Navigating the New Look Childhood 101

If you are a subscriber, reading Childhood 101 through your reader or email, I would really encourage you to click through and see the fantastic new blog design that my wonderfully talented friend Kate has created.  She took my dream for this space and turned it into a reality and I can’t stop looking at it 🙂  I thought I would take a minute to share some of the new and regular features you will find here in 2011.

If you visit my About page, you will see that I believe that Childhood 101 is nothing without it’s wonderful readers.  The community of mums, moms and teachers who take the time to visit, read, comment, tweet and link is truly humbling, and I love reading your comments, advice, questions and suggestions. In fact, I now have a page with information about submitting your questions.   This month I will be introducing a small group of regular contributors to Childhood 101 (but don’t worry, I will still be here steering the ship and writing most days), these talented ladies are all Mums and include fellow teachers and a registered nurse, so if you have a question that I can’t answer, I know the new team members will be all too happy to help.

If you haven’t already, you may like to join the weekly We Play meme each Tuesday (starting again tomorrow), where Mums and teachers share links to their own play experiences, it is a great source of playful inspiration.  Another new weekly feature about playful learning (which actually launched this morning) is Literacy Spot.  Each Monday I will share one idea for playing with literacy, taken from my many years working as an early childhood teacher.

I have made many good friends online and often wish that I could sit down with them for a cuppa and chat, exchanging ideas, stories and opinions like I do with my real life friends.  For this reason, I am also hoping to host a Mum 2 Mum feature semi regularly as well, where we can all share our wisdom about life’s experiences – sometimes it might be around a big, serious idea or question, and other times, something lighthearted or frivolous, like headbands 🙂  So when you see the Mum 2 Mum logo, please pop over and join the conversation.

If you are new Childhood 101 reader, check out First time here? to see some of my favourite posts and the most popular posts of 2009 and 2010.  Or else, feel free to explore via the Topics categories listed in the sidebar.  To help you navigate these, here is a short introduction to each of the nine topics;

Play: I firmly believe that young children learn best through play.  Here you will find playful inspiration for all types of play, as well as information about how children actually learn when it looks like they are just playing around.

Create: A child’s creative responses can show us so much about them – what they know about the world, new ideas that they have had, expressions of they are feeling; as well as providing them with an outlet for sharing, centering and de-stressing.  If you are looking for inspiration for creative or artistic projects for kids, this is the place to find it.

Learn: Here you will find information on how young children learn in all areas of development, ideas for simple toys and games, tips for choosing child care and starting school, and information about Emergent Curriculum as a learning philosophy.

Read: Learning to read and write is so important to parents of young children.  Here you will find early literacy information encompassing both learning to speak and listen and learning to read and write, with a few great kids book suggestions along the way.

Home: Children form deep attachments to the places where they grow up.  Here we look at ideas for organising your kids, family life, and your home so that home is the place where they (and you) want to spend time.

Health: Information about young children growing, sleeping and behaving – from everyday Mums and early childhood experts.

Eat: Tips for developing healthy eating habits and family friendly recipes.

Family: How do you spend your family time?  What memories are you creating together as family?  Here you will find ideas for spending time together as a family, information on general parenting issues, and special stuff just for Mums.

Make: Homemade toys and games can be just as much fun as their shop bought cousins (in fact, we think they are more so!)  Here you will find DIY 4 Kids projects like our popular Kids Kitchen for Under $10 and ideas for turning everyday recyclables and homemade items into opportunities for playful learning.

Thank you for being a part of the Childhood 101 community.  I look forward to sharing with you all in 2011.