Earn Extra Income While Advocating Hands-On Parenting

I have good news for you at the start of this brand new week! 

But before that, let me share a short story when I was still a first-time mom almost 7 years ago.

When I had my first child, one of my small finance goals is to earn extra income while being a full time mom to our eldest. I started with small goals so that I would feel motivated each month. Since I love to write and I was given the opportunity to contribute to publications, one of my goals then was to write at least 1 art​icle each month and have it published. Then, as I got more used to writing freelance, I made bigger goals for myself and made it two to four articles each month. Earning additional income for our family through one of my favorite hobbies while being a hands-on mom to our eldest child made me happy and fulfilled.

But writing articles can also takes up a lot of time. Our eldest son grew older and he slept less often. Eventually, he outgrew nap time. He's awake most of the time after lunch. Thus, it has become a challenge for me to write articles because I usually did this task while he's asleep.

I also gave birth to two more children so my hands are usually full (figuratively and literally).

Another way by which I earn not from home but outside the home is by giving talks, trainings and workshops. This kind of work pays higher compared to writing but it requires me to be out of the house and to look for someone else to watch over my kids while I am working. Thus, I decided to conduct workshops and trainings less frequently because I want to invest more time building the foundations of my marriage and my relationship with my children.

As my circumstances changed over the years, I searched for new ways to earn from home that did not require a lot of my time or that required me to be away from my kids. Even though I wanted to stay home most of the time with my kids, I also wanted to contribute to the family income because our family has grown bigger. This led me to come up with a digital program or an online coaching program called iHOPE. I decided to use my expertise as HR practitioner and my experiences as a parent to develop a program that will enable me to help other parents to have a richer and stronger relationship with their children. I was happy to come up with a product that enables me to be hands-on with my kids, earn from home and be of help to other parents and families. 

I launched this product on my 40th birthday a few months ago. :) You can read about what moved me to have the courage and confidence to launch it then here in my previous post. 

Today, I want to share with you the opportunity to earn extra income each month through our Hands-On Parent while Earning Affiliate Program. Do you want to earn extra income each month without you doing a lot of work? Is this something that will benefit your family?

If your answer is YES, you need to keep on reading.

 

If you know of parents who may benefit from this program and who are willing to invest in their relationship with their children, I invite you to register to become one of our Affiliates. You can earn a commission every time a person to whom you shared our program to decided to sign up for it or to purchase our product. 

For example, if one of the people you shared our program to through email purchases the iHOPE Coaching Program, you earn a commission. If for example, you promoted the iHOPE Coaching Program in your Facebook Account and one of your friends signed up for it, you earn a commission.

Your commissions accrue and once it reaches the minimum amount for payout each month, you will receive payment from us for helping us spread the word about our life-changing program. 

By doing this, you not only partner with me in encouraging more parents to become hands-on with their kids, you also help me help more families to be stronger. You're helping me help more children to become happier and more parents, fulfilled! Now, while you are advocating hands-on parenting, you earn at the same time. Isn't that great?

You can register to become one of our Affiliates by clicking this link. The details of the Affiliate Program are in the Terms of Use. Just hover your mouse over these words and click that link and you will be taken to the page where you can read all the information about our Hands-On Parent while Earning Affiliate Program.

Should you have any questions about our Affiliate Program, feel free to email me at teresa@handsonparentwhileearning.com with subject Affilliate Program.

You may also read more about the iHOPE Coaching Program here.

I look forward to having you as our fellow Hands-On Parenting advocate and Affiliate!

6 Ways to Maximize Your Visit to the Manila International Book Fair (#MIBF2015)

The 36th Manila International Book Fair is here again! Do you have plans to visit the book fair? Book lovers like me usually look forward to this yearly event and mark our calendars so we don't miss it. There are many exciting things that happen every year at this fair: book launches, storyteling sessions, book signing, meet and greet with authors and illustrators, seminras and workshops and BIG discounts from publishers! 

Photo source here.

I love going to the bookstore. The prospect of finding good books to read make my heart beat faster. hahaha Thus, going to the MIBF where there is a sea of books makes me feel ecstatic. ;) 

So, with two days left of the book fair, how do you make the most of your trip to SMX? Let me share some ways based on my previous visits in the past years.

1. Get FREE tickets to the MIBF through the bookstores or publishers who will be exhibitors at the fair. You don't need to spend on tickets. Publishers and bookstores usually give away free tickets either at their branches or you can download from their websites. We got our free tickets this year from Fully Booked BGC. 

For example, you can print this ticket from OMF Lit and present it as your FREE pass.

Here are some links where you can download FREE tickets to MIBF 2015.

Adarna House
CSM Publishing
JesCom
St. Matthew's Publishing

2. Make a list. Make a list of topics where you plan to get new books. Then, check out what books (old and new) you'd like to get for these topics you have in mind. Or if you have book titles already that you are interested to buy, make a list of book titles.

3. Check out publishers for promos and events. Once you already have a list of topics or book titles, I suggest that you check out the websites or social media accounts of the publsihers of these books on your list. That way, you would know if they have promos like discounts or book bundles for the books that you like. You might also find interesting activities related to the books in your list like book launch or book signing, meet and greet with the author or free pass to special events by the publisher for those who will buy copies of their books.

Here's an activity by Scholastic for the Geronimo Stilton series.

Check out my post about Geronimo here.

Here are some examples of promos you might want to avail of.

Source: OMF Lit's Facebook Page.

Here are some book launches you might find interesting.

The official book launch of this book by one of my brothers from CYA
will be on Sunday. Grab a copy if you are a leader! Launch price is P325!

This is the first book of my friend Jomar Hilario.
It will be launched on Sunday together with other new titles
from Shepherd's Voice Publications. Take advantage of its P250 launch price!

4. Get the exact location of the publishers whose booths you want to visit. Get their booth number as well as their location. You can find this at their websites or social media posts also or at teh entrance of SMX where this is usually posted. This helps you plan your route around the book fair. Believe me, if you haven't been to the past MIBFs, you can easily get lost and overwhelmed and forget where you want to go or what you really want to buy. This brings me to my next suggestion.

5. Set your budget. After considering the promos, you need to edit your list of books that you want to buy based on how much you are willing to spend for your visit. It might be difficult to stick to your budget once you are already at the book fair (especially if you are a bookworm like me) but having a budget would at least caution you or remind you not to buy too many books or all the nice books that you will see. What you can do is make a list or mental note of the nice books you'll see and plan when to buy them. Make them part of your next shopping list or wish list for Christmas for example. You can also ask the publishers or sellers if they will have future sales and promos in their stores or branches. This will give you an opportunity to save up for these future promos.  

You can get this discount couplon when you post a photo
of yourself at OMF Lit's booth. 

6. Enjoy the experience of going around the book fair. The place might be crowded especially during weekends but you can still enjoy going around the venue by taking your time to browse through aisles and aisles of books and other educational materials that you will see at the MIBF. 

Saturdate with My Sons and Geronimo Stilton

I got an invite to the launching of the Geronimo Stilton Academy Pawbooks. This is a new workbook series based on the popular series Geronimo Stilton. I was happy to get this invite because my eldest son loves Geronimo Stilton. So, I confirmed with the organizer right away and told her that I'm definitely coming with my eldest son.

I shared this information with my son and told him that attending the launch will be our date. It has been part of my schedule to date each of my sons at least once a month so I can spend one-to-one time with them. My son was also happy to hear the news and he looked forward to our date.

The weather was bad on the day of the launch but we still went to Powerbooks at Greenbelt 4 on August 22. The event was from 3 to 5 PM. We got there a little past 3 PM. 

Our original plan was that while my eldest son and I are having our date at the event, my husband and two younger kids will also have a date nearby, either in the bookstore or they will eat ice cream somewhere. But since we found out that they can also stay, they joined us. So, it was now a family date! 

We got a big bag of Geronimo Stilton products as soon as we registered. The canvass bag we got contained two sets of workbooks: Vocabulary Pawbooks from levels 1 to 3 and Comprehension Pawbooks from levels 1 to 3 also. It also had Geronimo buttonpins and a copy of Mockingjay by New York Times Bestselling Author Suzanne Collins.

The event was already starting when we arrived. They were playing a game wherein the participants need to find words and letters from old newspapers that they can form to match the titles of the books in the Geronimo Stilton Series. My son and I still got to join. We had some fun playing even though we didn't win. 

The other game that was played was ensaymada eating for the parents. The parent who is able to finish his/her ensaimada first wins a set of books from the series also. I didn't win but I enjoyed eating the ensaimada. hahaha 

There was a parenting talk after the games and prizes were raffled off in between the games the talk. We didn't win in the raffle but it's alright because being together at the event was already a win for our family.

Book stamping and picture taking opportunities followed after the talk and raffle. Snacks were also served while people were lined up to have their books stamped and their photos taken with the mascots. Even the snacks were according to the theme. Snacks had cheese on them because Geronimo and his friends love cheese.

While waiting for our turn to have our photos taken with Geronimo and Thea, my husband and younger sons roamed around the bookstore to check out copies of the Geronimo Stilton books. The first copy that our son had was Space Mice. We bought it at a time when he was very interested on outer space. This time, we were looking for the first books in the series. Sadly, there were no copies available. But we discovered that Scholastic sells the books in the series in packs or bundles too. My husband saw a pack for the books from 11 to 20. He discovered that we would save a lot if we buy the books this way instead of buying them per piece. So we asked if they have a pack or bundle for books 1 to 10. The staff we talked to said that this pack was out of stock but she was kind enough to inquire from the other branches. She found out that there is an available stock from SM North Edsa and that she said they can request it to be transferred to their branch and we can buy it from there. We were delighted! We had that pack reserved.

After having snacks and having our books stamped and our photos taken, we checked out other books for my younger son who loves Thomas the Tank Engine. I was looking for Step 1 into Reading books for him with stories about his favorite character Thomas. We didn't find any Level 1 books but we found two Level 2 books. I still bought them since the books are still easy to read for kids his age. Now, everybody is happy.

My eldest son who is 6 years old could not get his hands and eyes on his new workbooks. He wanted to read them even while in our vehicle on our way home. He also wanted to read that night but we said he will have to wait until morning. True enough, he was seen reading these books most of the time in the days that followed.

I told him that we will start answering these workbooks after he's done answering his Grade 2 English Grammar worksheets (the ones we are using in our homeschool). I said this to motivate him to work faster on his worksheets before starting on a new one.

Several days after the launch, I got a text message from the Powerbooks staff that our order is available for pick up at their branch. I informed my husband right away so he can make time to buy it for our son.

Finally, our son got his hands on the much-awaited book bundle last weekend and kept reading book after book in the days that followed. Actually, he said that he already read 5 books in just a single day! I told him that I will check if he understaood the stories by making him answer the workbooks. 

We started using these workbooks last Monday and I am really glad that we discovered these workbooks. My son is happy to read and answer the workbooks because the lessons were based on his favorite character Geronimo Stilton. Of course, when my son is happy to do his lessons, I am also happy because I don't need to force him to answer his workbooks.

When he was much younger, one of his favorite characters was Lighting McQueen from the movie Cars. I also used activity books then which were inspired by this character. He also enjoyed using these books and he was usually eager to answer them. I also bought him flash cards with the Cars theme for he was still a toddler then.

Then, when I had my second child, I used the same strategy but this time I bought materials inspired by Thomas the Tank Engine or anything related to trains, unlike with his older brother which were related to cars.

Are you struggling to get your kids excited to read books or to learn something related to their lessons? I strongly suggest that you find a related material that is based on your child's favorite character or interest. That will surely spark your child's interest. I have been doing this for years now and both of my children are responding well to this strategy.

How will you know which characters interest them?

Here are 2 ways:

1. Ask them. If you are not sure or you have no clue, just ask them. It's that simple. But you will not know unless you make time to ask and wait for their answer.

2. Listen to them tell stories. Kids like to include their favorite characters in their stories. They also like to talk about their favorite characters at least once a day when given the chance. Again, this goes back to my previously shared tip to parents to converse with their children. Make time to listen to them and to encourage them to keep on talking and telling stories to you through your verbal and non-verbal responses.

So, don't let this day pass without you doing any of these two tips I shared! Then, look for something that you and your child can use that is related to his interest!     

Update:

The Stilton siblings will be at the MIBF 2015 (Sunday). Catch them at National Bookstore's booth.

Photo source here.