Ready to Learn Mom

There are many distinct differences between an online small business and an offline small business. Being aware of these differences will help you plan for success.

Offline Businesses

Offline businesses allow face-to-face interaction, which allows customers to see what the business is about for themselves. Talking to customers and potentially making sales is easy, because people can physically visit an office.

Offline businesses generally target a specific locality, whereas online businesses can target a specific locality or the entire country. Offline businesses can be spread throughout several localities with franchises or chains to increase their visibility.

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WebMD guides you through 5 practical steps toward better work-life balance.

1. Figure Out What Really Matters to You in Life
Personal coach Laura Berman Fortgang, author of NOW WHAT? 90 Days to a New Life Direction, says getting your priorities clear is the first and most essential step toward achieving a well-balanced life. The important point here is to figure out what you want your priorities to be, not what you think they should be.

“I use an exercise for figuring out what matters most,” Fortgang tells WebMD. She has her clients take a couple days off from work to contemplate the following series of questions:

1. If my life could focus on one thing and one thing only, what would that be?
2. If I could add a second thing, what would that be?
3. A third?
4. A fourth?
5. A fifth?

If you answer thoughtfully and honestly, the result will be a list of your top five priorities. Fortgang says a typical top-five list might include some of the following:

• Children
• Spouse
• Satisfying career
• Community service
• Religion/spirituality
• Health
• Sports
• Art
• Hobbies, such as gardening
• Adventure/travel

Ismael Al-Ramahi, a graduate student at Baylor College of Medicine, says his current priorities are his wife, his 4-month-old son, and his research. He tells WebMD the key is not only knowing your priorities, but devoting your full attention to just one priority at a time. “Split your time and your mind so that you’re thinking about work when you’re at work and you’re paying attention to the baby when you’re with him.”

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Who are you? Answer that question right now before you read further. I’ll guess that many of you answered the questions by saying what you do, or what your relationship is to someone else. If you named your occupation, or said you are a parent or spouse, you have actually answered a different question.

Who you are is not the same as what you do. All work is designed to end at some time. Children grow up and move away. Marriages end. When identity is tied to anything outside ourselves, we set ourselves up for substantial turmoil when life sends us those inevitable endings. So who are you? Another way of asking that question is: what is your life purpose?

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Adults often become frustrated when communicating with young children.

Parents and teachers often ask me, “Are we really communicating? Do they understand me? Do I truly understand them?”

Children, especially young children, are still learning to use words. Their communication skills are relatively new. Language may be the last piece added as a child solves the puzzle of communications.

Learning words and sentences are a much harder skill set than mimicry or gesturing.

Parents usually understand their infant’s needs from the baby’s facial expression, or the tone of his or her cry.

Later, adults see clearer nonverbal communication in children, and encourage them. For example, most young parents learn quickly what the “wee wee” dance looks like, and rush to help the child to the bathroom.

For a young child, it can be easier to use body language or display emotions, than to try to find the right words. For a toddler, language can be an onerous, intellectually consuming thought process.

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Tips for Avoiding Problems and Advice for Healthy Bonding

Stepfamilies, also known as blended families, are more of a norm now than ever. At least one-third of all children in the U.S. will be part of a stepfamily before they reach age 18. Children in blended families may at first resist the many changes they face. Fortunately, most blended families are able to work out their growing pains and live together successfully. Open communication, positive attitudes, mutual respect and plenty of love and patience all have an important place in creating a healthy blended family.

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Many people who have tried working from home have found that their productivity and work suffered. Many new parents have tried working at home as a solution to their child care dilemma. Also, with the increasing number of baby boomers in ill health, many people have chosen to work at home to help care for aged or infirm parents. Workers with certain disabilities may find that working from home is the best solution to avoid travel and access problems. Finally, some careers, such as freelance writing, may require that an employee work independently out of an office. Renting office space may be too expensive or inconvenient for a freelance employee, so working from home may be the best solution. Whatever the reason, working at home may present challenges that working in an office or other workplace did not.

For example, working at home may decrease productivity or the quality of work. Some people who have tried working at home find that they cannot concentrate on the task at hand, or they become wrapped up in the duties of home life. Other people who have worked at home find that they must go to another location, such as a local library or coffee shop, to finish their assignments. Here are a few solutions to common working at home problems that everyone who has chosen this option should read:
 
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• If you’re always searching for a pen, stock one in every pocketbook, and put one in your checkbook.
• Store buttons in clear pill dispensers so you can easily spot the one you need.
• Schedule your next haircut before you leave the salon.
• Keep scissors in every room—that way, you won’t waste time trying to find them if you have to open a package, cut a tag, or quickly wrap a gift.
• Buy stamps, print labels, and arrange package pickups at usps.com.
• When you find a useful number in the phone book, highlight it so it’ll pop out the next time.
• Skip the photo store. Order prints from an online service such as snapfish.com, the top scorer in GH Institute tests.

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Every morning I excitedly get out of bed.  Just a few minutes of goals and visions for the day swirl in my head. No lingering for me, no alarm, no wishful notes too.  Just me in my night gown with no hat.

I sit down to enter my dreams and what can notes.  In my journal entries that began long ago with a tiny book and its lock and key.  I used to dwell on all the icky things back then but now I write God with my cheers and glees instead.

I remember the days I knew not whether I was going to live or die.  I also never thought I’d see why cancer came by. I’m glad I had cancer because today I like the who I’ve become.  Which would have never occurred had it not appeared.

If I dwell, I can remember the day of an accident that left me in a wheel chair for years.  Because I know if I do, today there will be a lot of have nots and heart of tears too.

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All of these methods may not work with every student, but some may be the key for some students. These are geared toward parents, but apply well to teachers:

1. Research on reading generally agrees that the most critical aspect of reading is how a child feels about reading. Positive reinforcement from parents and teachers helps. Children need to know that adults in their lives care about reading.
2. Research also agrees that in most cases, forcing a child to read will yield no positive results. Most children should not be REQUIRED to read each day, especially if it’s forced reading for pleasure. Some families find that having a reading time when the whole family reads works. Even if the child is reluctant, he knows that the time is reserved for reading. Let him choose to read light material, if nothing else.

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Communication is the sending of information from one person to another. Communication can be verbal, for example, one person talking to another, or it can be non-verbal, for example, a scowl on a person’s face that will probably let other people know he is angry. Communication can be positive or negative, effective or ineffective.

It is very important for parents to be able to communicate openly and effectively with their children. Open, effective communication benefits not only the children, but every member of the family. Relationships between parents and their children are greatly improved when there is effective communication taking place. In general, if communication between parents and their children is good, then their relationships are good as well.

Children learn how to communicate by watching their parents. If parents communicate openly and effectively, chances are that their children will, too. Good communication skills will benefit children for their entire lives. Children begin to form ideas and beliefs about themselves based on how their parents communicate with them. When parents communicate effectively with their children, they are showing them respect. Children then begin to feel that they are heard and understood by their parents, which is a boost to self-esteem. On the other hand, communication between parents and children that is ineffective or negative can lead children to believe that they are unimportant, unheard, or misunderstood. Such children may also come to see their parents as unhelpful and untrustworthy.

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