The other day, one of the student workers in my office said that she can’t wait to graduate and make lots of money and be able to do whatever she wants. I started laughing so hard that I was basically cackling. Being an adult is EXPENSIVE. Rent, groceries, student loans, TRYING TO PAY FOR A WEDDING…it’s rough.
I’m in so many Facebook groups that talk about paying off your debt so that you can do the things you want (travel, raise more dogs, the usual) and I’ve been introduced to a lot of side hustles that I didn’t know existed. It’s great because for years I’ve attempted to have a second job but it’s never worked out for a variety of reasons. Working in ResLife meant I worked really weird hours so that made it hard to have a second job. The only things that could have worked (on a surface level) seemed to be MLM-type things which I did NOT want to get back into again.
Enter VIPKID – it’s a Chinese company that runs online English classes geared towards kids ages 5 – 12 in China. They hire Americans to work from home and run one-on-one classes. Because of the time difference, the hours are a bit strange (this actually would have worked PERFECTLY with my ResLife job) but I get to work from my house in my sweatpants with my dog sitting next to me so that’s pretty ideal. Also, you can work from anywhere with a good internet connection so I can work while I’m traveling if I wanted to. A lot of people work pretty much full time for VIPKID and travel all over the world! There’s a blogger I follow (https://www.seenicwander.com/) that earns her income by house sitting and VIPKID and works from the best places.
The company prepares all the materials for me so I don’t need to create lesson plans or a curriculum. I put a few posters from the Dollar Tree on a wall in my basement and use random household objects as props for most lessons. If I need something super specific, I print it out and color it in. I actually sit at the bar in the basement while I teach. I store my teaching materials on a shelf but leave the posters on the wall so if you ever wanted to hang out a bar that looked like a kindergarten classroom, I have just the place for you!
So far I’ve taught six classes and they’ve all gone really well. Most parents sit near their child while they are taking the class and then they provide the teacher with feedback. The most you can get is five apples and so far all of my feedback has been five apples! The better your rating is, the more classes you get booked for – I have more bookings coming up later this month. I’m excited to have more classes and get certified to teach more levels. I don’t know if I’ll ever make this a full time job but I’m happy to have extra income!
Until our next adventure!
The Harkin Chronicles 