Turker Parents Unite!

[heeheehahaha]

I am the lone 4+ so far? I need @Liz in here to help bolster that number!

I have four younglings. Three boys (16, 10, 9) and one pretty princess (she is five and will kick your ass if you dare suggest she is anything but).

Oldest and youngest (on what will be their first album cover, I guess:

The boys in the middle:

[eta] I homeschool all four, too. Greatest/worst decision ever.

@essjay you are gonna have to give me some tips cause honestly some days I am in the middle of a survey and my children are literally waiting for their next assignment.

I have 2 kiddos, the boy is 7 and the girl is 8 months.

I was fired from my last job when I was 8 months pregnant with my daughter. It's a very long story but I'll spare you the year long horror I went through. Here's the need to know: I worked at a high stress job doing lots of overtime and finally had to cut back to 'normal' 40 weeks around 7 months pregnant. I was told after about a month, and only two weeks until I was to take my unpaid maternity leave, that I was not performing up to the standard of my job duties, and in fact 'abandoning the office' by not staying after 5, and they were being 'forced' to let me go. I left obviously upset, after I calmed down I called the owner (I was fired by my direct manager) and asked him to clarify what exactly happened. He told me they had been training someone to replace me and that they just wanted to 'move forward with the people who were going to be there'. So instead of just letting me go through to maternity leave when they wouldn't be required to hold my position for me, they decided to permanently scar my employment history.

/me takes a deep breath

It's still hard to even think about it because I poured my blood, sweat, and tears (and HUNDREDS of extra, unpaid hours away form my family) into that job only to be fired for a completely bullshit reason. And, before you get your pitchforks, it was completely legal for them to do whatever they wanted because the company is so small I wasn't even covered under the Federal Laws to protect pregnant workers.

ANYWAY I found MTurk last summer but didn't get into it until September when my 7 yo started school again. I found MTG a bit later and thank heavens because I was doing mostly receipts and was making like $2 a day. My goal is $400 a month so I try for $20 a day but I'm not too strict on myself because I have to step away like every 5 minutes to grab my newly mobile baby girl. :spaz:

Very thankful to have MTC for reasons beyond just turking. :heart:

EDITED TO SAY: I wouldn't trade my situation now though, for anything. I was able to stay home with my son for nearly a year and I am incredibly thankful I am able to do so again with my daughter.

Aww @MerryLou Id never heard your story but I'm glad youve come out on top for the better!.

Mturk has been what Ive needed to be able to stay home with my children. I had once told myself that if I could find a way to make money online I will not work outside of the house. I found Mturk, and then MTG, and have never left. Now Im here cause you guy are just the best and Im happy

 

[cmp3400]

I have 2 boys (14 and 12) and I am another Homeschooler.

I spent their younger years working at a local gym in the childcare area so they could be with me, but as they got older that didn't work as well. This easily makes as much money, but is a whole lot less stressful!

 

[heeheehahaha]

I have 2 boys (14 and 12) and I am another Homeschooler.

I spent their younger years working at a local gym in the childcare area so they could be with me, but as they got older that didn't work as well. This easily makes as much money, but is a whole lot less stressful!

We might have to make a homeschoolers unite! thread lol

 

[essjay]

@essjay you are gonna have to give me some tips cause honestly some days I am in the middle of a survey and my children are literally waiting for their next assignment.

My day:

Get up, pour coffee (husband usually has the french press ready to go).
Get breakfast for kids.
Read through the daily thread while I drink my first cup, PandA anything high paying that I might have missed.
Get kids started on first lesson (16y/o helps younger kids a lot). Work anything I've caught.
Get kids started on next lesson. Work anything I've caught.
Snack for them, second or third cup of coffee for me.
Lesson+work.
Lunch.
Lesson+work.
End of schoolwork day. I usually take a break around then to watch something on Netflix with them and nap while the 5y/o has her nap.
Make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner. Family time. Bedtime.
Work for an hour or two after kids go to bed (if I feel like it and haven't hit goal for the day).
Wine.
Netflix with husband.
Bed.
Repeat.

 

[ClamBurglar]

Hello everyone! Im glad to see there are so many parents here!

I have two children 10 and 6, who (if there wasnt an age restriction) would gladly jump on and do Mturk themselves.

I also homeschool and this is the reason why sometimes I am very active here, and others I am MIA

My day:

Get up, pour coffee (husband usually has the french press ready to go).
Get breakfast for kids.
Read through the daily thread while I drink my first cup, PandA anything high paying that I might have missed.
Get kids started on first lesson (16y/o helps younger kids a lot). Work anything I've caught.
Get kids started on next lesson. Work anything I've caught.
Snack for them, second or third cup of coffee for me.
Lesson+work.
Lunch.
Lesson+work.
End of schoolwork day. I usually take a break around then to watch something on Netflix with them and nap while the 5y/o has her nap.
Make dinner, eat dinner, clean up after dinner. Family time. Bedtime.
Work for an hour or two after kids go to bed (if I feel like it and haven't hit goal for the day).
Wine.
Netflix with husband.
Bed.
Repeat.

Just curious, why do you homeschool your children?

 

[Pippa]

Homeschool mom here too. Well, we're now finished. My son actually graduates in April and my daughter is a junior in college. My children never attended a brick and mortar school.

 

[essjay]

Just curious, why do you homeschool your children?

I can't speak for anyone else, but here's why we do.

Oldest was not able to start school with the year he should have because his birthday was in September and the district was year-round, so the cutoff date was July. He would have been 6 in kindergarten, but had been reading and writing since before his fourth birthday. We sent him to first grade, but he was way ahead of everyone else in his class, and our district refused to even test for gifted programs until fifth grade. Not wanting to risk him losing his enthusiasm for learning, we pulled him out of school and have been teaching him at home since then.

Once we were already going, we decided to keep it up with the others, as well. Classes are too crowded, not enough supplies for kids, and too many teachers have just checked out.

 

[Pippa]

We decided to homeschool initially because we owned a business and my husband traveled a lot so it allowed us to travel with him at the time. I also live in a state that is 50th or 49th in education year after year and felt discouraged about my options. Private school would have been too expensive so, homeschooling was a good choice for us. We're classical homeschoolers in our education philosophy but I am eclectic and flexible with our time and curriculum choices and a I use a method called The Well Trained Mind as our guide. It gave us the rigor we wanted but allowed us to be flexible in implementing it. We are now at the end of our journey and as I reflect back each year had it's ups and downs but overall it was the best decision for our family.

 

[heeheehahaha]

Just curious, why do you homeschool your children?

Public school in my area is not so hot, and Private Schools are way too expensive. Stumbled across K12 and its an online public school from home. Loved the programming but found that I hated being under state regulation and not being able to exceed lessons to my liking.

I homeschool because my children(but I believe MOST children) can learn at a much faster pace than they are taught through many schools. Plus I like being able to teach what I want, and let my children explore their interests without hindering them. Similiar to @essjay my youngest would have been 6 in kindergarten, but since she has basically sat through her older siblings schooling she is much further ahead than many children her age.

Spoiler: My school and age restriction rant

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[Lepi]

It's still a ways off for us, but we're considering home school for the small human on our end as well. We recently moved back to my home town, which is a great town, but the school district is... not. Because of where we live, the next closest school he'd be able to attend is more than an hour away. We'll most likely end up giving the school in town a try, but if it becomes evident that they're still as screwed up as they were when I was attending, we'll end up switching over to home school.

 

[essjay]

@Pippa, @heeheehahaha @cmp3400 I just want to say how awesome it is to know other parents who chose to homeschool their children. For YEARS we've received blank looks, or assumptions that we're heavily religious because we wanted our kids to have a better education than public school could afford them. Thanks for this. <3

 

[Lepi]

@Pippa, @heeheehahaha @cmp3400 I just want to say how awesome it is to know other parents who chose to homeschool their children. For YEARS we've received blank looks, or assumptions that we're heavily religious because we wanted our kids to have a better education than public school could afford them. Thanks for this. <3

 

[Pippa]

@Pippa, @heeheehahaha @cmp3400 I just want to say how awesome it is to know other parents who chose to homeschool their children. For YEARS we've received blank looks, or assumptions that we're heavily religious because we wanted our kids to have a better education than public school could afford them. Thanks for this. <3

Enjoy the ride. We always got the "but, you look normal" look from others.

 

[essjay]

YES, this.

Enjoy the ride. We always got the "but, you look normal" look from others.

Basically that. I really don't care what anyone thinks about it, because anyone who talks to my kids for two minutes will know that we aren't abandoning their educations. And I realized the other night that the two youngest would fare poorly in school if they didn't get grump-reducing snacks every two hours.

 

[ecupcakes]

I have two girls, 4.5 and 2. I just started turking like this week, literally lol. so I'm up to about 18 cents, pending lol. but I'm hoping as they get older I can do more of it and make more.

 

[electrolyte]

I have either two or four, depending on the day. Two of my own (ages 5 and 7) plus two stepkids who are here intermittently (ages 11 and 13). You can see one of mine in this (unfortunately paywalled) article about Mechanical Turk from The Chronicle of Higher Education last year: http://chronicle.com/article/Intellectual-Piecework/190039/

I don't homeschool but my two attend a French immersion magnet school so it's sorta like private and definitely different since all instruction is in French. If I didn't have that as an option, I'd be homeschooling. That school only goes through 6th grade so maybe I'll homeschool them for 7th grade and on. We'll see.

 

[heeheehahaha]

So there are sites that pay children for their opinions!

An article that lists websites that kids can get paid for doing surveys

Came across this while cruisin on google and showed them to my kids, they were actually interested. I plan on checking them out over the next few weeks but thought Id leave it here.

If anyone knows anything about them, or if your children have used them please share your experience!

 

[essjay]

So there are sites that pay children for their opinions!

An article that lists websites that kids can get paid for doing surveys

Came across this while cruisin on google and showed them to my kids, they were actually interested. I plan on checking them out over the next few weeks but thought Id leave it here.

If anyone knows anything about them, or if your children have used them please share your experience!

Ooooh! My kids love when Pinecone has me interview them, I'll be checking these out for suresies. Thanks!

 

[TQueen]

Just going to leave this here because my kiddo was super cute this morning

Spoiler

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[KittyRaces]

Just going to leave this here because my kiddo was super cute this morning

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Omg her little sandals. :hearteyecat: