Help Tunawife earn more money

Tunawife is degreed twice, BA and masters, in music education (strings, specifically). She had a teaching job until tunakid #3 came along. She teaches some lessons out of the home and she teaches at a homeschool co-op once per week, but money is getting tighter and tighter.

Next year, we're going to send speech-challenged tunakid #3 to PK3 and probably bring Tunakid #1 home to begin homeschool at grade 1. Mostly because we cannot afford to have three kids in private school at a time and have political, religious, and quality issues with public schools (let's not have that discussion now, just accept it as an axiom).

Not only are we out of money now, but we're fairly certain we've hit a wall in terms of financial aid from this school, and if we get less than that next year, we either have to bring tunakid #2 home (think the Tazmanian devil, but crazier) and that would not be the 'ease into homeschool' that I wanted, and would mean tunakid #2 doesn't finish preschool.

Those co-ops are perfect, especially since the one she's at now has a nursery for tunakids #3 and #4 for free while she teaches. Does anyone know how to get into those? Does anyone else know other music teacher-y things that she can do at home? She ruled out male prostitution, and my career is stationary.

Keep it civil.

Deliver papers in the morning? My mom did it for years.

On a more suggestive trip, she needs a rich kid. Seriously. She needs to be a private strings tutor (i'm guessing she can do violin) for a rich kid. Rich people LOVE their kids to learn crap like that. And once she signs on one right kid, keep it exclusive. You're looking to command top dollar. Wife might have to deal with some shiny happy people, but if (ESPECIALLY IF) she can get those kids on the path to competitions and stuff- she's got it made.

Can she give Piano lessons? (Or other instrument). Tutoring ?

I thought you had a sweet side job that paid some handsome coin.

I have no useful for wifey if she is ruling out prostitution (male? did that mean you??).

And you said you didn't want to hear it, but I know quite a few people here at work that came up through the local public schools in Greer and are well adjusted successful people. I'm not sure how they would deal with Taz though.

Are there only co-ops in your area? Public [or Parochial] schools pay, and once you have tenure it's tighter than the Mafia.

Dan

I'm not sure how free her schedule needs to be for the homeschooling, but my first thought would be to explore more involved ways to use her teaching skills.

Are there any institutions with music programs where she might be able to get a steady teaching gig? I'm imagining ideally a community college where she'd wind up with a couple of classes TuTh or MWF?

Any other ways to formalize/structure the teaching thing to get more students through? I don't know how big/small Greer is, so I have no notion of whether there exists or she might be able to start a small music school with a couple of other teachers? Seems like it might just be easier to get a steady flow of students if music stores and the phonebook contain a one-stop school for all Greer's music-lesson needs...

It seems a hard place to get noticed or get a toehold, but if Greer doesn't have a sufficient number of students, perhaps try some sort of online music teaching? I've heard of it being done over Skype. Or what about the schools like Udacity or Coursera which offer online courses; any way to apply to put together music courses for them? I don't know a ton about them, but took a history course through Coursera (actual course done by University of Virginia), and it was really good. But that's a lot less interactive than music, so I don't know how they handle those courses.

I'm guessing I've wandered deep into left field, but I got stuck on trying to figure out how to get more out of that music education (fingers crossed for that being a more fulfilling way to make the extra money as well).

spitfirebill wrote: I thought you had a sweet side job that paid some handsome coin.

At the risk of being offensive, side job got ruined. Questionable engineer got promoted and has a "I don't need no stinkin' Tuna55" attitude. Thus, his test racks are all broken and no cash is inflowing.

The stuff you guys are mentioning has been are is now being researched. Seems like job openings that are actually posted somewhere public are rare.

Tuna, you might look into mobile notary stuff. My wife does 2-5 jobs a week at $50-$100 a pop. Some weeks less, some more. The schedule is pretty flexible as well.

I

tuna55 wrote: The stuff you guys are mentioning has been are is now being researched. Seems like job openings that are actually posted somewhere public are rare.

You gotta do some digging sometimes. Check out stuff like Care.com, and Craigslist. Get your name out there. That's how the wife has made all her cake. She got one rich person, and the rest fell in place based on her resume.

In reply to tuna55:

Move to somewhere that offers vouchers to help go to private schools? We have it here in Indiana.......I'm sure bobzilla will be pissed about mentioning that.

Toyman01 aimed me here. Get her notary license ($35) and about three weeks for it to come in. Start up costs are about $55 for errors and omissions insurance, buy a second hand laser printer (craigslist) and a couple of reams of legal sized paper. She can do notary jobs and she can also marry people in the state of SC. I do about 80 weddings a year and supplement during the off season with mobile notary work. www.myweddingsyourway.com If she's interested and wants more information, have her email me through my site and I'll be happy to help her.

Liking the notary idea.

How about record music? With the digital and web age, I keep hearing of music writers who need musicians- ones that are not exactly local.

If she can record needed tracks, well, there is some income.

I pass a business from time to time that offers music lessons for "any instrument". I'm guessing they contract with university students to instruct the less-common instruments. Maybe Tunawife can find someplace to offer her services in similar fashion? There are still kids who want to learn the cello.

If she has teaching credentials she could substitute teach, and not just music.

Most schools pay for your CDL to drive school buses.

Does she have the skills to tune or repair instruments?

Does she have other marketable talents besides music? I'm reminded of an old girlfriend who was a semi-pro classical musician; that wasn't enough to pay the bills, but she was also a talented writer and did a lot of freelance technical writing and editing for various companies. She was (and still is, as far as I know) able to work out of her home for the most part.

tuna55 wrote: Liking the notary idea.

As a bonus, she could sign off on titles for you!

I'd say tuitoring, but it sounds like you have explored that

Let the record show: I like you enough to censor myself.

E36 M3, I'M looking at the notary thing myself, now.

poopshovel wrote: Let the record show: I like you enough to censor myself.

The record has been updated.

poopshovel wrote: Let the record show: I like you enough to censor myself.

Do you like me enough to tell me what you were going to say? And by me, I mean everyone else?

oldopelguy wrote: If she has teaching credentials she could substitute teach, and not just music. Most schools pay for your CDL to drive school buses. Does she have the skills to tune or repair instruments?

Yes, but difficult and expensive to have an on-call babysitter for tunakid #4, often more expensive than the pay for substituting.

Driving school busses has the same downside.

No. She doesn't.