Childcare Blog

[SandyJames]

Hi All,

I'm such an unrepentant lurker here. I've finally quit the bad habit though because I wanted to discuss (with anyone who would like to spare their precious time) my upcoming plans to launch a childcare blog.
I am a huge advocate of blogging as a platform and follow dozens closely across several interests. However I noticed in about January of 2016 that I had trouble locating a single childcare blog maintained by a person or persons working within the field.
I believe this is a huge disadvantage, speaking to the authors and fans of various parenting blogs I kept running into the same responses over and over again. These blogs offered a strong network of information, support and community to parents.
At the time I was languishing in a really crappy job and was in weekly meeting with my boss and my union representative regarding the 60+ hours of unpaid training my workplace wanted completed in 30 days. Also that I was constantly running over ratio and never received my programming time. All of the other girls there were in similar boats but still didn't want to rock them. I felt alone. At times I almost felt unreasonable in my requests. My boss began to take issue with everything from how I supervised large groups of children to the length of my black business pants to the red highlights I'd had put in my hair 3 months prior. It was also slow and frustrating constantly having to contact my union representative to receive concrete answers regarding what could or could not be asked of me.
It was under this oppressive weight that the idea for a childcare blog first sparked in my mind.
I have since moved to a much better job and am very happy and for a long time the idea of a blog was buried by the job shift, then the Christmas season and finally the new year and a fantastic group of new children.
I was speaking to an ex-colleague last week though, totally different center, absolutely the same story. An unreasonable request followed by increasingly worsening harassment and the idea for a childcare related blog, written by a worker specifically for other workers, bubbled back into the forefront of my mind. A blog which talks about employment and education issues, which offers a wealth of art and craft resources, unbiased reviews of media, resources and services and which provides links to relevant, current, information and support services.
So as part of my pre-launch phase I'm trying to obtain as much input as possible from others within the early education sector regarding what they would see/what would be most beneficial for them in a childcare blog.

So if you can spare any of your precious time, please leave any and all comments, suggests or questions.

Kind Regards
Sandy James

[Lorina]

Hi Sandy,

I think you wanting to start a childcare blog is a good idea, however, I think the main problem that an educator may have with discussing this in and outs to working as an educator is privacy and confidentiality. There is only so much you can say about what happens within your centre that won't cross the lines, plus ones your centre, director and management get the hint that you have started a blog then they will keep an eye on it, just in case...

In regards to art and craft resources, unbiased reviews and support services there are already a lot of sites that do this, however, adding this to your blog may be helpful to those who are reading, yours...

it takes a lot of time and effort but it's definitely something worth pursuing if you're passionate about it. I manage and run this site myself and it's literally non-stop. It's hard for one person to come up with everything on a single website from creating templates, writing articles, developing printables, emails, forum and everything in between but this site has really established itself within the early childhood community over the years and I understand the benefits it has. I really appreciate the support I receive so it keeps me going!

Just wanting to share my thoughts with you!

,
Lorina

[Lorina]

Let me know if you have any other questions or if you want to just chat!

,
Lorina