road including information on how to balance a cheque book etc.

What do you think? I would really love to have your opinions about whether you think this is something we should be doing and if it is possible to do.

I haven’t really thought it through fully yet, so your ideas would be really useful to me.

I felt the need to post this whilst the issue was still fairly recent. However I do apologise that I will not be able to answer you for a couple of days as I shall be going to the Midlands early tomorrow and will be without internet access (unless I can sneak off somewhere!).

We moved my elderly aunt into a sheltered flat near to us last August and I shall be spending the next couple of days with my sisters sorting out the house ready for sale. It has been a big job already and we are hoping to complete it soon.

However I really hope that when I return there will be lots of comments and my email box will be overflowing with your replies and thoughts.

Our children are our future. Many of us, including me, have taken this course so that we can be at home more with our children, whilst earning enough to allow us to live more easily. We really cannot afford to ignore them and their whole education as they grow.

Thank you for your help.

Yes Gary Simpson got me on his blog This is an idea that he picked up from Michel Fortin’s blog and the Gazz-Man has come up with an interesting (!) list, so I’d suggest you hop over and have a look at his post too. Come back to mine though if you want to find out about me!

Here are the rules.

Alex Jeffreys has urged us to make ourselves known to those reading our blogs and other communications so this is a good way to start.

So how did I get to my own list?

Well I thought of things myself, but I also asked my family, who came up with some interesting ideas. They also didn’t want to say some of them though. I wonder why?! I don’t know that these are necessarily strange, weird or bizarre, but they’ll do.

So here goes – a mixture of who I am, what I have done and what I am like. Maybe it will give you more of an insight into why I am taking this journey.

Oh and watch out! As the rules of this game say that I have to tag five other people to do the same – it could be you!

1. I am the middle of three daughters. My dad used to complain that even the budgie was female as our family is so full of females. When my son was born he was the first male in my maternal line for over 100 years!

2. I was (am sometimetimes still am) something of a tomboy. If there was anyone climbing the trees, getting into scrapes, willing to have a go at ‘interesting’ things, that was likely to be me (though not exclusively so).

3. I’ll usually try to do most things. This follows on from no 2 – I’m not worried about breaking a fingernail or helping to shift heavy objects. I’m fairly handy practically with DIY – much of it taught me by my dad.

4. Much of my working life has been in a male dominated environment. A reaction to no 1 perhaps?! I currently work in a college for 16+ learners where I work mainly with construction and engineering students.

5. I spent 11 years as an Air Traffic Controller. Perhaps I enjoy telling people where to go!

6. I once interrupted an after dinner speech dressed as a cleaning lady. We did clear it with the speaker’s PA first and made sure that he was in a good mood, otherwise it could have cut my career short! I got a few drinks out of that one.

7. I enjoy a glass of the Irish black stuff. Despite growing up in a nearly tee-total household, my parents wondered how they managed to bring up 3 Guiness-drinking daughters.

8. I flew over the school in which my sister was teaching in a Red Arrows aircraft. I worked with the Red Arrows aerobatic team for nearly 2 years (yes I told them where to go as well!). I was the passenger on a training flight – not an aerobatic one though.

9. I played the violin and bassoon. Sadly I rarely play either now, though I did take part in a makeshift band’s one-off performance at work just over a year ago.

10. I completed a course in organic horticulture. I love gardening, though I don’t do as much as I would like to at the moment and I believe in growing things as naturally as possible.

11. I love words and language. I usually win when we play Scrabble and like to spend time reading the dictionary. I have a degree in English Language and Medieval Literature.

12. I have always loved books and reading. Ever since learning to read I have always been able to lose myself in a book and I read as often as I can.

13. I sell second hand books on Amazon. Follows on from my love of books I suppose. The trouble is I have boxes of books everywhere which cause problems with no 14.

14. I love things to be tidy. But it doesn’t always happen! I keep trying to get sorted out but… (I’m sure that a lot of parents will know what I mean. lol!)

15. I like routines. I think that this helps to get things done more quickly so that I can get on with doing the things that I enjoy. I’m quite capable of being flexible though!

16. I have an interest in dyslexia. Follows on again from words and routines. I started a dyslexia course this year, but circumstances meant that it has had to go on hold for a while.

17. I like being outdoors. I enjoy walking, though certain members of my family are not so keen.

18. I don’t enjoy shopping and only have about 6 pairs of shoes. It is not a favourite pastime of all women – honestly! You’re more likely to find trainers, wellies and walking boots in my cupboards.

19. I like animals. We currently have two young cats, two guinea pigs and tropical fish in our home.

20. I once played the part of ‘Little Buttercup’. She is a red, round and rosy bumboat woman in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘HMS Pinafore’. I was rather the opposite and had to be well padded out!

21. I love singing and have sung in cathedrals, the open air, theatres (and in the shower!).
This is a great way of relaxing and I have sung in church choirs and an African township choir with lots of other styles in between.

22. I have lived outside the UK. I have lived in Cyprus and Germany and think the experiences will always stay with me – especially as I met my husband in Cyprus.

23. I make an amazing pasta dish. I wouldn’t class myself as a brilliant cook, but I do basic things fairly well and this seems to go down well with my family. My daughter added (yumm….) after she put this comment down.

24. I have run 2 half-marathons. This was a while ago, but I would still like to run the London marathon. Trouble is I don’t do enough exercise at the moment…

I thought that I would add a special one for the Gazz-Man because I know how much he likes Slade:

25. I was born and brought up in the next town to Slade’s hometown.

If I were to summarise all of this in one it would be:

My family and friends are most important to me which is why honesty, integrity and trust must always come first.

Well, are you enlightened, intrigued, puzzled? Let me know what you think. You can ask me further questions if you want, but I might not answer them all – yet.

So tagging. Well a quick look through my commenters would give Becky Carter, Gaielle Sharp, Ken Douglas, Dean Holland and Valerie Davies.

Don’t worry if you can’t do it immediately as you have other things going on, but do let me know when you have done it so that we can all come and take a look.

It’s a great way for us to get to know one another better and also to tell our story to others.

Mission Completed Well Done!
Becky Carter
Ken Douglas

After several days and hours of trying to get my head around making a video for Alex’s competition I’ve finally produced something. It’s not perfect by any means, but I have got it going!

My first attempt was far too wordy and long winded – even I got bored watching it! Lizzie told me so too!

So I cut out most of what I had said and tried to make it punchier.

I’ve got lots to learn like I think the microphone was too close and some of the page changes might be too quick, but I didn’t want to lose the viewers’ interest.

I’d be really grateful if you could let me know what you think about it.

By the way all the photos are my own except for the 2 obvious ones.

I just felt that it was important to show what is important to me and why I am taking this journey.

A couple of months ago I would never have thought that I would be doing this so I’m mighty glad of that kick up the backside that I have been given to get this done.

And thanks for all your encouraging remarks on my previous post about getting it going. I appreciate them all.

Perhaps now I can go and have a look at some of the other videos.

I know that Garry Parkes has a list of some of those that he has already found and Gaielle has made a more complete listing of them here.

Once I’ve got that sorted out I can resume my blog hopping both inside and outside this group – I have been a bit remiss of late!

I look forward to your candid and constructive comments on my first attempt.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OeIt6MOANq0