Benefits of Being a Freelance Writer

Being a freelance writer can be a fun and challenging career.  Although freelancing takes a lot of hard work and dedication there are also a lot of benefits to being a freelance writer.

Be Your Own Boss

As a freelancer you are your own boss.  You can set your own hours and your own rates.  You don’t have to punch a clock or answer to anyone.

Flexible Time

Freelancing can be a good career for mothers with young children and other people who need a flexible schedule.  You don’t have to worry about being penalized for spending an afternoon at the park or taking your child to a doctor’s appointment.  You can choose to work standard hours, work while your child is sleeping or at school or mix up your schedule on a week by week basis.

Unlimited Earning Potential

As a freelancer, the harder you work, the more money you will make.  If you have the dedication to work quickly and find new clients, you can bring in a very lucrative income for your family.  Writing is a great business because you don’t have any overhead costs.

Mix it Up

Working at the same job for years and years can be boring an momentous.  As a freelancer, you have the ability to work on a variety of different projects.  This freedom can keep your career fun and diverse.  You can work on a brochure one day and web content the next day.  You can be writing about health care one hour and theme parks the next.

Learning Through the Bookstore Experience

The reading experience…what a wonderful one it is for both children and adults alike! The joy of reading starts at an early age, and if it is properly cultivated, will last long into young adulthood and beyond. Children libraries and bookstores are a great resource to find children books that are engaging and interesting for sparking young minds. Canadian literature has done a fantastic job of producing children books that keep young readers interested and instilling the desire to seek more mentally and visually engaging literature.

You can find very good Canadian books through the Canada 411 resource. You can find popular books, age-appropriate children books and material and the best offline and online resources to find these books. Some of the Canadian market’s best Canadian books include:

  • Alligator Pie by Dennis Lee
  • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
  • The Baby Project by Sarah Ellis
  • Book: A Trilogy by Bernice Therman Hunter
  • Biscuits in the Cupboard by Barbara Nichol
  • Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul
  • Camilla Gryski’s Favorite String Games by Camilla Gryski

For the best resources and reading experience, a journey to a local bookstore can be one that you nor your child will soon forget. To be able to touch, smell and handle books is a delightfully rewarding experience, both for adults and for children. If you’re looking for bookstores offline, you can also go to the same information portal at Canada 411 to locate the stores or libraries that carry the books that you want to see. Children really love the experience of going into bookstores and locating their favorite books on the store’s shelves. Many bookstores that also have cafes are especially delightful for them, and they can sit and enjoy their newly purchased book with a cup of java (decaf, of course), all while they read and take in their story, line by line.

The Moomintroll Books

First published in 1948 by writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, the Moomin books are wildly popular in the author’s native Finland, but were little known in the US until translated into English in 1961. It’s hard to comprehend the popularity of these books in Scandinavia until you consider that they have not only been published as books but made into several comic strips, at least a dozen TV shows and 9 films, and audio book read by actor Hugh Laurie — and that there’s a theme park style Moominworld complete with a Moommin house AND a Moomin museum that attracts thousands of visitor a year in Finland. That’s pretty popular.

The books are about the Moominfamily — Moominpapa, Moominmama and their child Moomintroll — and their exploits in their neighborhood filled with Moomin friends and foes.

The stories describe the Moomintrolls — drawn to look like small hippopotamuses — and their friends, homes and customs in short stand alone chapters that are perfect for reading out loud to very young children. With fantasy-like illustrations and whimsical adventures, the books bring to mind the adventures of Horton in the land of the Who in the Dr. Seuss story. While the stories are exciting, they are never frightening and all end with the Moomintroll family safe and sound back in their Moominland home.

With over a dozen books in the series, all translated into many other languages around the world, the first three books in the series are: The Moomins and the Great Flood, Comet in Moominland, and Finn Family Moomintroll.

Young pre-readers will want to spend a lot of time looking at the colorful and detailed illustrations that accompany the stories to see what the inhabitants of Moominland look like. With added features like Mominmamma’s explanations about Moomins houses and daily habits, and themes like hiding in a magical to

The Magic Tree House Books

If you want your children to read more about history and geography, but they want to read more stories with comedy, mystery and time travel, then the Magic Tree House Books should keep everyone happy.

Written by well known children’s author Mary Pope Osborne, the Magic Tree House books were first published in 2008 and are divided into two series totaling 44 books, with more to come.

In the first 28 books, brother and sister Jack and Annie go on adventures through time to save books, help historical figures and become Master librarians — all with the aid of a magic tree house. The books are designed to give new readers in grades 1-4 a sense of pride at reading chapter books while being entertained with a fun story and delightful characters. They won’t even notice the geography and history facts built into the stories. In the second series, Jack and Annie go on quests assigned by Merlin the Magician, and are better read by grades 2-4 because they are longer and more difficult to read than the first set.

Examples of Tree House titles are Dinosaurs Before Dark, the first book in which Jack and Annie discover the magic of the tree house and journey back see the dinosaurs, and The Knight at Dawn, following Jack and Annie as they go back to the Middle Ages for a first-hand view of daily life in a Medieval castle.

Parents will love the learning materials available, and children will certainly love the fun activity of collecting “passports” for each of the Tree House books. Go to http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/magictreehouse/passport/MTH_passport.pdf to print out passports and research guides for each title. Included are printable “stickers” to collect as the books are read. Young children will have a real sense of accomplishment as they read the books, collect their stickers and paste them into the passports.

The Tree House books will no doubt continue to thrill children and create a love of reading for years to come. The next book, coming later this year, is titled Leprechaun in Winter and has Jack and Annie traveling back in time to Ireland to help Lady Gregory learn the truth about leprechauns.

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