2 posts tagged “job opportunity”

I take the younger two kids to pre-school  library storytime on Mondays, and this last time they had a really neat project that can be done by the younger crowd.  You need:   a sugar cookie on a stick (stick not necessary, but it is cute),  a tablespoon of white frosting, a yellow or orange M&M and a large standard size marshmallow  --  and a pair of scissors.  Spread cookie with frosting, put M&M at center and then using scissors, cut the marshmallow into 5 "circles"  --  Of course, being a squishy object the circles will come out more like ovals, which is all the better.  Then place the 5 ovals evenly around the M&M on the cookie, and you'll have a lovely daisy.  They really do turn out cute. 

Oh, and in Reader's Digest this month I came across a website called StickK.com which is a free service that helps you keep your resolutions by offering to force you to put up a stake which will be donated to charity, or an anti-charity  (you choose a cause you personally hate) if you don't keep your goal.  I went ahead and signed up to try to lose a pound a week and wagered some money on it  -- not a lot, but enough to keep me mindful of what I put in my mouth.   If it works for the whole time I will be very pleased and will get my money back. 

I heard back about the library job;  mostly more details of the position and the compensation; and I talked to the principal and found that it *is* a requirement for staff to send their children to the school.  The salary is about half of what I could make as a Librarian I substitute in the public library and the hours are 9-5, so I'd never see my kids except for the commute and an hour or so before bed and if you take the job compensation before taxes and subtract the tuition for three kids minus the small tuition break for staff, I'd about break even.  If you include the taxes, tithe, gas for commute, wardrobe, extra money for dining out because I'd be too tired to cook meals, it would be a loss of several thousand dollars;  plus, I'd hardly ever see my children, they'd not see each other much and they would never be home during daylight hours for most of the year. If it were a 9-3 job, paying a bit more, I'd be tempted, but really it wouldn't be a good fit for the moment.  

The things that intrigue me about a "real" school are the extra stuff:  speech meets, plays, book clubs, etc.  Otherwise I'm quite happy homeschooling and with three children there is plenty of social interplay and we can even play a good round of three or four square, too. 

For the last several years I have been using a cool "free" program to do our federal taxes called taxact  --   fortunately we've lived in states that didn't require state income taxes to be filed, so the free federal forms worked out nicely and I tended to download it in January and had filed by February and got a refund in March.  With our move and rental of our old house and owning two houses the paperwork was a little more complicated this year so just completed everything now.  Hopefully I have postage and can mail it out today.  In Austin the local IRS office was local  --  here the mailing address is out of state. 

Homeschool this week is studying the 1500's and Reformation and Tulip Mania  --   a pretty interesting economic bubble situation where people were paying the equivalent of $40,000 for one tulip bulb, and two weeks later it was only worth $1.  I also watched the Disney film "So Dear to My Heart" with the kids this week.  It was even a bit historically relevant  --   had an animated Christopher Columbus, which we studied 3 weeks ago, and a Robert the Bruce, which we studied 6 weeks ago.  And an animated lamb, which was cute.   I'd never seen a picture of Burl Ives before.  I pictured him older.

In other news there is a very vague possibility that there might be a job opening in September that might work out for me.  Uncommital enough?   I had lunch with a friend that moved from Austin up here and works at a private school.  She introduced me around and I  met the principal and took a tour with the children, and I was introduced as the "librarian" from her old school and there was much interest on the part of the principal and asked me about my degree.  There is going to be an opening for a librarian at that school.  And if I wanted to send the kids there, it would be a 30% discount.  However, I relly don't think I want to send them there. For one thing, the math program is the same, but instead of working one year ahead, they are on grade level, so it would be a repeat for the two older kids.  The kids don't study ancient history at all, just social studies.  Possibly I could send the older two to Benjamin's school. 

In any case, while I could post a strong case of being experienced, my last paid employment wast 9 years ago and I don't have a teacher's certificate and I have no idea of the salary or the job requirements  -- and getting a teaching certificate in Washington State looks like a major pain.  If working full time barely covers private school tuition I'm really not sure it would be worth it, as I know they'll learn more homeschooling, and I'd definitely see them more if they aren't in school for 6 hours every day.