By Melissa Uhles

My fourth grade son recently had to write a five paragraph essay for the first time. The essay had to include an introductory paragraph and three body paragraphs. The final paragraph needed to have a conclusion that summed up what he discussed in the essay. In solidarity, I decided to challenge myself to do the same assignment and share it with him. If this is your child’s first time writing an essay, let them choose a topic that they love and already know a lot about.

By Melissa Uhles

Have you thought about becoming a freelance writer but had a hard time figuring out where to start? I can relate. There is so much information out there that when I got started I found it hard to stop reading and start writing. Following are steps that will launch you into a new career path and help you start making some money with your writing.

Most people become inundated with negative images and reports of China. We have this idea that China doesn’t care about people, intellectual property and wants world dominance. The American fight with China is much like the cold war with the Soviet Union. Now instead of a wall dividing East and West Germany, we have a virtual fence fortified with trade wars and human rights violations. So when a fellow teacher and friend told me he was moving to Shanghai to teach English, I thought, “Why would you ever go there?” 

This is a guest post is by Judith Klein Rich of the Eaty Pie Blog.

“Do you want to meet for dinner?” asks your carefree (aka child-free) friend who checks out a new restaurant as often as you dine in. While there’s nothing more that you’d want to do, the dreaded thought of your rambunctious toddler causing havoc makes you cringe at the prospect. 

By Melissa Uhles

I never could have imagined that my self-published YA novel Falling would be out in both ebook, paperback and audiobook formats. I had no idea where to start and imagined it would cost way too much to produce an audiobook.

After listing to some podcasts on the subject, I learned that ACX, an Amazon company, allows you to create an audiobook using a royalty share arrangement. Once your audiobook is complete, it becomes available for sale on Audible/Amazon and Apple.

So you think you have a hidden Jane Austen within you? You can romanticize the simplest of statements, and written words are your forte! Well then, what’s stopping you from following a writing career? Oh yeah, real life commitments.

Turns out that Jane, as much of a literature prodigy as she was, never really got married or had any children. She could dedicate all of her days and nights to writing, as she precisely did, touching people’s hearts as such.

Parents and writers are always looking for how to save money every month. But it can be hard to find ways to save the extra pennies. In fact, when I have extra change I worry that my kids might swallow it. So when I learned about a killer app that takes your spare change and invests it for you, I was curious.

As a working mom finding the right routine for taking care of toddlers can be tough. By the time you pick them up from daycare or preschool they’ve had a full day and so have you. But I’ve learned some tricks that make my working mom routine with toddlers easier.

If you like reading a YA book with “all the feels”, this post is for you!

As a mom of two under three and about to embark on a vacation that included planes and automobiles, I needed an ultimate packing list. Nothing’s worse than being trapped with kiddos without travel essentials and activities. This began my search for the best working mom’s travel packing list for toddlers.