Experiences show that moms with kids are great candidates for homebased businesses. Staying at home enables them to watch over their kids and take care of them while earning additional income for the family at the same time. If you’re a stay at home mother yourself, no doubt, you’re interested to learn about it.

How can you start your own homebased business?

Some successful homebased entrepreneurs and full-time moms started out with their hobby. For instance, making fabric crafts such as pillows, aprons, quilts and children’s clothes has proved to be a successful business for some moms. Others who have a passion for the arts decided to sell wall decors, figurines, or paintings for business. Jewelry-making and scrapbooking are two types of hobbies turned into business enjoying a huge popularity today.

Are you fond of writing? Why not turn that passion into a money-making business? Many moms shared their experiences with raising kids and their love for writing in creating books for mothers and books for children.

Come to think of it, every mother who stays home with their kids have the potential of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Why not do a self-check today and think about your own passion? What things mostly caught your attention? What do you enjoy most doing? Is it possible for you to share it with others and make a decent living out of it?

Aside from the idea of a business, what does it take to be an entrepreneur? As with any endeavor, careful planning and preparation are two crucial steps that must never be overlooked. Even if you know the in and out of the business you want to put up, also think of the budget. Make sure that you are financially, physically and emotionally ready to take on this new challenge.

Do you know who to sell your products to?

Having a target market to offer your products to is an essential for any business. Without a targeted market, a business would not have a solid ground to stand on. Now that internet or online businesses are becoming popular, you have the opportunity to offer your products to a wider range of audience, even those from out of your town or state. The important thing is for you to recognize who your target market is. Who are the people who would want to buy your products? If you know who they are, you can reach out to them as well.

Managing time is one of the difficult challenges a mom and an entrepreneur can face. If you think that just because it’s a home business, you can do as you please, you’re mistaken. Dividing your time between work and your family can be a big challenge especially during the early stage of the business. Setting a definite working schedule and following it accordingly is a must.

In most cases, you would need to do multitasking in order to finish your work on time. Of course, making sure that you have enough time to spend with your kids or the family and yourself is just as important. A balanced schedule will help you keep up with your business without compromising your first priority- family.

Frank Ho

Canada certified math teacher and founder of Ho Math and Chess Learning Center, Canada

www.mathandchess.com

Toward the end of 2007, I released the innovative chess teaching set Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set using Geometry Chess Symbols to indicate each chess piece’s move buy marking GCS on the surface of each uniformed look of chess piece.

My idea of creating this set is to use the symmetry lines of a square to show how each piece is supposed to move – an idea of “what you move is what you see”.

After my use of this set and teaching children for several months, I have some surprising and interesting anecdotes to share.

1.     Old dogs can not learn new tricks.

I have used the symbols of my invented Geometry Chess Symbol in my workbooks and created math and chess integrated worksheets and most children found that they are far more interesting than traditional worksheets. The most interesting is I intermixed Geometry Chess Symbols and traditional chess fonts in one workbook and children as young as 4 years old have no problems to accept both “symbols”. Those children who have never learned chess are accepting Ho Math and Chess with no problems at all and they found it is much easier to learn.

In contrast, I have some teens who have been playing the traditional chess set for a while and frowned at my invented chess set, despite I assured that the difference is only the look and the moves of each piece is marked so it is actually easier. But some of them remain unconvinced and are unwilling to even give a try, why? Their minds have fixed and told them to reject it without even trying. The other problem is their brains have been trained to accept “figures” not “lines” so the adjustment perhaps is difficult for some who have been playing 3-D figurine chess for their life.

It is interesting to note that in the past Chinese had created 3–D figurine Chinese set just like the way western traditional chess set has been created but the 3-D Chinese set was never popular. Is this because we only like to use the “instrument” the first time was introduced unless a vigorous marketing campaign has been put on? I had brought on the question that why some children still use their first–learned language to do math computation even when their mother-tongue language is already very rusty? Is there a so called “imprint’ effect on this kind of learning process? Perhaps this will be interesting research topic.

2.     The effect of using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set is far more than a mere comparison of likeness or not to traditional chess set. 

When moving a queen using traditional chess set, children would have to “translate” the image of a queen to the “moves” of how a queen is supposed to move. So my belief is there is an information “translation” retrieval process in ones’ brain. On the other hand, when using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set, the moves are visually marked on each piece, the “translation” from a figurine to “moves” is eliminated, this perhaps explains why a child as young as 4 years old can learn chess much easier by using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set.

I have observed that those children who can come up with answers directly when working on multiplications without having to going through a thinking process of using “tips”, “skip counting”, or “fingers manipulations” can find answers much quicker and also they can do reverse multiplication much easier, i.e. to find the factors of a number such as to find the factors of a number 64. I believe this has to do how a human process information, to find answers of all factors of 64 by going through “tips” or “skip counting”, or “finger manipulations” then the information is processed in a sequential way and the repertoire of information between factors and products is not “imprinted” in children’s brain so the computation power is not as strong as one trained with “indexed’ information retrieval that is the children can recall answers instantly and directly without delay by retrieving information stored in their brain.

The reason I brought my math teaching observation is to say that there could be a hidden advantage for children who have used Ho Math and Chess Teaching set. They will be able to directly retrieve the information about moves without delay. The learning curve is cut dramatically when using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set.

3.     Why children have no problem to switch from Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set? 

Children have no problem to switch from using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set and I am not abandoning traditional chess set at all but only stress that Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set is very good in teaching children chess. It puzzles why children can adapt to the use of playing chess from Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set so easily?

Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set are all about lines and line segments and traditional chess set are 3 D objects and their moves have to be taught and remembered. These two types of designs represent very different images in children’s brain. So what effects would have on children when they have been trained by these two very different types of instruments?  This again represents an interesting research topic.

There are now two types of Chinese characters writings and for those who were trained to read simplified version seem to have less difficulty to read the traditional Chinese characters. On the contrary, those who were only taught traditional Chinese characters would have more difficulty to read simplified Chinese characters, why?

From my point of view, it is not a decision to use Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set or not rather it is a decision to see when to use it. For example, for some children it is much easier to use training wheels to learn how to ride a bike. Ho Math and Chess Teaching set is like a pair of training wheels for children who find it is much easier to learn how to ride a bike by using training wheels.

In my own experience I find that it is much easier for young children as young as 4 years old to lean chess without pain by using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set, so why not use it? Later on, if children decide to use traditional chess set, then it is fine too since the traditional chess set is an international standard.

Ho Math and Chess not only uses Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to train children how to play chess, this set of patent applied Symbolic Chess Symbols is also integrated into its math program to make math learning much fun and interesting. 

More fun math and information can be found at www.mathandchess.com.

Frank Ho

Canada certified math teacher and founder of Ho Math and Chess Learning Center, Canada

www.mathandchess.com

Toward the end of 2007, I released an innovative chess teaching set Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set using Geometry Chess Symbols to indicate each chess piece’s move buy marking GCS on the surface of each uniformed look of chess piece.   My idea of creating this set is to use the symmetry lines of a square to show how each piece is supposed to move – an idea of “what you move is what you see”.   After my use of this set and teaching children for several months, I have some surprising and interesting anecdotes to share.  

Old dogs can not learn new tricks.

I have used the symbols of my invented Geometry Chess Symbol in my workbooks and created math and chess integrated worksheets and most children found that they are far more interesting than traditional worksheets. The most interesting is I intermixed Geometry Chess Symbols and traditional chess fonts in one workbook and children as young as 4 years old have no problems to accept both “symbols”. Those children who have never learned chess are accepting Ho Math and Chess with no problems at all and they found it is much easier to learn.  

In contrast, I have some teens who have been playing the traditional chess set for a while and frowned at my invented chess set, despite I assured that the difference is only the look and the moves of each piece is marked so it is actually easier. But some of them remain unconvinced and are unwilling to even give a try, why? Their minds have fixed and told them to reject it without even trying. The other problem is their brains have been trained to accept “figures” not “lines” so the adjustment perhaps is difficult for some who have been playing 3-D figurine chess for their life.

It is interesting to note that in the past Chinese had created 3–D figurine Chinese set just like the way western traditional chess set has been created but the 3-D Chinese set was never popular. Is this because we only like to use the “instrument” the first time was introduced unless a vigorous marketing campaign has been put on? I had brought on the question that why some children still use their first–learned language to do math computation even when their mother-tongue language is already very rusty? Is there a so called “imprint’ effect on this kind of learning process? Perhaps this will be interesting research topic.  

The effect of using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set is far more than a mere comparison of likeness or not between Ho Math and Chess to traditional chess set. 

When moving a queen using traditional chess set, children would have to “translate” the image of a queen to the “moves” of how a queen is supposed to move. So my belief is there is an information “translation” retrieval process in ones’ brain. On the other hand, when using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set, the moves are visually marked on each piece, the “translation” from a figurine to “moves” is eliminated, this perhaps explains why a child as young as 4 years old can learn chess much easier by using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set.

I have observed that those children who can come up with answers directly when working on multiplications without having to going through a thinking process of using “tips”, “skip counting”, or “fingers manipulations” can find answers much quicker and also they can do reverse multiplication much easier, i.e. to find the factors of a number such as to find the factors of a number 64. I believe this has to do how a human process information, to find answers of all factors of 64 by going through “tips” or “skip counting”, or “finger manipulations” then the information is processed in a sequential way and the repertoire of information between factors and products is not “imprinted” in children’s brain so the computation power is not as strong as one trained with “indexed’ information retrieval that is the children can recall answers instantly and directly without delay by retrieving information stored in their brain.

The reason I brought my math teaching observation is to say that there could be a hidden advantage for children who have used Ho Math and Chess Teaching set. They will be able to directly retrieve the information about moves without delay. The learning curve is cut dramatically when using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set.  

Why children have no problem to switch from Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set? 

Children have no problem to switch from using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set and I am not abandoning traditional chess set at all but only stress that Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set is very good in teaching children chess. It puzzles why children can adapt to the use of playing chess from Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to traditional chess set so easily?

Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set are all about lines and line segments and traditional chess set are 3 D objects and their moves have to be taught and remembered. These two types of designs represent very different images in children’s brains. So what effects would have on children when they have been trained by these two very different types of instruments? This again represents an interesting research topic.

There are now two types of Chinese characters writings and for those who were trained to read simplified version seem to have less difficulty to read the traditional Chinese characters. On the contrary, those who were only taught traditional Chinese characters would have more difficulty to read simplified Chinese characters, why?

From my point of view, it is not a decision to have Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set pits against the traditional 3-D chess set, rather it is a decision to see when to use it. For example, for some children it is much easier to use training wheels to learn how to ride a bike. Ho Math and Chess Teaching set is like a pair of training wheels for children who find it is much easier to learn how to ride a bike by using training wheels.

In my own experience I find that it is much easier for young children as young as 4 years old to lean chess without pain by using Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set, so why not use it? Later on, if children decide to use traditional chess set, then it is fine too since the traditional chess set is an international standard.

Ho Math and Chess not only uses Ho Math and Chess Teaching Set to train children how to play chess, this set of copyrighted Symbolic Chess Symbols is also integrated into its math program to make math learning much fun and interesting.

More fun math and information can be found at www.mathandchess.com.

Collectible Figurines ~ Mother & Baby Figurine By Jim Shore

For formal and corporate events, the more common gifts would include year planners, pens, bags and yes, even USB disk drives all engraved with the logo of the corporate function attended given during the event or through a delivery service afterwards. For less formal and casual events, other gifts such as food, figurines and flowers are always appreciated. It is important to note that the deeper the relationship one has with someone implies a pricier token, if not a sentimental one.

For instance, after signing on a huge account for a new business, it would be a prudent idea to send over a well-arranged bouquet of flowers or a food basket to your new partner. Above the gift, a personal note of affirmation saying “Congratulations to our new partnership!” or “looking forward to working together!” as well as other well wishes is tantamount to keeping a good working relationship.

It is also common tradition in the Philippines for one to bring food during gatherings. Although it isn’t implied, a “pot luck” is very common where even with an overflowing amount food at the table, guests still bring in cakes and other finger food, if not a bottle of the host’s favorite drink. This is because the host will always ask guests to take home food afterwards as a party souvenir, usually placed in plastic bags or containers. If food cannot be brought, other tokens such a variety of perfumed flowers will always find its place in the host’s flower jar that usually sits by the living room. The host may also want to show off the bouquet and turn your gift into a table centerpiece for the feast.

At the end of the day, the phrase “it’s the thought that counts” still holds true. No matter what kind of gift you give, the most important protocol to follow is that your token has sincerity written all over it. If you can’t make a personal appearance when you give your gift, at least accompany it with a short note during delivery to add a personal touch. Gifts given with such intentions are more meaningful and are greatly appreciated by the host.

Something to think about when looking for a  gift is as women get older they trend to louse their humor in gifts that reflect their age. So try to stay away from gag gifts that may offend the then. So below is a gift suggestion list for senior women to help you choose the right gifts

#1 : Novelty gifts for senior women

T- shirts, Hats, mugs, I love you cups, all are good senior women’ gifts for early in their retirement years but not in their latter years.

#2: Engraved gifts and personalized gifts

Watches, clocks, picture frames, gold clubs and balls all are perfect gifts for senior women. Personalizing any one of of them just adds to the memories of the gift. A beautiful bottle of wine in an engraved gift box is always a great gift.

#3: Hobby gifts for senior women

A hobby gift for senior women is a personal gift mostly between friends and family. Knowing their personality and what hobby they like is very important. Gifts like Outdoor gardening tools, Golf balls and tee’s, Scrapbooking suppliers and things like collectable dolls and figurines.

#4: Service award gift

When retirement time comes, so can the giving  of a commemorative gift. This for some companies is the gold watch. However for the most part the gold watch is gone and the personalized wall plaque is here.  The plaque is engraved with years of service and the person title as well as the company logo and a nice thank you for your years of dedication.

#5: A gift of Relaxation.

This is one of the best gift areas for senior women. There are many great gift ideas like a lounging chair and a silk pillow or a spa gift basket full or beautiful relaxation products. Think about a personalized bath robe or comfortable slippers. A great gift for senior women is tickets to a nice play or a move she would love to see. What would be a better gift for her that a day at the spa with you. You could make a full day of it . One last gift for her could be a lunch at a tea house that does tea leaf reading. This can be a very memorable life long gift.

#6: Travel gift products for senior women

After retirement many senior’s love to travel so gifts that help to make the journey smoother are perfect .Carry on luggage bags and personalized luggage tags are perfect. A small sleep pillow id nice or a hand held game player works for the senior who loves to play solitude or black jack on the plane to pass away time . A beautiful throw is a gift that can last for years and she will remember you every time she curls up and covers up with it .

#7: The collective gift

Every office has that one gift to buy that all the staff can become involved in. The top gift is still the gift basket. They come in all sizes and can fit any budget. The gift basket can be custom made for the person that is leaving the company. No matter what the gift is personalizing it can make the gift much more memorable.

There are many gift ideas out there and if you spend a little time you can find the perfect gift. Shopping online with a good gift site can help you narrow your selection down a little without having to walk for endless hours though out the stores and shopping malls. What better way to shop that from the comfort of your home. Some online gift stores even offer free shipping.

Answers show below in Comments section

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