android on pc

It's Tuesday already. The first Tuesday in October too!! Plus it's our 53rd independence anniversary in Nigeria. Happy anniversary? Yes, Non? We can choose to rant and rave about the state of the nation, but truth of the matter is, ranting and raving won't change anything. We have to choose to do something, no matter how little. Only we can be the change we seek. So while we are at it..... HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY NIGERIANS!

That said, I am moving on swiftly.....

Time is ticking away. I have had such a busy week; so bad that I couldn't do my Thursday nor Friday posts. You've got to forgive me people! Blogging is not a piece of cake. Anyway I am here now, so let's make up and be friends again, shall we? Thank you.

My first son is a very picky eater, most times I have to threaten him or give him and incentive to eat his food. So whenever he finds something he likes and doesn't complain about, it's somewhat an event. On our way back from a play date a few Saturdays back, we drove by Otedola Estate in Ojodu and I saw that Nelson (you'll get to know him in a bit) had started a barbeque grill right there, I was impressed and decided to try out some. Lo and behold, uncle Ibukun finished almost a whole one and was going, "oh mummy, this is awesome"! Na lie! Needless to say, every time we find ourselves in the neighborhood, barbeque turkey must happen, except on those days when he knows he shouldn't just try me. You know naa...

I found this move to start a barbeque grill impressive because unlike many of his peers, Nelson has decided not to wait for this "government" that many of us expect way too much from, or "the Nigerian god" that is sort of a magician (pray and do nothing and all things fall into place, bam!).

You're reading a web page and you're suddenly wondering: what font is that?


You can check the source code or select some text, right-click and pick "inspect element". You'll probably find a list of fonts and you won't be able to tell which one is actually used.

Chrome added a feature that tells you the name of the font that's used. This feature is available in Chrome 31+, so you can try it if you've switched to the Dev Channel or you use Chrome Canary. Right-click the text, pick "inspect element", switch to the "computed" tab, scroll down and you'll see "a summary of the typeface(s) used for that element". Paul Irish says that it "works great with Google Webfonts, Typekit, local fonts, @font-face typefaces, unicode glyphs, and all other interesting font sources."


As you can see, it's Helvetica, not Arial. No need to use WhatTheFont or WhatFontIs.

For some reason, this didn't work well for web fonts.


{ via Kristian Serrano. }

Remember the post about Google's new music video results? They're used by a Knowledge Graph carousel that shows a long list of songs when you search for things like [Moby songs], [Michael Jackson music], [Nina Simone list of songs], [Beatles track list].


Click one of the songs and you'll see the search results for that song's name. The top result is a music video from YouTube, which has a huge thumbnail. The video doesn't play inline, the thumbnail only links to a regular YouTube page.


You'll see the same interface if you search for a music artist and click one of the songs from the Knowledge Graph sidebar. You can also append "albums" to the query, click one of the albums and you'll see a list of all the songs from the album. Search for [Moby Wait for me songs] and you'll find a list of the songs from Moby's Wait for Me album.



It would be nice to play songs from the Google search results page. Even a short Google Play preview would be pretty useful. If that's not possible, then Google could embed YouTube's player, so you can watch music videos without opening a new page. Another improvement would be to automatically generate a YouTube playlist from all the music videos listed in the carousel, like YouTube does.

{ via Search Engine Roundtable }

Google has a great mobile interface for image search. It was launched in 2010 and improved multiple times since then. You can use swipes to go to the next image result or to the previous one. It looks like Google changed the image search UI for smartphones and tablets and now sends you to a landing page that shows the image and loads the corresponding page in the background. Intuitive gestures are gone and now you have to use the back button.


This seems to be limited to iPhones and iPads running iOS 7, so it's probably a bug. A lot of people complain about this in the Google Search Forum.

There are many reasons why the new interface is strange: loading the associated page uses more bandwidth and that's not a good idea for mobile devices, it's more difficult to check multiple search results, thumbnails are smaller and even the desktop interface shows a bigger image instead of sending users to a new page.

Hi guys. I apologize for being MIA. I was in transit and was neck deep in work. I'll tell you about it but first I need to share this. Please support by re-sharing, re-posting and spreading the word any way you can.

Entrepreneurs rock!!

The #Unveiled Young Entrepreneurs Awards

We all know the ravaging effect of corruption, unemployment and poverty on our great country Nigeria. We also know the very good benefits that come with entrepreneurship, its ability to create jobs, wealth and a better society for us all. The #Unveiled Young Entrepreneurs Awards debuting in December is an annual awards ceremony organised to recognize and celebrate outstanding and consistent young Nigerian entrepreneurs under the age of 35, who have distinguished themselves positively within the business circle, creating jobs, impacting people and generating wealth.Let’s join hands in recognizing and celebrating these outstanding young entrepreneurs and business owners.

Nominate someone today into one of the following categories:

Best Young Entrepreneur in Agriculture
Best Entrepreneur in Beauty
Best Young Entrepreneur in Advertising, Branding and Design
Best Young Retail Entrepreneur
Best Young Entrepreneur in Education
Best Young Entrepreneur in Entertainment
Best Young Entrepreneur in Event Management and Solutions
Best Young Entrepreneur in Fashion
Best Young Entrepreneur in Food and Drink
Best Young Entrepreneur in Health and Fitness
Best Young Entrepreneur in Hospitality and travel
Best Young Entrepreneur in Housing and Real Estate
Best Young IT Entrepreneur
Best Young Entrepreneur in New/Social Media
Best Young Entrepreneur in Media and publishing
Best Young Entrepreneur in in Arts andPhotography
Best Young Entrepreneur in Philanthropy
Best Young Entrepreneur in Printing
Young Writer of the Year
Young Entrepreneur of the Year

How to Nominate

Fill in the nomination form by following the link below

http://unveiledprojectng.wordpress.com/unveiled-yea-nominations-form/

You can also like and nominate through our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/unveildprojectng

Note: Individuals are only allowed to nominate once per category.

Nominees must meet the following requirements:

The individual must be a Nigerian

The individual must not be more than 35years old by December 2013

The business must be fully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission

The business must have been in existence for at least one (1) year.

#Unveiled Young Entrepreneurs Awards is initiated and organised by AnoksEmma Concepts in conjunction with Walkthruwalls Media This edition would take place during the #Unveiled Fashion Show this December in lekki, Lagos State

Visit www.unveiledprojectng.wordpress.com for more details




FOR ENQUIRES

BB pins: 28C92A57,25D3447C, 328B5D3, 220be7cdTwitter: @unv_projectngFacebook: unveiledprojectngGoogle+: unveiledprojectngYouTube:unveiledprojectngEmail: unveiledprojectng@gmail.comwww.unveiledprojectng.wordpress.com

YouTube's HTML5 player is great, but it's not enabled for all the videos. Even if you go to youtube.com/html5 and join the HTML5 trial, you'll find a lot of videos that use the Flash player. "Some videos with ads are not yet supported (they will play in the Flash player)," mentions the site.

There's a simple Greasemonkey script that forces YouTube to use the HTML5 player for almost all the videos you watch at youtube.com. You need to install Greasemonkey if you use Firefox or Tampermonkey if you use Chrome, then click the "Install" button here.

[Update (Octomber 3rd, 2013): For Chrome, use the old version from Sept 23.]

The script works better in Firefox. If you install the script in Chrome, it will disable the new Ajax interface, but everything else seems to work well.


Here's a video you can use to test the script. Please note that the script doesn't work for embedded videos.

As previously anticipated, Google's mobile site has a new layout that uses cards, just like Google Now, Google Maps, Google+ and an increasingly long list of Google services and apps.

"A new look and feel for Google Search and ads on your phones and tablets. It's cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on cards so you can focus on the answers you're looking for," informs Google's search blog.


Ads stand out a lot more and, depending on your phone's resolution and screen size, you might not even see a regular search result without scrolling down. Google shows up to 2 ads at the top of the page and no longer uses a different background color. There's just a small "Ad" label next to the URL.


Sections are clearly separated and there's more white space, so the information density is lower.


Pagination has been simplified and you can only go to the previous or the next page of results and to the first results page.

This year, Google's birthday doodle is interactive: it's a game that asks you to get as many candies as you can from a piñata. "A piñata is a container often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth; it is decorated, and filled with small toys or candy, or both, and then broken as part of a ceremony or celebration."

The game uses HTML5 and you can also try it on your smartphone or tablet. You can share your score on Google+ and generate URLs that remember your high score.



Here's a video that shows the game, just in case you don't see the doodle yet (you can also visit Google Australia):


The Google Doodles site has a list of all the other birthday doodles: the first one is from 2002. The doodle from 2007 has a lot in common with this year's doodle.

Happy Birthday, Google!

Google's Knowledge Graph feature gets smarter every day. You've probably noticed the carousel that's displayed when you search for things like [dog breeds], [asian rivers], [swedish bands], [science fiction books], [surrealist painters]. For some queries, you'll now see a drop-down that lets you select other similar categories. If you search for [surrealist painters], you'll see a long list of genres: abstract, cubist, impressionist, rococo, romantic.


Until now, Knowledge Graph displayed information about a single entity. Now you can compare 2 things. For example, you can search for [orange vs tangerine] and find out that oranges contain two times more vitamin C than tangerines.




"You can try this for some other things you might be curious about, such as dog breeds (compare pekingese vs. chihuahua) or celestial objects (compare earth vs. neptune) — and we'll keep adding more," informs Google.

It looks like Google brings back some features from an old Labs project called Google Squared and makes them more usable.

{ via Inside Search }

Mr. Jingles, the Google+ notification mascot, celebrates Google's 15th birthday with a pixelated animation. Just click the bell icon, read all your notifications or click "mark all as read" to see it.



"Friends of mine here at work found this old photo of me from back in 1998, the same year Google started up. Yes, I know I was a bit awkward back then – but so was Google (check out this link for proof). Anyways, enjoy this retro version of me in your Notifications tray for the next day or so. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Google!"

Mr. Jingles also changed its profile photo: "A little change of pace in my profile photo for #throwbackthursday.". The file name is self-explanatory: "1998-jangles-avatar.png".

Search Google for [Google in 1998] and you'll see a search results page from 1998, the year when Google was incorporated as a privately held company. It's an Easter Egg that reminds you how much Google has evolved, while preserving a simple user interface.

The old search results includes the original Google logo that had an exclamation mark just like Yahoo!, GoogleScout - another name for the feature that returns similar pages, a drop-down that lets you pick the number of results per page, search within results, the size of the cached pages and a list of links to other search engines. All the search results link to the Wayback Machine, since most of them no longer exist.




Google's birthday is in September, but the date has changed over the years. "Google opened its doors in September 1998. The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake," mentioned a Google page. Google has usually celebrated its birthday on September 27 and this year is special: Google is 15 years old. Happy birthday, Google!


{ via Search Engine Land }

Google has its own search quality raters, but it doesn't hurt asking regular users to improve search results. A recent Google experiment highlights 2 search results and asks users which one is better.


Users don't have the read the search quality guidelines first, they only need to visit the 2 pages and tell Google which one they prefer. There are 4 choices: the first result, the second result, both results are equally good, neither result is good enough.

One of the 2 results was the Amazon page for a book and it already had a high ranking. The second result was the book's homepage, which had a lower ranking, but was placed above the Amazon result for this experiment. Google probably wanted to check if the Amazon result was indeed better.

{ Thanks, Marcus. }

Chrome shows a new version of the welcome screen for the updated new tab page. Instead of "changes to the new tab page", you'll see "Chrome has updated". It looks like Google wanted to synchronize 4 important changes:

1. the new Google navigation interface
2. the updated new tab page
3. Chrome's app launcher
4. the new Chrome apps


There's an interesting synergy that deserves some explanations. Google's new drop-down menu from the homepage and search results pages looks just like the app launcher, but it only links to Google apps and you can't customize it. Chrome's app launcher was first available in Chrome OS and it's now added to the regular version of Chrome. It includes the apps that were previously available in the new tab page, but it's optimized for a new breed of apps that work offline and look just like native apps. They can be launched from the operating system's taskbar, use APIs that integrate with the hardware, open links in a browser tab. Install any app from this page to enable the app launcher.




The old bookmark apps have a small arrow just like regular Windows shortcuts and open in a new Chrome tab, the new apps don't have the small arrow and open in a new chromeless window.

Chrome's new tab page has a different goal: teach people to use the omnibox (the unified address bar and search box). Many people type google.com and use the search box from Google's homepage to search the web. Google decided to replace the new tab page with a modified Google homepage that uses the omnibox instead of the regular search box. "While you can search straight from the omnibox in Chrome, we've found that many people still navigate to their search engine's home page to initiate a search instead. The goal is to save people time by helping them search and navigate the web faster," explained Google.


To sum up: the new Chrome apps are no longer bookmarks to websites and no longer open in Chrome tabs, so they're moved outside of the browser. There's a new bookmark called Apps that links to chrome://apps, where you can still find the old apps list. The updated new tab page is an educational feature that tries to simplify the search workflow for regular users.

Advanced users probably don't need it, so here are two ways to tweak the updated new tab page (Google might remove them in the future):

1. How to replace the updated new tab page with a local version that doesn't load Google's homepage and doesn't show doodles? Paste this in a new tab:

chrome://flags/#enable-local-only-instant-extended-api

and click "Enabled" in the drop-down below "Enable local-only Instant Extended API", then click the "Relaunch Now" button at the bottom of the page to restart the browser.

2. How to go back to the old new tab page? Paste this in a new tab:

chrome://flags/#enable-instant-extended-api

and click "Disabled" in the drop-down below "Enable Instant Extended API", then click the "Relaunch Now" button at the bottom of the page to restart the browser.

You can read between the lines and notice how Chrome adds more and more operating system features: it has its own apps, a "start menu" replacement, a notification system, a remote printing feature, support for multiple users and a guest mode.

Samsung has just rolled out another Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update with firmware build number N8000XXCMI2 for the 3G + WiFi version of Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000). The new official update is currently available in Germany as an Over-The-Air (OTA) update as well as through Samsung KIES.

Firmware details
PDA: N8000XXCMI2
CSC: N8000OXACMI2
MODEM: N8000XXCLL1
Version: Android 4.1.2
Build date: Sep 11, 2013
Regions: Germany

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 N8000 users who missed the OTA update notification or unable to access the update over Samsung KIES, and those who are residing outside Germany can now download and install the same manually, using our step-by-step guide.

Pre-requisites
1. Install USB Drivers for Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 on the computer.
2. Enable USB Debugging Mode on the phone by navigating to Settings >> Developer Options.
3. Make a backup of all your important data before following the guide.
4. The Galaxy Note 10.1 should be factory unlocked and not locked to any particular carrier.
5. Ensure the battery of the phone is charged more than 80 percent.
6. The Android 4.1.2 XXCMI2 Jelly Bean firmware is compatible only with the 3G + WiFi version of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with model number GT-N8000. Applying this to any incorrect variant might brick the device. Verify the model number of the Galaxy Note 10.1 by navigating to Settings >> About Phone.

Files Required
1. Android 4.1.2 XXCMI2 Jelly Bean Firmware (Mirror Link) for Galaxy Note 10.1 N8000
2. Odin 3.07 (Mirror Link)

Steps to Update Galaxy Note 10.1 N8000 with Android 4.1.2 XXCMI2 Jelly Bean Firmware
Step 1: Extract Firmware zip file using WinRAR/7-Zip/WinZip or any other extracting tool, you will get a .tar.md5 file and some other files (optional).
Step 2: Extract Odin zip file and you will get Odin3 v3.07.exe along with few other files.
Step 3: Switch off the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Step 4: Boot the device into Download Mode by pressing and holding Volume Down and Power buttons together until a construction Android robot icon with a warning triangle appears on screen. Now press the Volume Up button to enter Download Mode.
Step 5: Run Odin on the computer as an Administrator.
Step 6: Connect the Galaxy Note 10.1 to the computer using USB cable while it is in the Download Mode. Wait until Odin detects the device. When the device is connected successfully, the ID: COM box will turn to light blue with the COM port number. Additionally, the successful connected will be indicated by a message saying Added.

Note: If the Added message does not appear, then try re-install USB drivers or changing the port on the computer.

Step 7: Select the following files in Odin from extracted N8000XXCMI2 firmware folder:

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active with model number GT-I9295 has received another Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean update with firmware build number I9295XXUAMH3. The new official update is now available as an Over-The-Air (OTA) update as well as through Samsung KIES.

Firmware details
PDA: I9295XXUAMH3
CSC: I9295OXXAMH3
MODEM: I9295XXUAMH3
Version: Android 4.2.2
Build date: Aug 14, 2013
Regions: United Kingdom

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active I9295 users who missed the OTA update notification or unable to access the update over Samsung KIES, and those who are residing outside UK can now download and install the same manually, using our step-by-step guide.

Pre-requisites
1. Install USB Drivers for Samsung Galaxy S4 Active on the computer.
2. Enable USB Debugging Mode on the phone by navigating to Settings >> Developer Options.
3. Make a backup of all your important data before following the guide.
4. The Galaxy S4 Active should be factory unlocked and not locked to any particular carrier.
5. Ensure the battery of the phone is charged more than 80 percent.
6. The Android 4.2.2 XXUAMH3 Jelly Bean firmware is compatible only with Samsung Galaxy S4 Active with model number GT-I9295. Applying this to any incorrect variant might brick the device. Verify the model number of the Galaxy S4 Active by navigating to Settings >> About Phone.

Files Required
1. Android 4.2.2 XXUAMH3 Jelly Bean Firmware (Mirror Link)
2. Odin 3.07 (Mirror Link)

Steps to Update Galaxy S4 Active I9295 with Android 4.2.2 XXUAMH3 Jelly Bean Firmware
Step 1: Extract Firmware zip file using WinRAR/7-Zip/WinZip or any other extracting tool, you will get a .tar.md5 file and some other files (optional).
Step 2: Extract Odin zip file and you will get Odin3 v3.07.exe along with few other files.
Step 3: Switch off the Galaxy S4 Active.
Step 4: Boot the device into Download Mode by pressing and holding Volume Down, Home and Power buttons together until a construction Android robot icon with a warning triangle appears on screen. Now press the Volume Up button to enter Download Mode.
Step 5: Run Odin on the computer as an Administrator.
Step 6: Connect the Galaxy S4 Active to the computer using USB cable while it is in the Download Mode. Wait until Odin detects the device. When the device is connected successfully, the ID: COM box will turn to light blue with the COM port number. Additionally, the successful connected will be indicated by a message saying Added.

Note: If the Added message does not appear, then try re-install USB drivers or changing the port on the computer.

Step 7: Select the following files in Odin from extracted I9295XXUAMH3 firmware folder:

So another Independence day is coming up. Yawn. I guess it will be fraught with mixed feelings across the country. In spite of all that’s happening, I have every cause to be thankful. First because October is the boo’s birth-month and more importantly because October brings in an air of freshness, the freedom that comes with wisdom and true friendships.

As a tradition, I outline a list of favourite relaxation spots for each month. And topping my list for October is Oja Ara amongst other fun places. Oja Ara has almost become a culture for me.

I never fail to be thrilled every time I go there. Fun, check. Entertainment, check… And most importantly, bargains, double check.

I got my fab scarf I flaunt around from Oja Ara; actually, I had little appreciation for the scarf considering I purchased it at a whopping discount; but several hundreds of comments later, I conveniently sport it on almost anything. Honestly, those nice, unusual and one-of-a-kind pieces abound there.

I love open air markets, street markets, mobile markets, farmers markets, etc. Anywhere I find myself in the world, attending one of these events is one of my favourite activities and Oja Ara seems the best of places to explore this interest. There’s always a fresh touch to keep you wanting more.

The bargains are second to none, nothing beats them.

Forgive all the talk about this place but I’m a sworn evangelist of Oja Ara, I can’t keep this to myself. I bought my girlfriends over and hanging out at Oja Ara proves time and again to be a fun place for us.

I gather the next edition will be on the 5th and 6th October; yours truly will make it a date and you don’t want to miss out on this

It started as an experiment in 2010, then Google encrypted searches for logged-in users, then Firefox, Chrome and Safari switched to Google SSL and now almost all Google search URLs use HTTPS.

"In the past month, Google quietly made a change aimed at encrypting all search activity — except for clicks on ads. Google says this has been done to provide 'extra protection' for searchers," reports Danny Sullivan.


For example, if you type google.com in your browser's address bar, you'll be redirected to https://www.google.com. "SSL encrypts the communication channel between Google and a searcher's computer. When search traffic is encrypted, it can't easily be decoded by third parties between a searcher's computer and Google's servers," informs Google.

Danny Sullivan speculates that this move may be aiming to block NSA spying activity, but I don't think that's the case. Google still logs all the search traffic and it can send that information to the authorities.

A major downside of switching to encrypted searches is that webmasters can no longer obtain a list of the Google search keywords that sent traffic to their sites without relying on Google services. Google Webmaster Tools includes a list of keywords, but this feature is limited and doesn't integrate with analytics software. There's an exception: ads. "Ad search traffic has never been made secure. No encryption stops people from eavesdropping on the terms used when someone searches at Google and clicks on an ad. Google's also never prevented this information from flowing directly to advertisers, in the way it has for non-advertisers," says Danny Sullivan.

Android Device Manager now lets you lock your Android devices remotely, in addition to ringing devices and erasing data. It's a clever feature: click "Lock" and Google asks you to enter a new password for locking your device. No matter which screen lock feature you use, Google will switch it to "password" and lock your devices using the password you've entered.

This only works if your phone or tablet is online and you've checked "Allow remote lock and factory reset" in the Google Settings app that's installed by Google Play Services. If your device is offline, it'll be locked once it's back online.



It's interesting to see that Android Device Manager doesn't use Google Play branding and it's available at google.com/android/devicemanager. The service has a generic name which suggest that it could add other features not related to finding your phone. For example, it could let you backup your data online, manage your apps or check your notifications. Android Device Manager's codename is Google Nova, while the service name is "androidconsole".

{ via Android Police }

Just like Blogger, YouTube will switch to Google+ comments, but it won't be optional. YouTube already asks users to connect their channels with Google+.

"When it comes to the conversations happening on YouTube, recent does not necessarily mean relevant. So, comments will soon become conversations that matter to you. In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creators moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices. Starting this week, you'll see the new YouTube comments powered by Google+ on your channel discussion tab. This update will come to comments on all videos later this year, as we bring you more ways to connect with familiar faces on YouTube," informs the YouTube blog.

Here's a screenshot that shows the new commenting interface:


YouTube's comments are rarely insightful or useful. There's a lot of spam, trolling and hate speech. Switching from anonymous aliases to Google+ profiles might improve the quality of comments.

"You'll see posts at the top of the list from the video's creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles. You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, only people in your Circles or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations. You have new tools to review comments before they're posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with your fans."

Blogger's commenting system powered by Google+ has been disappointing so far. Google doesn't offer comment moderation tools in the Blogger interface and Google doesn't do a good job at detecting spam or at ranking comments. There's a lot of noise and Google even shows a list of people who +1'd the post.

{ Thanks, Adrià. }

Hello Fam! As promised, I am starting my entrepreneur showcase today #inthespiritofenterprise. I had a Skype chat with the Director of infant and Toddlers corner. I hope this inspires someone. Keep the faith!

Enjoy....

Tell us about yourself

My name is Olufunke Oluyemi, MD infant and toddlers corner. I have a B.Eng in information and communications technology from Covenant university and an M.Sc in information systems from the university of Portsmouth. I am currently studying for a diploma in early childhood education with Montessori center international, UK. I am a member of the national association for the education of young children in the US. I am happily married with two lovely boys.

Tell us about your business

Infant and toddlers corner is an education resource provider in Nigeria that focuses on the developmental needs of children in the early years.

We offer;
- Convenient online shopping
- Guidance and training on use of resources
- We partner with schools and organization to provide resources at events
- Special orders from schools from schools and organisations
- Value for money (discounted prices and guaranteed quality on all our products)

What Inspired you to do this?

The idea was inspired by my love for children. After I had my first son, the observations I made and the results I got from the interaction and time spent with him led me to realize that there was so much a child could learn during their early years. I taught him to clap at 7 months, it was amazing to see how fast he picked things up.

The journey

On completion of my M.Sc, I returned to Nigeria to look for a job. While looking for a job I volunteered with a start-up company and this exposed me to the benefits of building your own business. I enjoyed the experience and the freedom to create, think, innovate and stand up to challenges. I took time off to take care of my first son. When he was weaned, I resumed my job-hunt. I got two offers, one from a bank and the other from Mansard Insurance. I chose the latter because I believed I would achieve a better work life balance with them.

Training school in Mansard lasted for about three months. During this time, I realized I was in the wrong place, not because of the company itself but because it did not align with what I wanted out of life. In one of the training classes, we were asked to write and share where we saw ourselves in the future. I said I saw myself as an early childhood Education consultant. The facilitator took one look at me and asked "then what are you doing here"? It was at this point that I made up my mind to start working on my dream. I had always known deep down what I wanted to do, but the mindset of going to school and getting a job kept me from making a move.

Before the end of the training school with Mansard, I started the company registration process then enrolled in a part-time course in early childhood education. This was the beginning of my journey. By January, training school was over and I had to resume full time at Mansard. However, I continued to work on building my dream without relenting. At some point, the work pressure got to me and I had to defer my course. Around this time too, I got pregnant for my second son and took some time off work. My time off helped me put things in perspective and think about what I really wanted to do. I decided to turn in my resignation later once the baby came. Of course this wasn't easy, I kept postponing because of fear. I finally made up my mind a few days before I resumed from my maternity leave and I turned in my letter on resumption.

Building my business full time has not come without it's own challenges; for one I am yet to start receiving a salary. However, the benefits for me are far more than the challenges, which I believe are temporary. I have control over my time, I have more time for my kids, I feel a lot more fulfilled.


Visit our website - www.infantandtoddlerscorner.com
For consulting services contact info@infantandtoddlerscorner.com; 08103232749

Creativity