Day 2: When Will the Box Arrive???

I told the girls yesterday about the idea of using Thirty-One as part of our language arts, writing, math and public speaking curriculum.

They were THRILLED!

And now they're eagerly awaiting the arrival of the consultant kit. Here's what should be arriving in the next couple of days.

Day #2

Today's Plan:

• What is Thirty-One? How do Commissions Work? etc.
• How to Set a Realistic Goal & Determine Our Goals?
• What Should We Call This Fun Project?

While we wait for the goods, we're going to start today with reviewing what the company is, what it sells and how it sells it. I won't show them too much of the promotional material they just need a general idea of what this is all about. I want to preserve their current understanding of what those promotional items should look like and say so we can have a great compare/contrast later with our writing projects.

We'll talk about the different goals consultants have: fun, extra spending money, full-time income and how that correlates to amount of effort/time put in. 

And then, they'll set their collective goal. 

Remember, my plan is that whatever money we make (by the grace of God) we'll divide 50/50 between monthly charitable donations and a family "something" - I can't wait to see what the kids pick.

When talking about goals, we'll be doing lots of math backwards and forewards. In other words, we'll start with "If we sell $200, how much commission would we make?" and "If we want to raise $100 per month for a charity, how much would we have to sell?" 

Did you read that? They're going to be doing real life math problems over and over again, most likely without complaining! I'm hoping this project might reframe math for them into a fun, powerful tool... it's reaching but I'm an optimist.

We'll see where the conversation leads but I might even have them look into some of the non-profits they are hoping to support and see what different sums of money can buy, ie. $5 to feed a family one meal.

By the way, did I mention that I have told the girls that we will work on this project every day that they complete all their work and chores without a struggle? Oh my word! Can you imagine? Could I have just squelched tween complaining? From this blog to God's ears.

Ok, I'm soooo excited. Are you? 

Remember, if you want to join us, here's the link to sign up.  https://www.mythirtyone.com/1867915/shop/join

Tune in tomorrow to see what happened & our next steps.

Day 1: Thirty-One as Curriculum

Day 1 - The Plan

I bet you didn't expect that, did you?

You read it right. 

Yesterday, I talked about slowing our family schedule down and being more selective about the activities to which we allocate our time.

Today, I'm focusing on using the advantages we have as homeschoolers for real-life learning. We have the time. They love project based learning. They love experiments. So, wouldn't promoting and selling a real product be a combination of the two?

I think so and so we'll give it a try.

My out of pocket expense is $99 for the Consultant Kit. Let's face it, I've spend that on just one subject for one child in curriculum. And essentially, that's how I'm looking at that fee.. as curriculum.

For $99, we're getting access to a company built completely on communication. That's what the consultants do - whether it be face to face at a party, or written in an online approach. AND, it's the company's best interest to support their consultants with marketing materials - so for $99 we'll have access to professionally designed and written marketing materials.

Starts to make sense, doesn't it?

Of course, this won't be child labor - no I am not making the kids do parties or necessarily have any direct contact with customers.

But what I might do is say, here is your product line - a line of thermal products for carrying food. Ok, 

What features would you want to highlight? 

Who would be the market for this product? 

How and where would they use it? 

So how can we achieve that in a promotional email? a short video presentation? 

What adjectives would you use to describe it?

Then maybe, they'll design a flyer (writing, computer & graphics skills being used) and then we'll compare it to the one Thirty One designed. Which is more effective? Why?

We'll write short demonstration scripts and actually video a demo video explaining and promoting the product (writing, public speaking skills used) and then compare and contrast to the professional ones. 

Exciting, engaging, motivating writing projects are endless! 

Then there's graphic design and computer skills in creating product flyers.

And how about math! Oh my goodness the opportunities are endless. 

Just off the top of my head, there's:

  * Figuring out your commission (percentages)

  * Reverse Engineering a fundraising goal - if local group X wants to raise $500, how much product        would they need to sell as a group? per each group member?

  * Even my 2nd grader could use the order form to practice simple adding and subtracting with     

    carrying by filling it in with an order (more writing!) and then adding it all up.

  * How about learning about accounts payable and receivable. We can track our business and use this      as an experiment. Ok, 9/2016 we invest $99. We'll track all of our individual expenses with         

     business materials, shipping materials and postage, cost of fun marketing promotions, etc. Then,          add in the commissions we earn and see where we are at in June, 2017. (Excel Spreadsheets &      

     Accounting)

Also, Marketing. Who is the customer for this and how will you effectively sell to them.

Then there's learning about the value of a dollar. I have to say, I think it's inevitable that entitlement rears its ugly head in every child's development at one point or another. I recently had my 13 year old tell me in disgust, "You're not even loaning me $100, it's only $80." Ah, excuse me. 

So, what if we are modestly successful and actually have someone buy something and make some money. I'll have the kids set a goal to use with the money earned in our 9 months. All the intrinsic learning about realistic expectations; breaking a large goal into monthly goals along the way, etc. 

I'm also hoping that they might understand the value of work. Perhaps at the end, the goal they pick in September won't seem worthy of the effort they put in. 

And finally, my favorite part, 50% of any commissions earned will be donated to a local non-profit! 

Charity, community service, I love it! 

My expectation is that they will choose a different non-profit for each month. I know the local humane society will top that list but my hope is that over the course of 9 months, they'll need to research other non-profits in the area to find other worthy recipients. Learning about their community's needs, who is out there helping and how they, as kids, can have a positive impact on all of that will be a tremendous achievement.

I'm not completely sure what will happen except for a tremendous amount of meaningful, engaging learning that I hope will be received enthusiastically by the girls.

Am I completely insane? Maybe. But this just might be the ticket to not only get my reluctant writer and shy speaker, communicating well and confidently, all with some laughter and fun. Really, how could this fail?

My plan is to post our projects here to both chronicle our work and maybe guide/inspire other homeschooling families. We'll have a Pinterest board up soon with links. And, I hope that we also have a blog/vlog that will be the live product of their work - to promote the products in writing and video posts. I'll insert those links soon. 

Anyone want to join us? If you do, the Consultant Kit is $99 and let's face it - you do get over $300 worth of bags that really are pretty terrific. And like I said earlier, consider it curriculum. You can quit at any time and they require $200 over a 3 month period to stay active. I'm hoping some kind souls (or maybe Grandma) will help us get there.

If you do want to join us, we sure would appreciate it if you used this link to sign up. We get credit for that and even a penny or two from your sales - more percentage computing!!

Here's the link.

Thanks everyone and remember to check back. You may find something inspirational or a great laugh at my expense. It's ok. It'll be fun, that I can promise.

Project Based Learning Using Craftsy & Etsy

This project has been a huge success with my girls.

Combining jewelry making, photography, computer skills, writing, marketing, math and even geology and it all started with a few Craftsy classes purchased for Christmas presents.

Have you heard of Craftsy?

If you have always wished you could knit, crochet, make jewelry, decorate a cake, sew, paint and a few more, you can now. For incredibly reasonable rates, as in  about $20-$40, you get access to video lessons instucted by experts in each field.

The part I liked best is that you get access to the classes indefinitely! As in, go back and watch them over and over and over. You can also post questions to the teacher!

So for Christmas, I bought our daughter 2 jewelry making classes that taught the basics of bead and metal wire jewelry.

This was the first:               Jewelry Workshop

This was the second: Wire-wrapped Stones, Crystals & Clusters

She was hooked! She worked through all the lessons; then took a local workshop and came up with the idea of making jewelry for girls and their American Girl dolls.

Here are some examples of her work:

 

 

We brainstormed and came up with the idea of an Etsy shop to sell her jewelry. But before she was allowed to, I required that she do plenty of preparation.

1. She practiced her new skill to ensure that the jewelry was well constructed & would last.

2. She set up an Excel Spreadsheet to track her inventory and expenses.

3. She had to determine her costs in materials, Etsy & Paypal fees, packaging and shipping.

4. She needed to think about who her customers were and how should she market to them. How would she present the jewelry, etc.

5. She needed to study other vendors on Etsy & determine how to make the listings appealing.

She was finally ready to begin and her first Etsy shop, Design by Harper was launched. In the six months since, her sister has joined her and now their shop is called: SmithgirlDesigns

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SmithgirlDesigns

 I knew this would be a great project for math and money skills, writing and art. I was surprised to see how excited and driven she became about photography and marketing. She also loves to give her handmade jewelry as gifts to her friends and their reactions to it just make her so proud!

For the moms out there who never have time to get to a local class, I can't recommend these classes enough. They are such an incredible concept and have been executed so well. There are even some free classes and from time to time, they go on sale. Check it out! Craftsy Summer Course Gallery