by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Apr 25, 2019 | Careers for Stay-at-Home Moms, Education Materials, Homeschooling High School
Etsy Master Class for Teens
(Post contains affiliate links).
I realize I am not a teen, though sometimes I feel like one. 🙂 However, when I had the opportunity to try the Etsy Master Class for Teens in exchange for a review, I jumped at the chance.
I have been trying to get going on Etsy for a few months now. And I had tried previously with no success.
This was why I was excited to learn that I could take an Etsy Master Class to help me do better on Etsy.
I must say that this class will most definitely help your teen (and you if you are creative) get started on Etsy.
And if your teen has beautiful handmade products, she (or he) will be successful at selling them.
All of the tools and directions are included in the Etsy Master Class for Teens. Your teen will not only have their store up and running by the end of class, but will have a better handle on the business side of things.
A full 70 plus page workbook is included with the class. This workbook will help your teen sort out new ideas, brainstorm, plan, and glide easily through the process. The workbook complements the videos.
If your teens have never set up a store before, they can use Abby's link and get 40 free listings. That alone is worth 8 bucks. Which reminds me. Of course, the class can be used by more than one person. So, every separate store set up by a unique individual, as long as you use Abby's link, will get 40 free listings.
Some Highlights:
- In the first module – Abby gives you a background of where Etsy came from, how long they've been around, how it works, etc.
- She recommends several excellent books, one of which I read and found enormous value in. The book, “My Story Brand,” helped me to sharpen my focus and to gain further insight into how to reach my readers and better assist them.
- She provides an outline for how to set up your Etsy store as well as 40 free listings, like I mentioned before.
- Abby provides guidance and worksheets (click here for a sample) to help with keyword and tag research (as well as defining what these terms mean).
- There is help on how to determine the best price for your products; how to create profit margins, etc.
- You will receive extensive advice on creating better photos, including where to go to get the best lighting, the best tools to use for great photos, and more.
- Help with creating a logo (which I used and now am very happy with).
- A log sheet for keeping track of time spent and work on class.
- And Much More.
Up to 1 full unit of high school credit can be obtained, depending on your state's laws, and how much time your teen spends on the class. There are forms to fill out to help with recording keeping for this.
Direction on how to use keywords, tags, and how to determine price is included, and will provide valuable insight on how to market your product so that people actually see it on Etsy.
Abby also provides assistance with creating logos. I found this section particularly helpful because I had been struggling with finding the right look. After going through the section on logos, I actually found a logo I like and will probably stick with. That was very satisfying to me!
Another helpful topic was her section on photos, lighting and photography.
As you know, I take a lot of pictures. However, many of the pictures are not up to the best standards. This is because my husband and I lack experience. After gaining wisdom from Abby's experience with photography, my husband, especially, is well on his way to making outstanding pictures.
After going through this awesome class, I decided Etsy is not the right platform for my products because they are all digital.* However, I most certainly did not waste my time. I learned many valuable skills and insights that I am applying to my blog and other areas of my life. My husband also completed parts of the master class and learned as well.
*UPDATE 5/4/2020 – Abby updated her course to help with selling digital products. YAY!
Also, when my son is in high school. I plan to have him work through this class for high school credit. So that's three people taking the class for the price of one. When you consider the fact that an unlimited number of people in your household can take the course, the value seems even greater.
To give you a little tiny taste of the course, here is a brainstorming sheet to get your teen started. AND last but not least, here is a 20% off coupon available through me only.
The code is homeschooldietmom and will only be available for a limited time.
Not ready for Etsy? Want to try to make some extra cash selling on Ebay? Well Abby also has a mini-course that you can take (or your teen can take) to learn how to sell on Ebay. Click here to check out the EBay mini-course now.
For other k-12 curriculum reviews, click here.
Click here for awesome Ready for Reading Phonics curriculum review.
Awesome Father's Day Gift Ideas
The Importance of Good Nutrition: Fruits
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Mar 3, 2019 | Getting Kids Moving, Homeschooling
I was planning to write a post specifically about exercise and autism. However, I have noticed that I have readers with all different types of kids (DUH, right)? And as someone pointed out, all kids are unique learners. So, I'm going to broaden my focus a little. I'm going to talk about how to motivate your kids to exercise. I'm also going to talk about how to improve the conditioning of your child no matter what is his or her preferred activity or exercise. In my son's case, it is swimming. (Post may contain affiliate links).
I have to be honest here.
I haven't been the ideal model when it comes to motivating my son to exercise.
Sure, I'm exercising almost daily. So I am modeling the importance of exercise.
But getting my son motivated to exercise is a whole different story.
It might be a bit selfish, but I struggle with fitting in my exercise routine AND motivating my son to exercise as well. This is partly because he's not interested in getting on the treadmill or riding the elliptical or any of the other things I like to do at the gym. In fact (LOL), the one time I talked him into getting on the elliptical, he was one miserable kid! He was only on level 1. (I don't know if you've ever used the elliptical, but it is HARD). I can't remember how long he lasted. However, I do remember him saying, “I am never doing this ever again!” 🙂 So, I'm going to have to wait a while before I try that again.
Nathan does like swimming. This is one that activity that makes it easy for me to motivate him to exercise.
The only thing is that now that he's at the highest level, there are fewer classes to take and he is most definitely NOT self-motivated to do swim laps. And, guess what? I'm not a swimmer.
Not only that, but at the gym, he doesn't like going into the locker room because the men walk around naked and that makes him uncomfortable. As a result of this, it has been well over a year since he's done any kind of significant swimming.
I signed him up for a swimming endurance class this weekend. The class starts in April. Being that it's been a while since he swam laps, he needs to strengthen his muscles so that he can feel successful when he returns to swimming.
So, I did some research and this is what I found:
FLEXIBILITY and CORE TRAINING are essential to preparing your body for success, no matter what the preferred sport or activity.
This is where the motivating your kids to exercise starts to come in. If your child has a preferred exercise or activity, you can discuss with him or her the importance of flexibility and strength to help achieve greater success.
- Lengthens muscles and connective tissues
- Reduces risk of injury
- Increases range of motion
WHAT HAPPENS TO MUSCLES DURING WARM-UP?
Stretching out your muscles results in
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- Increased blood circulation to muscles.
- Blood in muscles warms up which raises your core temperature.
- Increased oxygen is available to muscles.
- Increases in blood circulation and oxygen flow through your body means an increase in available energy to use during your workout.
- Greater flexibility in your muscles and connective tissues.
Flexibility is another word for the ability of your muscles and connective tissues (ligaments for example) to stretch. This frees you up for greater movement ability and helps prevent muscle strain injuries and movement injuries.
Two (2) REAL LIFE Examples of what can happen if you don't stretch properly and/or don't have enough flexibility
- When I was a lot younger, in shape, and working out regularly, I injured myself during an advanced step aerobic class. How? You may ask. Well, the teacher was late and shortened the warm up period. As a result, my muscles were not properly warmed up and I tripped going over the step and fractured my foot. So, the lesson here is: “Even if you're in shape, stretching is still REALLY important.
- Fast forward a few years to post-pregnancy, out of shape, overweight mama (me). I used to love roller skating when I was in high school and a few years after. So, I was so excited to get out on the skating rink when we attended my son's first grade skating party. I got almost around the rink once when a kid skated in front of me. I swerved to avoid him, but lost my balance and fell with my leg bent backward, pulling a ligament in my knee. Not only did I lose my balance more easily because I was overweight, but my leg wasn't flexible enough to prevent the injury. It might have helped if I had stretched out a bit beforehand. But what would really have helped prevent the injury is if I would have prepared ahead of time for the skating party and stretched and practiced my balance before I went out on the rink for the first time in over 20 years.
3 Benefits of Core Training
- Increased stability – What this means is that you will be less likely to topple over if you try to stand on one leg, for example. Remember my story about the skating rink? Well, in addition to not having enough flexibility, I was overweight and out of shape in the middle/abdominal/core area. Thus, I toppled over onto my bottom and twisted my leg back.
- Increased strength – Anytime you increase strength you are making your life easier. Core strength is important for good posture. Poor posture over time can lead to back and shoulder pain, and even increase risk of back and shoulder injury.
- Increased Endurance – This means that you won't get tired as fast.
As I've been adding to this post this week, I've been trying to be more creative in motivating my son to exercise. I've also been thinking again about the different ways he's been active this week:
- Nathan walked around the church on Sunday. He actually does this every Sunday because he doesn't feel comfortable interacting with people. So, he walks, before the service, and after the service. One of these days, I am going to put a pedometer on him to see how much walking he's doing. 🙂
- He did some light stretching and strengthening on Monday morning, and then daddy and son went on a short walk around the apartment complex where we live. Total time 30 minutes or so.
- He went swimming with dad at our gym (I haven't given up on getting him to go) on Tuesday.
- Nathan and dad went on a short walk in the morning on Wednesday. In the afternoon, they went to the local bus station because Nathan wanted to see the new fully electric bus that was just put into action. He walked around taking videos and pictures for at least an hour. He does this almost every week (visit a transit center and videotape buses or trains).
- Tomorrow he's helping his dad do the shopping for church and they are going to the local recreation center to swim.
- Saturday night he will be helping his dad at church with the cooking. He'll be on his feet for an hour at least.
Many of these activities aren't actually “exercise,” but they do count as being active and they burn more calories than if he was just sitting around on the computer or watching TV.
As the weather improves, we'll be taking more nature walks.
Don't forget that nature walks aren't just good for science studies. They're also a great way to motivate your kid to exercise.
So, these are just a few of the ideas I have on how to get yourself and your kids to be more active.
What about you? What ideas do you have that will help motivate your kids to exercise?
Click here for my post, “Why Exercise Beats the Winter Blues”
Check out the Ace fitness website for lots of great ideas. You can even show your children who are possibly interested in PE as a career the endless possibilities for certifications.
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Click here to see a few different kids' fitness equipment ideas. Also, read my post about free exercise and nutrition apps here.
Below are a few links to help with specific exercises.
https://www.active.com/swimming/articles/strength-training-for-swimmers
https://www.verywellfamily.com/simple-kids-stretching-exercises-1257070
http://archive.spright.com/exercises/what-are-the-best-dryland-exercises-for-swimmers/
by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Dec 10, 2018 | Homeschooling
My autistic son hates school. Fortunately for me, he is willing to do what he has to do–to a point.
(This post may contain affiliate links).
I have fought with, struggled with, and forced him to do things he doesn't want to do. I've bribed, tried positive reinforcement, begged and pleaded. However, it takes a ridiculous amount of energy to get Nathan to do things he doesn't want to do–not to mention it is not a great way to promote a positive, loving relationship. As a result, I have been motivated to find creative ways to encourage learning that fits his learning style.
First, a little background…
I have one son, and he is 13 years old, in 8th grade. This is our fifth year homeschooling.
Nathan was in 4th grade when we started homeschooling. The first three years we used online public schooling. This worked out great for the first couple of years. One reason why was because the structure was provided. Also, I had a lot support through his IEP.
I learned a huge amount of stuff during those three years. However, by the time Nathan was ready to go into 7th grade, I was ready to venture out on my own.
A big part of the why was that the public school was not Christian. Thus, I felt like I had to constantly “rewrite” or add to the science and history curriculum. Also, things changed drastically in middle school, and I would have been severely limited in my role as a learning coach.
So in 7th grade I went independent.
Abeka and Apologia were my chosen curriculums. Both of these curriculums are awesome. However, they really are more appropriate for the typical learner, which Nathan is not. For example, I purchased the workbook for science. However, Nathan never wanted to write any words down. All he wanted to do was draw pictures of everything.
In addition, I had to read history, literature, science, and pretty much everything else to him. This is because he wasn't willingly reading on his own at that point, nor would he have been able to read quickly enough to keep up with the schedule. Also, everything was offline.
The good news is I LEARNED a lot of stuff I didn't already know.
However, by the second half of the year, I was exhausted. Plus, I was constantly adding this or that, supplementing with this or that because the curriculum just wasn't a great fit.
As a result of his unwillingness/inability to write things down, or read things in a timely manner, I switched to Monarch. Monarch is an online Christian (not live) curriculum by Alpha Omega Publications.
This program seemed perfect at first, because most of the work was completed online with very little hand writing required. Also, the curriculum has a text-to-speech feature, so he doesn't need to read it on his own. We are still using Monarch. However, I'm probably not going to continue with Monarch either.
This is because Monarch has a “typical learner” bent as well. As a result, I have been supplementing the curriculum with hands-on projects, unit studies, and more appropriate level reading/writing assignments.
This year I have finally started to “put it all together” on how I can teach my son, meet the requirements, and make it fun and as interesting as possible.
I have not found the perfect homeschool curriculum for my autistic son who hates school. However, there are parts of many different curriculums that I love. And I have discovered ways to teach my son in a nontypical way that requires way less fighting, arguing, bribing and so forth.
Along the way, I have discovered various tools that have been immensely helpful. I have also discovered that adapting school to at least sometimes match his preferred topics and interests makes a HUGE difference in his willingness to do an assignment.
The following math, reading, and writing tips and tricks are things I have gathered and used, and am still using today.
- Adobe Creative Suite ($19.95/month for students, compared to $59.95/month) – I don't think a lot of homeschoolers realize that you can have the ENTIRE creative suite, which includes Acrobat DC, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and a bunch more for such a good price. I know I didn't until September of this year. Nathan is getting a serious head start by learning Photoshop. And he really likes it.
- Dragon Speak Naturally – we don't use this program much anymore. However, it helped us when we first started out on the speech-to-text path. It is available through Amazon, and is under $50. You can download it on multiple devices. It gets to know you, so starts to be more accurate the more you use it.
- Kindle Fire – I mention this one because it's the only tablet (including iPad) that I have been able to get to read any book we purchase. It is a computer voice, but it's better than nothing if you have a reluctant reader like I do. This was especially helpful a few years ago when Nathan wouldn't read anything on his own.
- Audio books – Kind of pricey, but a lot of books are available for free through local libraries.
- Whiteboard – Lap size whiteboards are portable and they make great scratch paper for math problems and for spelling tests. As a teacher, you can use them to help your children keep track of their schedule. I use a lapboard for PE class. That way I don't have to be there the whole time. The Whiteboard is helping my son to be much more independent.
Great for Visual Thinkers Who Hate Writing
- Inspiration 9 – This is a visual thinking organizer, and we absolutely love it! It has templates, or you can start from scratch. It converts bubbles to outlines and vice versa. You can create presentations, export to MS Word, and download pictures from the internet. It really helps me and my son organize our thoughts. You can learn a few things just from reading the premade templates.
- Allow your child to sometimes write essays on topics not necessarily the same as in the subject, but still allow child to practice the skills.
How many specific dates, names and events do you remember learning in 6th grade?
My experience is that teaching facts and figures, dates and names just doesn't stick. What makes learning stick? Meaningful projects that add depth to the persons, places, dates, and events. They are much more effective at painting a picture that stays with you over time–especially if it is a subject your child is interested in.
- Subjects on preferred topic – Trains, for example. (my son loves trains)! You can take the subject of trains, and assign a paper about the historical context of trains during the Civil War, for example.
- Online Unit studies – Thematic studies that focus on a certain flavor. For example, TechieHomeschoolMom.com has a Christmas Around the World Unit Study that we have been working through. We are learning about various countries around the world and how they celebrate Christmas. Also, Hide the Chocolate's Unit Study on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Unit studies are great for breaking up the sameness, or you can build an entire curriculum around them.
Autistic Son Hates School But loves Arts and Crafts
- Lots and lots of arts and crafts and hands on activities – I believe that I started losing interest in school in junior high and high school because there were so few hands-on activities. I don't know where our school system got the idea that older kids don't need hands-on instruction. But I completely disagree with this idea. I don't think a kid ever outgrows the ability to enjoy hands-on activities.
- Remember the point of learning is to grasp the subject matter being taught, not just memorizing facts.
- Type of pencil used – It is amazing what a difference changing from the standard #2 pencil to a basic, plastic Bic auto pencil has made in our house (there are also Pentel brand, but Nathan doesn't like those).
I don't know if you've noticed, but standard pencils are kind of “scratchy” when you write with them. Plus they get dull so quickly, you have to re-sharpen them almost constantly. (I can't stand writing with a dull pencil)!.
The auto pencils are a bit more expensive, but they are SO worth it! Nathan still doesn't like to write. But he now is more willing than before.
These are just a few of my favorite ideas.
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by Deborah Hanyon, MPH, RDN, ACE-CHC | Sep 8, 2018 | Homeschooling
First week of school! We made it!
It is officially the end of our first week of 8th grade and our first week of using the Stability Ball for PE. That went WAY better than expected! We had first used the stability ball when Nathan was maybe 4 years old. It lasted about two weeks and one of the cats punctured a hole into it. We didn't buy another one because of concerns it would happen again. But after spending all summer reviewing exercise ideas, I decided to try again. I am so glad I did! Nathan actually loves this tool. He didn't complain about anything I asked him to do. And now we are keeping it on the top rung of our cat tree where it is safe and sound.
This is the Stability Ball we use. We purchased it from Amazon for $17.99. It comes with an air pump, directions, and measuring tape to help make sure that you inflate it to just the right size. If you decide to purchase a Stability Ball, make sure you pick the size that matches your height. We got the Medium, which according to the American Council of Exercise, is appropriate for 5 ft. 1 inches to 5 ft. 8 inches of height. Nathan is 5 ft. 2 inches currently, so he will have room to grow.
First week of school is usually not so bad since we're rested from the nice long summer break. I will have to see how things go in the next few weeks.
1/1/2019 Update: We have been using the stability ball as much as possible, and Nathan is becoming more independent thanks to his Exercise Buddy App, though there are still a few bugs to work out with the app--things the manufacturer is working on. But it is very freeing to be able to assign him a workout and not have to be there with him the whole time. He is 13 years old, so he is becoming more independent. This too is a relief!
