Theda Learn: My Ongoing Journey of Teaching and Creating

My journey to Theda Learn has been quite an adventure! Lots of fun, new, creative experiences. Also, a lot of stressful, frustrating, and “almost give up” situations. But it’s been worth it! So I thought I’d share a bit of the journey.

College Instructor: I taught for over a decade at my local university. I taught family service, gerontology, and social work majors about aging, death, and grief. Heavy topics, but so important! I absolutely loved it.

Little Star Designs: Due to staffing changes and budget cuts, my position was eliminated. Since teaching is in my bones, I decided to develop my own online teaching business. With Little Star Designs, I focused on preschool printables. I learned how to use Canva and designed printables that help little ones learn to write and build confidence in the ABCs and 123s.

Writing Star Academy: Preschool printables are a hard market to compete in! So I decided to try something new. I began designing and self-publishing journals and notebooks on Amazon KDP. Again, a tough market to compete in. I had so much fun designing and submitting my creations that I started Writing Star Academy. My goal was to help young people take their writing and/or drawings and self-publish their own books. But life happened, and I wasn’t able to grow the concept. I still love the idea, so maybe I’ll try again someday.

Theda Learn Begins: I really missed teaching about death and grief. When I taught college students about death and dying, so many of them said they wished they’d learned about it as kids. It would have made death less scary and helped them better handle the deaths they had experienced. So I started Theda Learn. My original focus was on death education for kids. That focus is tough to get into. So many people shy away from topics of death and dying. Finding parents who want to teach their children about it isn’t easy.

Canva Classes & Outschool: While working on Theda Learn, I started teaching Canva classes for kids on Outschool (an education platform where self-employed teachers offer fun, online classes for kids). I had learned so much about self-expression through digital design that I wanted to share that with young people - to help them build confidence. And I love it! Working with kids is so different from teaching adults, and I truly enjoy it. I love their imagination and openness to exploring ideas.

Bringing It All Together: A couple of months ago, it dawned on me that I don’t need separate businesses to cover all the things I enjoy teaching. So I readjusted the focus of Theda Learn. Today, it’s my main educational business where I teach a wide variety of topics. My business is growing on Outschool, so most of my focus is there right now. But I’m working behind the scenes too! I’m listing my preschool printables on Etsy, staying open to helping kids (and even adults) self-publish, and developing new educational materials about death and grief for both kids and adults.

It’s taken me over two years to get to a point where I feel confident in my business and am finally seeing some income come in. There were so many times I wanted to quit, but I just couldn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t! Creating, teaching, and growing my business have been so fulfilling, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come. 💖

Christy