New Project: Mindful Parenting Magazine

It's been a while since my last blog entry. I've been busy!

I am launching a brand new magazine this year called Mindful Parenting. I've found a way to bring things I am passionate about together through the vision of this magazine.

Mindful Parenting is a new lifestyle and parenting magazine that will provide parents with information that is inspiring, uplifting and authentic. We hope to bring parents stories that cover aspects of life that are relevant to the "stay at home" or working parent.

We are currently welcoming unsolicited submissions for articles covering, but not limited to:

- Parenting

- Children's Literacy/Book Reviews

- Natural therapies

- Inspirational stories that empower parents 

- Eco Living

- Family

- Education

- Wellbeing (for adults and/or children)

- Holiday destinations and activities

- Art and Craft

- Cooking/Recipes

We are also looking for writers for a regular column or for our "Ask Our Experts" section. Interested writers with a niche/expertise in relevant fields are welcome to send a pitch via the Submission Form on the website. If you have something to contribute we want to hear from you!

For submission guidelines please visit the website for more information: www.mindfulparentingmag.com.au 

Follow Mindful Parenting on Facebook or Twitter.

Mindfulness & Motherhood

My article on Mindfulness and Motherhood has just been published on Happy Child, an online parenting magazine.

Do you practice mindfulness and does it help you get through the 'challenges' of parenthood?

MG & YA Craft Intensive

A little while ago, I attended a Picture Book Craft Intensive online webinar with Mary Kole, Literary Agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Writing a brilliant Picture Book manuscript is no mean feat in a highly competitive market, and Mary's webinar really gave me some extra direction as well as some valuable tips. It was so nice hearing someone talk so passionately about picture books too! Mary has a blog that's full of great information for children's writers - be sure to check it out if you haven't already.

This month Mary's holding a Middle Grade & Young Adult Craft Intensive. If it's anything like her PB webinar, it will be worth it's weight in gold to the aspiring children's writer.

On the writing front, I've been working on my PB and MG works in progress and I have just had an article of mine put forward for a main feature in a UK Parenting Magazine due for publication in November, which I'm thrilled about!

WriteOnCon - Online Writing Conference!

WriteOnCon is a free online conference that started today and finishes on Thursday, August 18.

The conference is predominantly for picture book, middle grade and young adult writers although it's not just limited to kidlit writers.

You can participate in online critiques, Q&A sessions with literary agents, and live events!

Be sure to check it out... You can find the schedule here. Have fun!

Engaging children = love of learning

I find it really interesting how children learn from what their parents do. Take my six year old as an example. He's seen me at the computer, working on my stories and he's decided to write one himself. It's called The Space Story. It's about a magic school bus that takes children into space, tranforms into a racing car and races around the planet Uranus. I can see where he's picked up his inspiration.

He's now in the process of illustrating some pictures to go with the text. I came across a fantastic website called Tikatok which allows you to create books by uploading pictures. Brilliant concept. If anyone knows of any others, I would love you to share them with me.

The topic of space has been a highlight in our home for several months now. It all started with some You Tube videos I showed him of the solar system. He was totally mesmerised by them. Noticing how enthralled he was, I hired a DVD on the solar system. He sat through the entire thing without a break in concentration.

After that we read numerous books on the solar system, we googled together and we wrote sentences about the planets. We took him to the planetarium. My six year old now knows more about the solar system than I do.

We shared our experience with his teachers and we worked on a solar system model at home. We wrote down lists of what we'd need, and we documented the features of the planets in an exercise book.

This is what we came up with.

From the work we've been doing on the solar system - which really hasn't felt like work at all... rather it's exploring and spending quality time together doing things we all enjoy, I became aware of how enthusiastic and driven my son became because he was able to pursue what was interesting to him. He came up with so many ideas about what we could do, what he wanted to read and what he wanted to write. All around this central theme of space. We've been very lucky to have the teachers at my son's school embrace this also. It makes a huge difference to their education experience, where the children cannot do anything but thrive in my opinion!

I look forward to sharing my son's storybook with you once his masterpiece arrives!

Learning can be fun

My son started school this year and it's been an incredible six months with so much learning and development going on.

Something very touching and positive happened at my son's school today. A large gift box was positioned in the middle of the room waiting to be opened at the morning gathering. A few students opened the box, whilst parents and children were surprised and delighted as helium balloons filled the room to reveal paper plates and party hats underneath. At the end of the day the children enjoyed cake.

The occasion? A celebration of their first 100 days of school.

These lucky children have a wonderful journey ahead of them in such a positive and innovative environment. Where learning is encouraged and celebrated. I really think this is the key. Children need to develop a love of learning to engage and thrive. If we can tap into children's interests we make this possible.

Reading can be fun. Writing can be fun. Learning can be fun.

"Why is school not as exciting as Disney World?" asks Richard Gerver, educational expert and author of Creating Tomorrow's Schools Today.

It could be. And wouldn't it be wonderful if it was.

The Power of Words

I came across this thought provoking video recently and thought it was so beautiful that I wanted to share it.
It really illustrates the power of words. Also true for writers, it's often not what we say, but how we say it, that can really make all the difference.

I hope you enjoy this clip.