Guest Post: What Flannel Friday Means to Me by Amanda Murray

The following is a guest post from Amanda Murray about her appreciation for Flannel Friday. Amanda is a stay at home mom and early childhood educator in Canada. 

Hello Everyone!

I'm Amanda Murray and I joined the Flannel Friday community about a month ago.  I am a stay-at-home-mom of a sweet, lively 4 yr. old son and a smart, wonderful 11 yr. old daughter. (seen here reading a book together :-) I am also an ECE with a passion for early literacy (and numeracy), storytime, and learning through play (and an avid reader with a serious addiction to books of all kinds).  I am getting ready to offer nursery school and parent-child Mother Goose / storytime-type programs part time from my home. I found Flannel Friday while browsing Pinterest for ideas to include in my upcoming programs.

Amanda's daughter and son enjoy a story together

When I first stumbled onto FF I was giddy with excitement and became completely obsessed for about a week (in a very healthy, non-stalkery kind of way :-)  It was like finding buried treasure!  I blog-hopped like crazy, went back through old round-ups and FB posts - just drinking up all of the creative ideas for storytime fun - and left several comments on the Flannel Friday FB page (which I don't usually do)

I loved all of the fabulous ideas that I found at FF, but it was more than that.  I had also discovered some good quality "learning through play" blogs around the same time but I didn't feel a pull to immerse myself in them the way I had with FF, and I wondered why. 

To solve this mystery I sat back and observed the feelings I got from offering a suggestion in response to a FB post or leaving an encouraging comment after reading a terrific blog post (and getting replies - how exciting!) and I recognized the feeling from a long time ago.  It was the same buzz of excitement and commraderie that I felt when sharing ideas with colleagues in the child care centre where I used to work,  or better yet when one of the staff brought in a new resource book with patterns for flannels or circle / storytime props and games (in the pre-blog days). That always caused a happy frenzy of activity as everyone set about adding to their collections of circle /storytime goodies.

I really love being a SAHM (for almost 12 years now-yikes!) and I cherish the time I have spent raising my children, playing and learning with them each day - but it has been lonely for me on some level.  I have really missed sharing ideas with people that get deliriously excited about fabulous new children's books, or a fun new finger play, or a circle / story prop with moving parts (that makes your group "ooh!" & "ah!") or a genius way to flannelize a favourite story.  I have missed having a sense of belonging to a community with a shared purpose, and having like-minded friends to bounce ideas around with and encourage and support each other.  Flannel Friday has given this back to me :-)

Amy Koester shares her opinions about peer sourcing on her blog Show Me Librarian (Feb. 26/13) and I couldn't agree more! We all benefit in so many ways by sharing, collaborating and evolving ideas back and forth with peers. Flannel Friday is a treasure trove of fabulous ideas and so much more! The members here are warm & welcoming to newcomers, and offer a go-to place for advice, suggestions and encouragement to anyone who wishes to follow or participate.  I am so grateful to have found all of you and this creative and caring community, and I am looking forward to getting to know you better. You have created something very special!  Thank you!!!

Amanda Murray
Rookie Flannel Friday-er

P.S. I also love all of the new sources of inspiration and information that I learn about through FF - the library-based sites etc. that I wasn't aware of before :-)

Amanda also passed along photos of some of her flannel sets to share here. I always like to see other people's work... so inspiring! 

Thanks so much for sharing your story, Amanda, and we're glad you found us too!