Best Home Businesses - My Top 10

Best Home Business? - My Top 10

Would you agree with me that the best home business is that which gives you the highest income based on your abilities and interests? This will obviously differ from person to person but there are some considerations that I suggest that you should take into account.

I have compiled this list of some of the more popular options for top earn additional income from home. I have assumed that you either want to work exclusively at home or in your neighbourhood.

Anything Pet Related

You don't need me to tell you that a large section of our society is pet crazy. There is a demand for grooming, training, walking, pet sitting while the owner is away and a whole variety of other services. You could offer pet based products at very good prices to your local area.

Franchises

I must confess that I'm not a huge fan of the concept of franchises. Of course people have made very good livings piggy backing established brands. The problem is that when you check out the terms and fees of the deal you are, to a great extent, working for the outfit that offered the franchise in the first place.

Catering

Another niche with endless demand. From preparing food for private dinner parties to large events there is a great living to be made. If cooking is your thing you might also consider giving cookery lessons. The only downside is that if you are cooking at home you will be subject to stringent health and hygiene regulations.

Physical Products

You could supply a highly targeted range of products in one of thousands of markets. These could be sold at flea markets, from your home, at offline auctions, at the customers home, on eBay or from your own website.

Home Decor

Whether indoors or out the home renovation market is never ending. You could do the work yourself or put together a team to do it for you. A good reputation in this area will quickly result in a very nice business.

Beauty & Self Improvement

This is a truly huge market. It would be impossible to list all the options but here are a few. Beauty products, makeover service, hairdressing service, nail care, lingerie, jewelry and tanning.

Cars

After pets many people are positively obsessed with their cars. Car washing, valet service, repairs and insurance are just some of the areas that you might consider.

Gardening

Cutting, planting, trimming, tidying, pruning, power cleaning, garden design as well as pool maintenance are just some of the things to consider in this market that will never fade.

Fitness

This market is similar to the beauty niche, everyone wants to look better. Weight loss, toning or gentle exercises, there are hundreds of people in your area that would be willing to pay for a service that made them healthier and more attractive. You could work with individuals or organise classes.

E-commerce

My favourite   I regard e-commerce as the best home business of all!

Armed with a laptop and an internet connection I can carry on my home based business even when on holiday. The initial outlay can be modest and a substantial income is possible. The only downside is that you will spend a great deal of time in a sedentary position staring at a computer screen, something that your nearest and dearest may not approve of!

Obviously, where required, you should obtain the correct training for some of the above as well as comply with all laws and regulations that apply in your area. Appropriate insurance may also be needed.

I hope that my list has given you food for thought.

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How to Teach Your Kids To Read Before They Start School

Concentration!

1. Start at 14 months ....Sing the AB

C song and get your child to try and repeat it....Keep singing until they are able to sing it back ........(You must commit to doing this daily as a fun playful song....maybe clapping your hands on as you sing if your child prefers this.)

2. When your child can sing the ABC song....you are ready to move on to letter recognition. 
Print off the Alphabet with a CapConcentration

I actually discovered by accident that anyone can teach a child to read without an educational gadget or any formal training or course; when my part-time nanny showed my 16 month old the letter " A " and told her what it was. I was surprised to find the next day that she had remembered it.

I had read somewhere many years ago before I had children that being a strong reader was a great foundation for overall success at school so on the realisation, that my daughter could recognise letters at such a young age, I made a decision to keep teaching her the alphabet and would eventually teach her to read at the age of 3.5. It could have happened a lot sooner but I made a commitment to make it fun and turn it into a game we would play no more than 5 mins a day.

You can teach your child to read too following my Simple 5 step formula bital Letter and lower case letter and a picture that represents the letter .....or just buy alphabet cards if this works better for you.

3. Start with A- G ....making sure your child recognises the capital letter and then the lower case letters. Cover the picture and ask what letter is this, to be sure the child recognises the letter.Then mention the sound which the letter makes and get your child to repeat it after you. You should spend only 10 mins a day....and can only increase it if your child requests it...Remember the whole objective is to have fun with it and make it a game...do not scold the child if they get it wrong....don't tell them off in anyway...just repeat to them what the correct one should be.

4. Repeat the steps above with letters H -P . Q - V, W - Z.......until your child can recognise all capital and lower case letters of the alphabet and can make the sounds of the letters too. YOU must ensure that you are using English phonetics and are sounding out the letters correctly.The correct sounds for English can be found here, http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics

5. Now that your child can recognise all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds.....you can introduce your child to reading by buying a book from any bookstore for beginner readers. This book must be the first level of the particular reading scheme, (you may want to check with the school that your child will be going to, which reading scheme they will be using at that school and start with that particular one.)

Begin by reading the book to your child first, and then encouraging your child to read the book after you. You child may initially use the pictures as cues for the words but will eventually come to memorise and phonetically sound out words based on the phonetic letter sounds they had learnt from you previously.

Remember to be patient and have fun, spend a small amount of time on this daily and do not increase it unless the child asks you too...the bigger objective outside of teaching them to read, is also to make learning fun...

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When Your Child First Speaks

I'll be glad when I get my Mobile

I well remember musing with my wife,whilst watching our first son take tentative steps, what it would be like once he could talk to us. Little did I realise the significant change there would be in our lives, particularly once he discovered the word "why"!
However talking and walking stages in your child's development are often reversed in order, so if you haven't sought information on walking yet go to the post above! 

What to Do If Your Toddler is Not Talking Yet

If all of your friends toddlers are babbling away and your toddler is not talking yet you may have reason to become concerned. One of the things parents often use to gauge their child's development is how early they start talking. Babies start off experimenting with noises from an early age, usually consisting of babbling noises, the typical "goo goo" and "gaa gaa" sounds, these will turn into "ma ma" and "da da". These babbling sounds eventually progress into Mommy and Daddy. So how do you determine whether your child has delayed speech development and what do you do if your toddler is not talking yet?

On a daily basis your child will find different ways to shape their mouth and change the noise they are making; the first step in their speech development. Parents naturally spend a great deal of time talking to their baby's but they do this instinctually and mostly to enjoy the social interaction it offers. Many don't realize that this is also essential for the development of their speech and language skills. 

Babies recognize the sound of their parent's voices from even before birth; they become familiar with us when they are in the womb. Parent's voices are comforting for them, especially for newborns before their vision is fully developed. Babies and toddlers mimic their parents; that's how they learn. The more verbal communication you engage in with your child, the faster they will learn.

By the time your child is the age of twelve to eighteen months your baby should be saying words like Mommy and Daddy. Over the next year of your child's speech development, they will learn to put together small sentences and communicate their needs to their family members. By the age of 21 months most children can be understood by their family. If your child cannot communicate with family members and be understood by the age of 30 months there would be cause for concern. At any stage, if your child is not meeting the age appropriate developmental timelines you should seek professional opinion. Trust your instincts, more often than not parents know best.

If your toddler isn't talking yet there are things you can do to encourage speech development. Keyword signing, otherwise known as baby sign language has been shown by researchers to increase language acquisition by up to 3 months. Children using sign language have the language re-enforced to them by the parent as the gestures are used in conjunction with the word. Parent's who use sign language with their children are often more aware of their communication with their baby's and flood them with language on a daily basis. Gesture based baby sign language also improves word comprehension as the gesture is a natural movement that mimics the meaning of the word. Reading to your child is another important strategy that will go a long way to improving your child's language skills. When they are exposed to reading at an early age they pick up on the way language ebbs and flows and are more likely to have an interest in books later on.

So if you are concerned that your toddler is not talking yet, assess the developmental timeline as make sure they are reaching the recommended milestones. Not all babies develop at the same rate and the normal range can differ by months. If you are looking for ways to encourage speech development because your toddler is not talking yet, keyword signing and reading are both great places to start.

About the Author: Lisa Baade is the Author of Toddler Interpreter, A Parent's Guide to Baby Sign Language for Hearing Babies and Toddlers.

Teaching a simple keyword based communication tool such as Baby Sign Language can help to accelerate your child's speech comprehension and development. More importantly it can also provide an invaluable head start if you find out later that they suffer from a speech delay. 

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                                      Talking WITH Toddlers is Different Than Talking AT Infants

Toddlers are ready to be "talked with" rather than "talked at." The lengthy sentences and questions we surround infants with so they get the overall "speech envelope" of language are not as helpful to language-learning toddlers.

What really helps toddlers is when parents are talking partners rather than "quizzers" (that's a nicer word than interrogators!) If you really want to encourage word use, reduce the use of direct questions and increase the use of statements.

In my 34 years as a speech-language pathologist working exclusively with children and their parents, most parents have told me that they ask their young children who are not talking yet a lot of questions. Many have told me it is upwards of 80 percent. That's a lot of questions! I think parents do this hoping they will actually get an answer which will validate their wish that their child will start talking soon. Unfortunately, such excessive use of questioning works against the child's learning process, and the child is less likely to talk when questioned.

It may seem difficult initially to change all of your questions into statements, but it is possible to do it. For example, instead of asking a toddler, "What do you see?" or, "Do you see that jet?" you can simply state the obvious, "I see a jet way up high in the sky!"

Once you make a full sentence, then systematically reduce it to a phrase and then to a key word--and sometimes right down to the vowel sound from the word or a sound effect. Doing this "filters" the rapid flow of speech so your child gets a chance to grasp what the best word is to match an experience and how to say that word.

Here's an example using the sentence I wrote above. You will see that each utterance is shorter than the previous one. "I see a jet way up high in the sky!" "That's a fast jet. Fast jet. Jet! Zzzzzoooooommm!" Pause to wait for an imitation if the child is ready to try.

I call this process of systematically reducing the length of a sentence the "Upside-Down Pyramid" way of talking with young children so they can learn to start talking or to talk better. My ideas are practical and are intended to be used throughout the day during a family's usual activities and routines. Many parents have indicated that they got results right away as soon as they stopped asking so many questions and learned how to present statements in this new way. When you are ready, you can learn to use this method, too.

Mary Lou B. Johnson, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist with 34 years of experience working with children and their families at The Children's Hospital, Denver. 

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