About Wendy
I grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong and studied to become a secondary school Physical Education teacher at Phillip Institute. My first teaching appointment was to Warragul High School in Gippsland. After 4 years, I transferred back to Melbourne where I taught for 9 years at Coomoora Secondary College in Springvale South. While at Coomoora, I gained more qualifications and started teaching Year 11 and 12 Outdoor Education. That took me on many trips with teenagers doing adventurous activities like bushwalking and skiing, some for up to 5 days.
Midway through my stint at Coomoora, I took 12 months leave from teaching and travelled in Australia and overseas. On a trip to Russia, I met Paul Levy, my future husband. He was living in Sydney, but soon sold his business and moved to Melbourne to woo and wed me. After a couple of years of marriage, we both moved to Sydney. I was 6 months pregnant.
Soon after the move, our family doubled in size with the arrival of our daughter and Paul's 13 year old daughter from his first marriage, who moved in with us too. She stayed 18 months, departing just before our son was born.
Being the adventurous type, I started exploring Sydney from day one and I wasn't hindered when I had children in tow. After a couple of years, it struck me that I had never seen a guide to Sydney written especially for families. Since then, we've had a lot of Family Fun together. My kids are my 'research assistants' and have helped me test the 400 places in Sydney for Kids (now in its fourth edition) and on the website, www.sydneyforkids.com.au.
Since coming to Sydney 15 years ago, I have become a researcher, writer, webmaster and I've also been a working director of the family Financial Planning business. But my greatest rewards have come from my job as a parent. Although I had a wonderful childhood, how much fun a family can be for the adults was a revelation to me. To enable me to help other busy families discover these joys, I completed the National Speakers Association of Australia New South Wales Academy of Professional Speaking in 2002. I served as a committee member of the NSW NSAA in 2005 and 2006. And to learn more about Australian families and research them, I completed a Masters Degree in Early Childhood at Macquarie University in 2004.
From my research into time use in families and my studies, I have written the e-book: Time Management for Parents Part 1: Home Truths on Becoming a Parent and it can be purchased at www.TimeManagementForParents.com. This e-book and accompanying workbook is about the Transition to Parenthood and covers issues including:
- Transitions and how they affect us
- Our expectations of parenthood
- Our beliefs about parental roles and family life
- Life with a newborn including where does the day go?
- Sharing the baby care
- Time Management for new parents
I am currently writing the second Time Management for Parents e-book on Parenting and Paid Work. Find out more at www.TimeManagementForParents.com.
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