VIPKID - simple puzzle reward

I snagged an easy and quick reward from the dollar tree this week.  

I bought this simple puppy and kitten puzzle.  To use this as a reward I simply took all the pieces out of the puzzle and gave the student a piece with each star they earned.  There are six pieces so I gave them the last piece on he goodbye slide.  The pieces stay in the puzzle well enough to hold the puzzle upright to show the students all the pieces they have earned.  My short notice student last night adored the cute animals.  It was a win!  I love the fact that there was no prep involved it was just ready to go. 

This will defiantly stay in my rotation of quick rewards. 

What rewards are your go to?  

If you are looking to work from home and teach English you can check out my referral link here: VIPKID

Teaching English for VIPKID

I have been teaching for VIPKID for two years, and love it!  Here are my top reasons why: 

1. I can work from home. 

2.  I am able to set my own schedule and hours making it a great second job to help boost income, and those hours can change by the week as my needs change. 

3. I adore meeting all students from the other side of the world.  

4. Variety:  I love that I teach students at all different levels of English proficiency.  In the same day I may teach a student is who learning the phrase "My name is" and a student who carries on a conversation with me about their favorite hobbies. 

5. No planning!!  The lessons are laid out in power points.  A quick look at the power points before classes start is all that is required before teaching.  

If you are interested in teaching with VIPKID here is my referral code fill free to use it when applying: VICTO0058

New Adventure: Backpacking in Savage Gulf

     My family just returned from our first backpacking camping trip.  I grew up camping in pop ups and tents, but never outside of a campground with basic amenities.  I love being out in nature and exploring, but have never been brave enough to step into the world of backpacking.  So when my husband and I first began tossing around the idea of replacing our annual family vacation with a backpacking trip I was a bit nervous, but I can now say not only did we survive, we enjoyed our first trip into the wilderness.  

     We spent several weeks planning and prepping our supplies for the trip.  Starting out we had no idea what we would need.  After spending some time researching and many trips to REI and Academy, we had our gear, and we were ready to start our journey.  

      We all loaded up in the car and headed out for adventure.  We picked a location with a great views and adventures: South Cumberland State Park.  We chose to hike out to the Alum Gap campground at Savage Gulf.  It was about a four mile hike to our campsite.  We started out with a stop on top of a beautiful bluff over looking the gulf to eat our lunch.  The view over the gulf was spectacular.  We continued our journey along the Big Creek Rim trail to our campsite.  

     When we made it to our campsite we set up camp quickly.  We could hear thunder rolling in.  We knew that there was chance of scattered thunderstorms all day.   We set up our hammocks.   It was a bit of a challenge to get all three set up with the tarps over top in case the rain did come in.

     After setting up our hammocks we went in search of water.  We were in luck we found a flowing creek about ten minutes from our site.

     After filtering our water, we headed back to our site and enjoyed dinner.  It was great to sit around the campsite and enjoy our evening.  We went to bed early, but ended up not falling to sleep fast, between my daughter jumping into my husband's hammock and the sounds of the night sleep was a little difficult to find, so we made it a late morning.

     One of my favorite parts of the trip was waking up and enjoying hot chocolate and oatmeal before packing up camp.  We decided to leave using the Laurel Trail back to the ranger station.  This trail was a little shorter at about 3 miles and had a completely different feel than the rim trail.  It was nice to make our journey a loop so that we saw new things the whole time.  

     Though I was a little hesitant to begin this adventure I am so glad we jumped in and cannot wait for our next trip out on the trail.  There are so many fun and great adventures waiting for us!