It’s hard to believe that we’re almost through the summer and Labor Day is right around the corner! My youngest daughter starts her Senior year of college soon, so I’m still in the parenting Back-To-School mode. My readers know that “Rosie the Riviter” decided to move back home for her Senior Year, so rather than being an Empty-Nestor for the upcoming school year, I’m still in Mama-mode.

No longer am I worrying about having to go out and buy apartment basics for Rosie, such as pots, pans, bedding and furniture. Most of it came back safely with her when she moved back in. Some of these items disappeared via roommates and probably would have returned home had they been labeled properly. That’s where Dymo label makers come in handy.

With the whiff of Autumn, New England fall foliage and and Back-To-School on my mind, I’m flashing back to the days when I used to take the obligatory first-day-of school picture, and waiving good-bye to the kiddos on the school bus. Flashback further, and I’m the one going off to school for the first time.

My first day of school would have been 51 years ago! I was a “walker,” even in Kindergarten. We only went half-days. When I was in first-grade, we were dismissed for lunch, walked home, and then back to school again. There was no such thing as a cafeteria, and I would say 99% of the moms didn’t work, and were at home to greet us with lunch! I still carried a lunch box for snacks, and we hand-wrote our names on masking tape in crayon to distinguish Betty-Lou’s from Suzie’s. That’s where the kids today are lucky, and have all the options such as color labels to mark not only their lunch boxes, but also their backpacks! We didn’t even have backpacks ~ I can remember carrying all my books in my arms, or once, in a rubberized green carrying sack!

If you’re a mom making a Back-To-School list, don’t forget to add a Dymo label maker to that list. Buying all those school supplies once certainly adds up! Having to replace them because they weren’t labeled is something none of us wants to do!

Whether you’ll be waiving goodbye to the school bus, or home school ~ don’t forget to charge the camera battery for those First-Day-of-School photos!

Now that I’ve teased you with thinking about either starting or going back to college to finish up your degree, let me tell you a little bit about how and why I did it this way.

I switched jobs from the private sector to the public sector, and worked for a brilliant, personable female attorney about my age who soon became my mentor. I realized that unless I finished up, my career would be dead-ended. Another reason I wanted to go back to college was to set an example for my two young daughters. I wanted them to see how important it was to pursue higher education in order to succeed.

After obtaining my Associates Degree at Charter Oak State College, I discovered Regents College, in Albany New York. Regents has now become Excelsior College. I can’t say enough about the programs that Excelsior offers, including majors in Business, Nursing and more, all obtainable online. I was also able to take correspondence courses from University of Wisconsin, and CLEP & DSST testing, all of which transferred to Excelsior. My degree was granted through the University of the State of New York.

I’ll talk more about accredited correspondence courses as well as CLEP & DANTES testing in my next posts.

Visit ClassesAndCareers.com to learn more about online education, distance learning, and on-campus continuing education.

Start exploring!

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to try to encourage anyone who has put off finishing their College Education to seriously consider signing up and doing it this year

When I was thinking of going back when I was in my 40s, I said to my DH, that it was going to take me 5 years to finish part-time. He said, well~~ how old will you be in 5 years? Yes, I’d be 5 years older. He then said,”well, you’re going to be 5 years older anyway, so you could be 5 years older either with, or without the degree.” That convinced me.

I’d like to share a few articles that support the benefit of taking online computer courses in order to finish your college education and obtain a Degree.

Whether you’re a WAHM, SAHM, Baby Boomer Senior, or just simply interested in exploring a new subject, online courses are pefect for keeping one’s mind active.