Who I Am
Hi! My name is Becky Gardner. I stay at home mom with 6 kids: 5 boys and 1 girl. Currently, all 6 of them are home schooling – I rarely miss a “light bulb” moment when my children finally understand something they were struggling to process.
My kids and I started our homeschooling journey in the virtual schools because I wasn’t sure if I could come up with the lessons myself and the materials came to my door step each year for free.
Eventually, my confidence increased and I realized that virtual school life was preventing me from reaching the goals that inspired me to home school in the first place. I struck it out on my own and never looked back.
I have volunteered in the Cub Scout Program for over 10 years, and I am currently a Sunday school teacher at my church. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time doing things for my family.
I enjoy cooking, baking, and barbequing, but decided I needed a creative outlet and have always wanted to write. Someday, I hope to write a book or regularly write articles in a respected magazine.
My past work experiences include working at 2 middle schools with special needs children, working as a lab technician for a well known food company, working for a national company (from my basement) whose clients were newspaper and magazine companies that needed people like me to make phone calls to reinstate canceled newspaper/magazine subscriptions, and I worked in the media center at one of the colleges I attended. In high school, I was the treasurer for student council for 1 1/2 years as well as the library aid for one school year.
I live in Colorado, but hate downhill skiing. I prefer cross country skiing and can do that when there is a good snow storm without traveling more than 10 miles because there are great trails nearby. I enjoy speed walking and running without the kids, plus hiking with the family. My friend has challenged me to join her in a race later this year- it will be my first as an adult.
My Mission- Empower Homeschoolers with Financial Tools to Maintain Their Homeschool Lifestyle
We’ve experienced the challenges that many homeschooling families have faced. The biggest one is often financial. Today’s economy is based on two income earning households to meet the basic needs of everyone in the home. This can pose quite the challenge for those who want to homeschool.
Our family has been incredibly blessed to be able to afford homeschooling and get out of debt. I want to empower as many families who want to afford homeschooling and get out/stay out of debt to do so.
I have found ways to cut costs on every day necessities such as curriculum, cell phone bills, ink for our printer (homeschoolers use a surprising amount of ink), home phone bills, and computer purchases. These are either big ticket items or the recurring payments can take a substantial bite out of the budget.
Working a 40 hour per week out of the home job or career was impractical if I wanted to maintain our homeschool lifestyle. There are many scam-free ways to make money from home on your own schedule. I share what I have tried and tell you what worked and what didn’t work.
