Shopping Open House, 9/22/12

On Saturday, Sept 22nd (Bilbo’s and Frodo’s Birthday) I’ll be at the BATAVIA BUNCO FOR BREAST CANCER’s shopping event. I will be one of 17 vendors participating in the event. Vendors donate either a portion of the sales or product to be part of a raffle at the Bunco event in October. Please come out and support the fight again breast cancer!

Heartland Regional, 9-15-2012

I had a great time at the Heartland Regional yesterday.

Everyone got a prize and mine was Where Do Baby Animals Come From? Written by Anna Milbourne and illustrated by Serena Riglietti.

I thought I would share the things from my notes that stand out to me:

– Team growth provides stability for difficult times when you can’t do as much or need a lot of flexibility. Like when you are taking care a family member who is dying so they don’t have to go into a nursing home.

– EDC (the US publisher of Usborne books and Kane Miller) is a Debt Free publicly traded company.

– I should have a plan for where I want to be in 5 yrs (10 yrs, 20 yrs) with Usborne and life!

– This isn’t so much something I learned, but thought was funny. However, I did learn what an infographic is.

– I decided I should set up a Facebook page, but not let it take over my business “time” and I really need to schedule my work time so Usborne doesn’t take over. I should keep work time only as work time.

– If I do a door prize, have people fill it out during four different parts during the party. How do you get people to wait was always my question before. Now I know! Highlight each section in a different color.

– I don’t want to be pushy, so how do I recruit for people who could really use this opportunity? I know listening is the key and thinking “How can Usborne help this person meet their needs?” I already knew this. One thing that helped was what one lady said: “Don’t shove information down the person’s throat. If I think she can do this, tell her! Let her know you will help her and train her.” Sometimes, she wants to do it, but isn’t sure she can.

– Instead of offering a free book to anyone who brings an uninvited guest to a home show, offer to pay tax. If she doesn’t order, I’m not out anything! And I’ll offer to pay the guest’s shipping. If they both order one book, I come out ahead instead of behind if I had given a $10 book.

– I really liked the “7 Keys to Comprehension” session. I’m going to turn it into a separate post, so stay tuned!

M Caught Learning

I caught M reading the workbook I’m using as part of his kindergarten curriculum.

I really love this workbook! It does a great job of using pictures to teach kids how to draw letters, the sound each letter makes, how the letters are put together to form words, and then checks their understanding of the words they just formed. It does this all with fun pictures, activities, and stickers!

The front cover shows how it easily incorporate the S into a picture which boys will enjoy. All of the letters have fun pictures. The “a” is half an apple, the “i” is the legs of insects, and “p” is the tail and body of a parrot.

The Phonics Workbook teaches a lot more than just how to make letters, it also teaches the sounds and how to put words together. There are also tidbits of information hidden throughout the workbook, for example, insects have six legs, frogs use their sticky tongues to grab and eat insects, and what a saucepan is.

In teaching the sound of the letter “d”, children have a page of dinosaurs at the beach and they are told to find two dinosaurs dancing, a Dino diving into the deep blue sea, three dinosaurs having a delicious dinner, a Dino dentist, and a Dino detective making a discovery. The workbook then asks if the children can find any more things beginning with the letter d.

The book also is great at helping the kids see the use of these letters. The first four letters are “s”,”a”,”t”, and “p”. Before the book teaches any more letters, it puts these together into sat, pat, and tap. On the same two page spread, the child has to choose which picture(out of three) goes with sat, which picture (three new pictures) goes with pat, and the same for tap to ensure the child understood the lesson.

Last Box of My Incentive Period

My last shipment from my 12 week incentive period came the other day. Look what was on the outside of the box! Randall White, Usborne Books & More’s President and CEO, packed the box!

This is the inside box:

DemiBooks Book App – Story Time

The Story Time app is an interactive book app. This is a new app and has added several books since I downloaded it, so I’m sure there are many more coming! One of my favorites, Hush Little Beachcomber is on Story Time. Usborne Books & More has partnered with DemiBooks to make these books available.

While the app is free, most books are available at a reduced price from their printed counterparts. Personally, I like to have the printed copy and then use the DemiBook as a supplement, but that’s just me. If you enter my Consultant ID (s3692) when you download the app (after, you can in the settings), each month you will get a FREE DemiBook!

Josh and Katie’s Surprise!

My friends are bringing home their new baby boy! I’m so excited for them! Most of my sales commission from my first month with Usborne went to their adoption fund, and now two months later, they are bringing home Titus. This was a surprise adoption! You can read all about it on Katie’s Blog. They need to raise more money to cover the costs of adopting Titus. Take a look at this post from April, the matching grant is over, but, you can make a tax deductible donation HERE.

Aurora IL Farmers’ Market

I worked the market again today. It was my first time solo. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to set up, so I gave myself an hour, which seemed about right. I talked with a few people who sounded eager to know more about selling Usborne. The market was in the parking lot close to the regular location, which I thought worked better. I talked with the Mayor’s wife for a bit and she purchased some books. D, the organizer, helped me get the tent up and take it down afterwards, thanks. Thanks for letting me borrow your things, Nicole! and a big thank you to everyone who came out today!

My First 9 Weeks

I am just past my 9 week mark and will be in my first 12 weeks selling Usborne until Aug 27th at 10am. I know it’s a funny cut off time, but that helps the staff at the home office.

This first 12 weeks are an incentive period. When I first signed up, my friend Mary C. told me to make sure I take advantage of the 12 weeks. I’ve now sold enough that if someone signs up under me, I’ll get $50 worth of books/supplies!

So I’m wondering if you or someone you know would be interested in selling Usborne Books & More. The commission is 25% and the August deal for signing up is awesome! If you sign up by August 26th, I’ll let you choose $30 worth of books! If you refer someone, I’ll let you choose $10 and the one signing up $20! Just be sure to email or call me. The kit, which I paid $149 for, is on sale for $69! This is a great deal! If you are considering this at all, please give me call. Even if you don’t sign up, I’d love to answer any questions you may have.

God has been at work since this journey started, and I’m excited to see what else he does! In July my sales were ranked 24th in the USA. I earned a Whatif Monster (the stuffed monster that goes with this book) and a bonus in July! Since starting at the beginning of June, I’ve had six parties and one booth.

That’s Not My Monster!

Themed party idea with kids: “That’s Not My Monster…” Party! Themed parties for children include a story, book, craft, and snack (optional, most of the time I can work around food allergies). The price varies based on the book and which snack, or meal in this case. This party works best in the summer.

CRAFT: Blow-painted monsters (pages 42-43 in 365 Things to Make and Do, it was a customer special June 2012) are made with washable paint, straws, pens, craft eyes (optional), anything else you are inspired to use, and colored/construction paper. The hostess (YOU!) and/or her kids make a monster a day or two before the party. At the party each of the kids will make their own monster and we will encourage them to show us how their monster is different than the example.

B (age 3) had a hard time blowing out the paint, so hers was more of a drop monster. Later she came back, dumped a lot of the purple paint, and hand painted the page entirely purple.

Did I mention she then helped V (almost 1) paint her foot? You really want to use WASHABLE paint. I’m very glad I did!

One SNACK idea is ants on a log (or car if the kids are old enough to put the tooth pick in without getting hurt!), again encourage them to make their ants better than the example. And to show you how a good of a monster they can be when they eat the ants!

Cupcakes would also work well, frost them for younger kids and have them put on decorations to make Monster cupcakes.

Monster Sandwiches would also be awesome! Use round sandwich rolls (or buns), assorted cold cuts and slices cheeses, firm tomatoes sliced thin, cucumber also sliced thin, assorted lettuce leaves (not sliced!), bell peepers sliced to look like horns or fangs and any other things you think would be good! The picture I have of the sandwich has olive eyes, but I don’t like those, so I’ll use something else.

Here is my 7 yr old with his Monster.

Here’s my 5 yr old with his three horned monster.

Here is our friend’s sandwich. He came over for the day to play along with his younger sister. Her sandwich is next:

Yum! I’m getting hungry for some monsters!

Here is my three yr old’s sandwich.

I’m sorry to say my kids wouldn’t eat the radishes without lots of ranch. B (age 3) picked hers all apart, just like every other sandwich.

Well it looks like I gave enough snack ideas for a meal! I can help you make all the craft and food prep ahead of time.

The STORY could be “That’s Not My Monster …“, “This is My Monster“, “Monsters Aren’t Real“, or the awesome new title, “The Whatif Monster“, Some additional books to choose for the kids could take home (hostess choice) are “Monster Things to Make and Do“, “Noisy Monsters“, “Monsters Sticker Book“, “Monsters Coloring Book“, “1001 Monster things to spot“, or the activity card set “Monster Doodles“.

Elise’s Ballerina Party

We had a great party yesterday! We had a craft, story time, and I used some of my new skills to make a Ballerina Cake. I used the instructions for the Ballerina from I Can Draw People. I forgot to take pictures of the party, but I did remember to take a picture of the cake. Each of the girls also went home with Sticker Dolly Dressing Ballerinas. Elise earned $105 in free books, Congratulations! I earned the 5% bonus in July, so thank you everyone who ordered at this party and the others in July!