Here Dwells Happiness: August 2021

Math - Super proud of the boys this week. They both did a great job. Peter is all about independent work this year. Luke has had a bit of summer slide - not worried about it though. Luke finished a Math book. On to the next one. I had them do practical math applications in addition to math textbooks. Peter chose to work with Oreo's and their cost. Luke chose to work with Minecraft.

English - Teatime is back! We all loved it. Peanut Butter M&M's for both boys. No surprise on the topic of Peter's poem today (see busybrothers.blogspot.com). Both boys are doing cursive. Peter doesn't mind it and often writes his spelling words in his own version of spelling. As usual, Luke is not thrilled with handwriting.

History - Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was our history topic for the week. We learned about Prince Albert and his quest to build the Crystal Palace. It made me remember all the times sitting down to watch the show on PBS called Victoria. So Good!

Science - A 5th grade science textbook for Luke this year. This week was all about categorizing animals. Luke knows more about animals that most kids I know. He enjoyed this chapter. I hope that having Rex around helps Luke to make a connection with reptiles. I was pondering this week about how learning can also be making connections between facts and emotions.

Minecraft & Game Design - These classes won't start until the beginning of September. I had the boys jot down their initial desires for the class. It will be interesting to see how the class aligns with their ideas. I hope they don't get too disappointed if the classes aren't what they expect them to be.

Our read aloud books this month are:

The One and Only Bob (Luke)

Amari and the Night Brothers

The boys are really enjoying them. Luke had some emotions come up when I read this part in his book...

"Why should I forgive the humans who tossed me and my siblings out into the night? When you forgive, you lose your anger, and when you lose your anger, you get weak. And when you're weak, you can get hurt all over again"

I had some emotions come up when I read this part....

"When you've been through the worst with someone you appreciate the best."

I am glad that when this happens we can sit with the emotions and process them. This week, I have taken so many moments to be in the moment and realize how amazing it is that I can homeschool my boys. I am praying every moment of every day that I can find a job that can accommodate homeschool too.

There have been rumors for a few weeks that the People's Republic of China would be making some changes to the way after school tutoring would be offered. VIP Kids is where I heard about it first. VIP downplayed it with the assumption that it would be months, if not years, before any changes were made. Guess what - nope, not years or months - now!

Just before bed on August 8th Qkids sent this letter to all teachers:

Dear Teachers,

By now, many of you have reached out with inquiries about a recent storm of media reports, social media posts and ground-shifting financial speculation, and what it all means for the private education industry for preK-12 students in China. We have monitored the situation closely and intently for two weeks, hoping to offer the clearest and most accurate vision of what is happening in the China-based industry and what will happen with Qkids given the dynamics. Whether you have been awaiting news, or are just learning of an update to the People’s Republic of China’s education regulations now, we are sorry to bring some heavy news. Qkids and all academic preK-12 operations with students based (specifically) in China are being reformed by regulations. Please read on to learn how Qkids’ operations will continue, be re-shaped and be expanded further.

Here is a brief summary on how the PRC has updated and accelerated regulation policy for the private education industry for preK-12th grade students in China. The private education industry for these students in China has recently been issued regulations to reduce the burden on preK-12 children’s out-of-school time, eliminate holiday academic classes, and cease instruction for preK-12 academics from foreign teachers who are outside of China. The regulations are being rolled out now and implemented according to provincial timelines.

We will keep you posted as soon as we can when there are specific and concrete guidelines issued to us.

At this time, please closely note the following updates about Qkids’ existing operations. As ofAugust 10, Qkids will no longer sell any new/renewed packages offering ESL instruction from teachers outside of China. Currently, Qkids has been granted time to fulfill existing family packages and subscriptions. For these subscriptions, we expect mostly regular scheduling trends for teachers in August and into the coming months. In other words, your booking options will continue in coordination with existing subscriptions. During this stage, you can expect weekly scheduling, coach/ CCT communications and pay to operate without changes.

We are deeply disappointed by the circumstance we are all facing. We regret that many of you will be affected by the reduction in bookings, as well as sad to stop having classes with our China-based kiddos. This is a challenging time for all of us, but we hope together we can make the most of what is ahead. With students and families, we ask that you stay positive and please avoid this topic in class in order to maintain a pleasant, professional, and uplifting tone as you always have done. We truly hope you can make the most of this time with all the China-based Qkiddos learning English.

As you may know, Qkids has long been innovating on and expanding its product lines. While we expect a major dip in demand for some time as subscriptions wrap up and we transition as a company, it is our goal to continue with preK-12 offerings for students outside of China. You may know of the pilot program Qkids Academy for North American children, as well as our efforts to provide classes to students and open bookings for ESL teachers in various other countries. We will put more energy and focus into new markets and also aim to launch a new product to serve the Chinese adult population for their English-speaking practices. We are certainly going to push to continue our educational mission and will continue to be committed to finding and extending opportunities for our teaching community as best as we can. We wish we could do this seamlessly, but can not at this time given how quickly the regulations have been rolled out.

Qkids staff, from our Recruitment Team, Coaching Team, Class Coordination Team, as well as those working on social media, marketing, workshops and many other projects, have enjoyed every moment of collaboration with you all! There have been so many bright, brilliant moments amongst the staff and teachers, as well as between students and teachers. From all of us, we would like to share a huge THANK YOU to all for your talent, commitment, loyalty and efforts over time.

Deepest gratitude,

Qkids Teams

Needless to say.....I didn't sleep well on that night. My assumption has always been that I will continue to have work through the end of August and then things will get bad and classes will become non-existent. I told the kids first and then started praying.

In the week or so since, I haven't stopped praying. Multiple times a days and I always have a prayer in my heart.

The next day I got busy trying to find jobs. I have been receiving daily job updates from the church and Dept of Workforce services. Having those was a good start. I've also been checking KSL job, Facebook jobs, Provo School District, Nebo School District, Amazon, Ebay, Jet Blue, Veterans Affairs, BYU, UVU, and a lot of small companies in between.

So far I have applied for:

Missionary Travel Department

Customer Service at When I work

My Tech High Parent Support

Roots of Knowledge Educator

Cleaning Supervisor

Smith.ai Customer care representative

Backyard Bookkeeping

LDSDaily.com writer

Worker for The Grandkids

Three jobs as an online teacher

Financial secretary for Springville High School

I've also connected with the Women in Success Department at UVU to take their Managing Life Transitions class. They put me in contact with a non-profit organization called People Helping People. They help single mothers who are struggling to find work. I completed their intake paperwork and expect to be paired with a mentor by the end of the month. I have also taking typing tests and office competency tests. I need to schedule a typing test with Nebo School District, but that might have to wait until September because....

My neighbor is a foster parent for her nieces 3 month old baby. She has been giving her care since she was born. She posted last night that she is looking for a caregiver. I immediately texted her and got the details. Neither one of us are sure that it will work with my homeschool schedule.....but, we are going to try this coming week. Pray for me....I will be up at 3:30 and won't be able to rest until baby leaves at 5pm. It will be crazy. Maybe I will learn how to nap when baby naps. I wasn't so good at doing that when my own babies were small.

I figure that if I show Heavenly Father I'm willing to pursue anything that comes across my path, he will eventually send me something that is just perfect for me.