Katie Seguritan
I am a mother of 5, and at the time of starting with Prenda, I had children in 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 8th grade, 11th grade, and even college. I had a friend whose children attended a microschool, and they LOVED it. She had homeschooled for years, so I was surprised to hear she wasn't doing that. And I was intrigued by the whole concept of Prenda. She said that I would be great and could be paid while having my microschool out of my home. Her confidence that I would be a good Guide pushed me to check out the website.
Everything I saw about Prenda just felt right. I was concerned because I only have my associate's degree with minimal work experience. Those concerns left when I saw that Prenda would provide me with plenty of training. My years of volunteering in the classroom and teaching dance have helped prepare me for developing a relationship with my microschool students. I started the training right away and shared on Facebook what I was doing and if anyone was interested.
I reached out to a few parents of kids that I knew whose kids were struggling in their current education program. I dug into my training so I could start ASAP. I finished training quickly and created it a week earlier than projected. That first year was incredible. With students moving in and out, we had 12 students total. My students all want to be here, and I am often asked if I will do this again next year. I remember thinking a couple of years ago, wouldn't it be great if I could just get paid for being me? And that's what I feel I'm doing. I'm in my grove; I get to be funny and go-with-the-flow and help others learn that they are the boss of themselves. It empowers me to empower them. Woo Hoo! And the craziest thing is that I thought that after guiding my own two boys, we would get sick of each other. I feel the opposite. It took a while, but we have learned our school relationship vs. home relationship. And once school is over, there is no homework (unless they want), so the time spent together is much less stressful and full of more meaningful activities and conversations.