Hello! My name is Jennifer and I am the founder of The Connett Connection.
I began teaching in 2006, right after graduating college and getting married. I was taught at my local elementary school as the sole Pre-K teacher for 20 students. I had a wonderful Para who helped me navigate that first year in the classroom. It was a hard year, but we made it through.
In 2007, we moved and I began a new teaching adventure. I was again in the Pre-K classroom, but this time at a private school instead of a public school. It was a night and day difference for me. I only had 7 kids that first year, but I had another support teacher (more experienced than I) right next door who helped me plan and work through behavior issues with. I taught at this school for 3 years before we moved yet again.
This time, I was not able to get a teaching job. There were way more teachers than classrooms at that time and no matter how many schools I applied to, I heard nothing back. I ended up working part time in an after school program with Pre-K through 1st grade, in hopes of building a good reputation at that school with the possibility of maybe securing a classroom of my own if one became available. Turn around at that school was very low, so I worked aftercare for 2 years and then I got pregnant.
The cost of daycare would not have been covered with my pay in the aftercare program, so I decided after my daughter was born, I would come home and just be with her. It was the financially best decision for us at the time. When she was 4 months old, we moved again. I decided that being home was still the best option.
Now, fast forward a little more than 2 years. My daughter just turned 3, and I was looking for some educational activities we could do at home. I came across the site, Teachers Pay Teachers, and began downloading a few of the free activities for her to work on letters, numbers and shapes. I then tried playing around with making some activities for her myself, when I could not find exactly what I wanted online. It took me 6 months to get the courage to post my own resources for sale, and thus The Connett Connection was born.
Now, I make all the supplemental activities we use while homeschooling. I now have 4 kids, all are homeschooled. My oldest is in 5th grade, the next in second grade, the 3rd in kindergarten and the youngest is in preschool.
I want to endeavor to share many of the things we do while homeschooling and to provide support to other teachers and homeschooling parents who may be overwhelmed with what they are going through.
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