2019. Get rid of the old… ?

Ah… Usborne Books & More has been an amazing opportunity for me. When I first discovered it, I was overwhelmed by all the excitement and actually thought “no way! This is to good to be true. ” 😁 But found myself, saying I need more. 🤗
Enough about UBAM-now me. ☺️

I want to impact literacy. To do that… I need to make sure my son is a proficient reader first. I homeschool him. He is 7. So he comes before biz. I homeschool because I don’t want him to be where I was 25 years ago. Lost. With no experience. And in the world of work with below average basic skills. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t think clearly. Couldn’t read proficiently in neither English, my mother tongue 👅 or Spanish my mother’s tongue 👅. Seriously. I wasn’t proficient in any language. Zipo. This made me weak in more ways than one. I couldn’t get out of a rut. I couldn’t think my way out of one let alone communicate out of one. It held me back far too long until I reached the end of my rope. I went to college. Decided on a major. Wrong major. But decided. I finished and earned my degree. Was still NOT reading with proficiently mind you. I went to college to improve READING and didn’t have the skill to read. So I decided. I will try law school. 😂

I really just wanted to be in biz to communicate and be persuasive and influence for the good of man kind. 😁 

I like thinking 🤔 I like wrapping my mind around facts and legal issues and trying to solve problems.

But being a lawyer is so much more than what law school teaches and I am glad I didn’t get accepted because *gasp my LSAT was not up to par – I had a big gap in my education. And I mean BIG gap! “K-12” failed me. My parents failed me. I couldn’t read well. In any language. This made all subjects weak. 

However, wanting to go to law school made me sit down one year and study the LSAT. This test made me sick so sick it made proficient, among other things, so much so I enrolled and did my paralegal certification at the community college. Ya know what? It was the first time in history I was actually reading to learn and learning to learn. 

So thank you LSAT! Thank you LAW SCHOOL!

Not being able to read well meant I couldn’t write well and do basic math well and … interact well and… communicate well!

And want to know a startling truth?

36% of our nations 4th graders are proficient at reading. And by 8th grade only 32% are proficient at reading.

Ya know what that means?
I am NOT alone. I am in the 68% of people who graduated 36% of our nations 4th graders are proficient at reading. And by 8th grade only 32% are proficient at reading.

Ya know what that means?
I am NOT alone. I am in the 68% of people who graduated not proficient. I was average to below average and that’s over half the population in America! 

So my son comes first.

Then I want to impact my husband. He is stubborn, arrogant and the older he gets the more set in his ways he becomes. He is smart and successful at his work. But our marriage needs a lift. I need to stay married and improve it for my child’s sake. My parents were divorced and from experience, it didn’t help my education that my mom had to work long and hard to make ends meet for my brothers and I. I don’t believe a single parent is more effective than a family: husband and wife working together to make a family. Second goal: I need to work smarter with my husband. 

Third goal: I want to impact literacy in others lives. I want to serve and make a difference through my work- I sell the best children’s books in the world and I believe every child can succeed with the right books and support from home and school. 

And I want to see more children reading proficiently by 8th grade. I want 68% of our nations kids reading proficiently because if we can’t read you can’t accomplish didly. 

And ya know what else?

If our kids can read well, they won’t be leading the way.

And if they don’t lead the way, our country will fall like Rome.

Doing these things will allow me to make a difference and serve the children and their families and give me pride in our books.

Love ❤️ 

Marla 🎄 Christmas isn’t over yet. Keep on celebrating. Merry Christmas! Happy new year!