I can’t even remember when was the last time I posted anything on my website! Today I want to share with you the link to my TPT Shop and some updates.

First of all, I have been busy! From starting at a new school 2.5 years ago, coordinating preschool, to going to elementary last year and changing a grade this year again. It was quite a change from being self-employed and running my own business. I love it. I work at a wonderful international school.

But let me start back to 2022. Because that’s probably when I wrote something last.

Pandemic…

As you know, Covid hit and it hit everyone hard. Lots of friends left China but we stayed. During that time my husband’s previous school decided it was ok to basically cheat everyone out of their contracts and pay them bare minimum (and not even what was printed in the contract) that wouldn’t even cover rent. At that time I ran my own business (a Montessori homeschool). Due to our very wise management, we actually made some profit right before the pandemic that not only allowed us to keep paying ourselves and our staff salaries for 5 months with zero income. We also made extra money which we used for other necessities.

2020 was indeed a year of turmoil! Right before the pandemic my mother and I invested into an apartment where she could retire in a few years. Imagine entering 2020 with no income, a mortgage, moving our homeschool to a bigger place (meaning higher rent),  and 3 of our own children. We were among so many but we were quite lucky – we took some setbacks but we didn’t have any long term effect. We swam out of that pool of uncertainty and by June 2020 our center was back to work and we continued thriving.

Change in direction

Comes 2021. Neighbors in the building were unbearable, scared of Covid, they made up all all sort of excuses, sent all sorts of checks to our homeschool hoping to close us down. Finally, there was one small fire inspection hiccup which we couldn’t fix and we were given till end of July to move to a new location. As we were searching for a new place, it proved extremely difficult. We started considering closing down and what it would mean. Just then, the new education reform in China came through. For us it meant I was no longer able to own an educational establishment like that. And that was a clear sign it was time to wrap things up. Which we did. Most of children were graduating anyway. We closed our wonderful little homeschool. We tried to start another project but it wasn’t going that well due to issues with partners. Around the time when I decided to take another step back, I had to pull my children out for another homeschooling adventure (that would be some story for another post).  Just as I was about to pay the homeschooling curriculum and pondering relocating someplace else by September, I got a job offer at an international school here. And that’s how we ended up in QSI Zhuhai.

New Chapter

Am I happy to be back working when I was ready for a very early retirement? Yes. I love it. I love teaching. I love learning. And most important, I do actually like the school and curriculum. That’s why I thought it would be a great place for my children. And they are thriving.

In other news, I am back to school myself. Well, technically, 2 Universities (yes, I know!) But I will most likely have to drop the first one as it was something I thought I needed again since at the time I didn’t have a way to prove where my Russian degree stands in terms of equivalency to other education systems. Now that I have been able to do that, I am getting an additional teaching certification and working towards making plans for the next 4-5 years.

My oldest, for whom I started this blog 14 years ago, is turning 16 in a few days. And it’s a bitter sweet moment! Whilst I don’t post on my blog much anymore, I am still paying hosting because I just can’t let it go… So much history here!

My TPT Shop

Well, enough of nostalgy. I promised you my TPT shop and updates. I have put there some resources I created for my students and all these resources are free. I know for many educators printables is the source of income. I just want to share with you things I feel I can share.

Click on the image below!