Home School Your Children?

More and more parents are choosing to home school their children. They do so for a variety of reasons. Some feel they can give their children a better education at home, that the uniform teaching methods required for classes of 30 or 40 students do not sufficiently account for each student’s different learning styles and aptitudes.Others home school for religious reasons, preferring to include religious information in the curriculum, which is not found in public schools. Still others prefer to inform their children about various education topics from their own point of view, rather than what they would receive in public schools. Some parents may be choosing home schooling because they fear for their children’s safety. We do hear many reports of violence in our schools.Obviously, home schooling is not new. Public schools are really the new kid on the block. According to Patrick Farenga, in his article “A Brief History of Homeschooling,” compulsory education, as we know it, is less than 200 years old. He points out that education used to be handled by parents, the church and the occasional tutor for special subjects. He also mentions that education was intentionally left up to parents by our founding fathers. There is no mention of it in the Declaration, Bill of Rights or the Constitution of the United States.Farenga dates the current trend toward home schooling from the 1970’s, particularly from a book called “Deschooling Society,” written by Ivan Illich that year. You can find his article at www.hsc.org [http://www.hsc.org/professionals/briefhistory.php], which features many, such articles and resources for home schooling. There is also a page of home schooling jokes. Some of them are hilarious.If you are considering home schooling your own children, you can find many more resources on the web. There are articles, curriculums, stories from other parents, textbook recommendations, school projects, and more. Home schooling families usually interact with other home schooling families so that children do get social time with other children. They may get together to put on a play, practice music or learn a sport.It seems like there is a good chance that home schooling is a trend that will only increase over the coming years. Check hslda.org for information on home schooling laws in your home st

Differences Between a HOME BASED BUSINESS and a WORK AT HOME JOB!

Have you ever compared the differences between a home based business vs a work at home job?There are some major differences between having a home business and work from home, compared to having a job that allows you to work at home. Your home is the central hub of all the operations involving a home based business, while a work from home job means your daily work is based in your home but is just a part of a outside business. Most work at home jobs involve checking or reporting to an employer, and you are working on as a freelancer or telecommuter status. Some freelancers, however, will have a home based business and they deal with clients instead of an employer. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to both kinds of these businesses.When you are your own boss, you don’t receive a W-2 at the end of the year, so you’re responsible for taking care of your taxes. You would deal directly with the IRS concerning your sales and income. For people who are working from home, you’ll be receiving a W-2 at year’s end from your employer, who will also send a report to the IRS. When you’ve attained a specific level of sales as a freelance worker, the employer is responsible for reporting that amount.Needless to say, there are no health care or unemployment insurance benefits, and worker’s compensation is not available to home based businesses. Partner discounts for the purchase of benefits are available from several insurance companies, but when you are the owner of a home based business you pay for them yourself. People who telecommute and work from home might have access to benefits, but if you are a freelancer you must get your own.The benefits of both kinds of working at home jobs is the freedom in project choice, flexible time schedule, and the added comforts of your own home. Since you are an employee when you work from home there could be some limitations from the employer. The best thing about is being at home it offers you a lot more freedom and flexibility than an office does. However, a of people who own a home business, or home workers, will discover this kind of freedom can be a double-edged sword. In your own environment it can be easy to pick up a book, put on movie, or find some other activity you enjoy. If you add procrastination to the other possible distractions, you will soon find you’re missing deadlines and producing sloppy work. If you want to be your own boss and work a home business, you need to see if you have the self-discipline it requires.Most of the time the money you make from a home based business results from sales of a products or services. There are some out there, however, that your earnings are based totally on the number of people you can recruit into the business. These kinds of business are referred to as pyramid scams, and your success is directly connected to how many other people you recruit in under you. As each new recruit buys in, you are pushed higher up the payment ladder. In scams like these, your own products sales are usually not very important.However, there are a lot of home based businesses that you can start on your own and be your own boss. Besides a marketing company, there’s a portrait studio or a gardening center that would let you be your own boss. It doesn’t matter what type of business you choose to open, to be your own boss you have one that keeps all the operations with in your own home.Be sure and do your homework before deciding which kind of work you want to do – ask a lot of questions and get a feel for the work itself before you make a commitment. Today the really successful home based business owners are people who might have purchased a product and loved it so much they wanted to share it with others. However, those who want to be their own boss, and work from home, are really happy with their business in their home.

Spy Phone Software: A Serious Business Problem

The main reason that spy phone software is a growing problem in business is that everyone has a cell phone, from the person in the mailroom to the CEO. Smart phones are everywhere and it is a rare executive or manager who does not have a Blackberry or an iPhone. Any one of these phones can have spyware on them – known or unknown to the person who owns the phone.This software, installed on a phone, gives the spy access to a lot of information about a company and leaves no trace of who is responsible or even if confidential information has been leaked. The spy could be a dishonest employee or a loyal employee who does not know that the spyware has been installed on the phone.What Spy Software Can DoInformation is power, and if your competitor knows your every move and can listen in on confidential meetings and decisions, they will have a tremendous advantage. Yes it is illegal. It is also very easy to do and very difficult to get caught. Employees found with spyware on their phones can claim that they did not install it and did not know it was there. This would be very hard to check, if you could detect the spyware to begin with.Spyware installed covertly on the phone of a CEO or top executive of the company would enable the spy to listen in to confidential conversations near the phone. A competitor with access to this information could cause a lot of damage.Removing the spyware from your own phone, does not address the problem of the dishonest employee who may be selling information gained through the spyware. Client lists, lawyers, business partners, and all the conversations with these people are no longer confidential.Protection From SpyingWhat kinds of steps can be taken to protect the confidential information? Banning all cell phones from the work place would be punishing innocent people who need their phones to do their work and keep in touch with family members.The company could provide everyone with a smart phone and track all the phones provided. As owners of the phones, the company can legally monitor them – as long as the employees know this is being done. This would also put the company in a position to ask that all phones come in regularly to be wiped clean of any spyware that may have been installed covertly. These kinds of measures would increase everyone’s awareness of spying software and make it more difficult for spying to be carried on in the workplace.To assume a conversation over a cell phone, or near a cell phone, is confidential is a mistake. Take precautions; don’t discuss confidential information on the phone or near a phone. Remember, you may not have spy software on your phone, but the other person may have it on theirs.