Author: karensonlinetutoring

What is Outschool? It is a platform I just discovered. I am hoping to create many courses on this site. Check out the site and my profile!

https://outschool.com/teachers/Karen-Wingfield?usid=81KyBM5P&signup=true&authTrigger=follow_teacher&follow=true&utm_campaign=share_leader_link

Due to the current COVID-19 Pandemic, we are now in an online learning era. Many schools are still opting for starting school partially or totally online.

Online tutoring has become a necessity to some people. Parents see that their children are not getting everything they need from a crowded Zoom classroom.

Please let us help you find ways to enhance your child’s education during this uncertain time.

Ever wonder what the schedule of a homeschool family and online tutor is like? Well, here it is!

3:30 a.m. – 4:00 a.m. I get up between these times. (I have different starting times during the week for my online classes.)

4:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. The times vary by 30 minutes on some days. I teach with my Chinese company during this time. My oldest gets a head start with his videos around 7:30 a.m. The kids pretty much make their own breakfast.

9:00 a.m. – Breakfast, then homeschool.

11:30 a.m. – Lunch prep and lunch

12:30 p.m. – Prep for my other tutoring platform

1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Tutor in other platform

4:00 p.m. – dinner prep and dinner

5:30 p.m. – Prep for tutoring

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Tutor

8:00 p.m. – Clean kitchen, wrap up things in the house, devotion then bed.

Life sometimes interrupts our schedule (dentist or doctor appointments, field trips, etc.). We try to stay flexible.

I hope this helps those of you thinking of becoming online tutors. It is not easy work. The schedule can be hard. But it is worth it!

Last week, our world started to flip upside down. Our state, Texas, got its first case of the virus, COVID-19.

I went ahead and stocked up on some essentials in case we had to “hunker down”. I could not find hand sanitizer but was lucky to find alcohol and witch hazel to make my own.

Now we are at home, dad and all. However, our schedule has not changed a lot.

Sure, my husband’s insurance business is next to nothing right now. He has to go to prospects’ homes to sell policies. Most people are not too keen to having a stranger at their home right now.

However, I am blessed to be an online tutor. Therefore, I will be putting in a lot more hours trying to find more students.

My children’s schedule is just the same. They are still homeschooling. Homeschooling is our lifeline right now. Our schedule has not been chaos because we already were learning from home.

However, I know many of you are at home because work is closed and school is closed.

I will be posting tips everyday for different things…..from activities to educational tips…..from funny posts to some comforting words.

Praying all of us stay healthy, both physically, mentally, and spiritually. I also pray that God will continue to provide for all of us!

There are many teachers leaving the brick and mortar classroom to teach online.

I left that life almost 20 years ago to serve in full time ministry. When I had children, my husband and I decided I would be a stay at home mother.

After a few more years, our world was shattered with a lay off. I then decided to try to find ways to earn income from home. I still wanted to homeschool much children and work. Online tutoring gave me a way to do that.

However, online tutoring is not for the faint of heart. I work for a Chinese company. So I have to work during their peak hours. This means I often have to wake up between 2:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.

I then homeschool my children during the morning hours after 8:00 a.m. After lunch I “switch” modes to my other company. This company is a site that teaches English to students in many countries. I can teach any time, day or night. However, most companies like that do not pay as much.

I work between 40 to 60 hours a week. I work every day. It can get tiring. But I can work from home.

Do not think that working from home is going to be a breeze.

You will not have extra time to clean your house. You are, however, available to your family. You can set your own schedule. (reminder: Some companies ask you to set your regular times in a contract. If you miss them, you could get a deduction in pay. )

A lot of people think I have all this free time to have the perfect home. Mine is far from perfect. I don’t get a lot of sleep at one time. I am lucky if I get 5 1/2 hours a night.

But, for my children to get the education I want them to, it is worth it.

I remember the feeling.

The anxiety seemed to suck the life out of me. I would be so nervous knowing I had a standardized test. Or, maybe it was that end of the year test I had to take.

I was a true student with test anxiety. I can remember studying all night for final exams. If I did not stay up all night, I would set my alarm an hour or two earlier.

How can you help your child avoid this “test anxiety”?

Here are some tips:

1 – Review notes each week. Pick one day that is “light ” on homework. Review the past few weeks of notes. Practice questions similar to these topics.

2 – Make a practice test. Take questions from classwork and homework. Make a sample test from these.

3 – Don’t wait until the last minute to study. Schedule time for each day during the week before the exam to study.

4 – Evaluate your child’s activities. Does your child need to be in every type of sport or music program? If their grades and stress levels are failing, drop some of those activities.

Sometimes life can get the best of us. Children can feel like having trouble in school can become a heavy trap they cannot escape. The failure in a specific subject can seem to be their whole identity.

Tutoring and extra help at school can help the student succeed in that subject. But often times there can be other issues underlying that affect self esteem and motivation.

One of the best ways to help your child gain self esteem, is to serve others. Children can learn so much from helping others. They gain confidence in themselves and satisfaction of serving others.

Martin Luther King Jr. served others his entire life. He even gave his life while fighting for the cause of civil rights.

So what will you do for others? What will your child do for others?

We all crave routine. Most people perform better and have less stress when they have a regular routine.

However, humans are not the best at routines. Human nature is to “take it easy”. If everyone had a strict routine and worked at their fullest potential, then everyone would be in the Fortune 500 magazine.

So, it takes a very person to create a routine to creates success.

No one person can give someone the routine that is perfect for them. A person must look at their specific lifestyle and goals to create an ideal routine.

Take some time to evaluate your goals. Then decided if you need a specific hour by hour routine, or just a daily morning, afternoon and evening routine.

We can create an atmosphere of success. It takes preparation, planning and implementing that routine. It also means that we must create habits with that routine.

Good luck! It is not too late to set up a routine. Life is chaotic. We may not follow that routine perfectly everyday. But having a routine can keep us moving forward.