Welcome to Cloud Nine Learning — Nice to meet you!
First–thank you for reading this. This is the very first post of the Cloud Nine Learning (C9L) blog!
Cloud Nine Learning is a brand new educational company. It is the culmination of years (and generations!) of work in the field of literacy, education, and raising kids.
In this blog I want to share my journey as an Edupreneur (Educational Entrepreneur). Starting a brand new company while managing a household, raising kids and making a living is an adventure that is sure to bring some laughs–juggling data entry and dishes, LinkedIn and laundry makes me laugh! As the old saying goes, if you don’t laugh you’ll cry, so I choose to laugh. 🙂
My Family Background
My husband and I have four children ages 22, 20, 16, and 7. Through this I have learned a lot with each kid, had successes and made mistakes along the way. Talking to my fellow moms has always been one of the most precious resources in life. Honestly, I don’t know how I would have made it this far, and more importantly how my kids would have made it, without the love and support of other mothers. Really looking forward to sharing my successes and mistakes in the hopes that they may help you in some way.
My mom, Sharon, taught third grade at a public school in Wisconsin back in the ’60s. She stopped teaching when I was born. So that gives away what decade I was born in.
When Homeschooling Was Not Cool
Sharon was an early homeschooling parent and founded the Minnesota Homeschool Network. We were homeschooling when homeschooling was definitely NOT cool. This resulted in all sorts of interesting experiences including my parents being served papers to show up in court about our truancy, lots of media coverage, and more than a few blank looks when people asked us where we went to school (“You do what? What’s homeschool?”). More on that in future posts.
My brothers and I also attended private and public schools at various times. When I was older my mom opened a small private school. I got to do some assistant teaching there in my early 20s. This experience ignited the educator flame in me–a flame which has grown stronger ever since.
I’ve experienced a variety of educational scenarios with my own kids as well. At various times, depending on my kids’ needs, our economic situation, and what schooling options were available, our children have been enrolled in:
- two different private schools serving primarily middle and high income families;
- a private school servicing primarily low income families;
- a public middle school; a public high school;
- a public magnet school;
- two different charter schools;
- the dual enrollment program which allows high school students scoring high enough on a college entrance exam to attend college classes;
- and homeschool.
In addition to being the first teacher for my own kids, I have taught in the classroom, tutored and run an educational non-profit for the better part of 20 years.
Working with struggling students for the past 20 years inspired me to start Cloud Nine Learning. C9L’s first project is the creation of an online game that will teach kids the fundamentals of reading in a fun and effective way. It is my fervent desire that Cloud Nine Learning assist as many parents and educators as possible in providing much needed practice in reading to their children and students.