MIH 044:Mompreneur Spotlight: Andrea Thorpe

This was one of my favorite interviews because Andrea and I share something in common as mompreneurs: we both homeschool!

Table of Contents

Who is Andrea Thorpe?

maintains a homeschooling blog and personal blog while also running a homeschool community
runs a homeschool Facebook group
writes articles and blog posts for the homeschooling community

She began her blog because it was only natural to write about her current lifestyle of homeschooling
She was having a hard time finding homeschool materials and resources specifically for African American students and wanted to reach out to other moms who were looking for similar resources
It started with 12 moms and grew to over 2,000 people in just a few years

She loves being able to help and encourage people with topics on marriage, parenting, and homeschooling. She feels it is important to give back to others and provide assistance to her audience in taking some of the guesswork out of the research they are doing on homeschooling.
She also enjoys networking: meeting people and developing in-real-life friendships through her Facebook group.

Andrea has 3 girls: ages 12, 10, and 5. She will be homeschooling 8th grade, 5th grade, and 1st grade during her upcoming school year.
Her oldest daughter is an athlete and plays soccer and also plays piano. Her middle daughter is artistic and enjoys sewing, art, and dance. Her youngest stays busy!
In order to balance her day, she starts planning the night before with a decent bedtime. She strives for an earlier wake-up time and each morning she starts the day with prayer, devotions, and planning time. Her next goal is to plan for her blog posts and graphics.
On a good day, she can accomplish about 2 hours of private work time before the kids arise. This is the time that most of her work is accomplished.
She also garners the support of her husband during his early day off from work to help with the children while she gets a bit of work done.

Write things down and look at your schedule. Be realistic about when you can really work.
Fit your blogging and work life around your kids’ schedule.
Keep your family priorities aligned.
Exercise discipline and stick to the schedule.
Limit your distractions from the computer. Keep social media and email for a separate time.