The year is coming to a close… and instead of my usual favourite posts of the week, from around the web I thought I would show you a couple of “Best of the Rest’s” from around the blogosphere this year… things I wouldn’t miss for all the world. I intended to write a list of my favourite blogs… the list exploded!!! I discovered that my love for blogs and their attached bloggers is such a vast and eclectic collection that there is no way that I could cover all my favourites fairly.
Instead I thought our readers might like to see a “Best of the Rest” collection from all over the web:
- Best Book, via the Web, this Year: Project-Based Homeschooling
- Best Podcast of the Year: The Simple Mom Podcast:
- Best Webinar of the Year: Problogger’s of Course:
- Best Free Resource for Kids: We Give Books:
- Best Live Blogging Event: The SA Food and Wine Bloggers Indaba
- Best Online Shopping: Yuppie Chef:
- Best Shout Out of the Year: On Head Heart Hand:
- I am leaving this intentionally blank – I would love to hear back from you all – what were your “Best of the Rest” finds on the web this year? Leave a comment and let us know!!!
Despite the title, this is not simply another homeschooling book at all and is one of the best parenting books I have ever read. Helpful tips and heaps of ideas to encourage your children to pursue the things that fascinate them… I got quite a lot more intentional about leaving enticing projects lying around and waiting for our kids to take the bite, all the while holding my breathe and leaving them to choose to pursue a topic or not. This book was such an inspiring read for myself and motivated me clear my own workspace and get creating on projects that I had put to the side for too long. You can read our review over here.
I totally love listening to this very laid back podcast… it isn’t a “How-to” or a “Self-improvement” podcast… just a relaxed conversation between Tsh of Simple Mom fame talking with another mom-blogger about life, love and everything else. I have met so many of my favourite “must-follow” bloggers on this podcast, which acts as an introduction – you want to read more, and follow them after hearing them chat away for an hour.
This was the year that I really discovered webinars… there are a lot of them out there and you have to be selective: If you totally love blogging and you want to learn more about blogging quickly and easily then the Problogger’s are the best of the rest. You won’t have to listen to 45-minutes of webinar and then be told to buy a product to hear the rest of it, it won’t be an hour of “how great I am and how much I know” – yes there are heaps of those around!!! You will get at least an hour of solid tips, freely shared, useful things that you can implement and change on your website almost instantly… Always worth a listen even though I have to stay up to three in the morning to hear them!!!
I confess this isn’t a spot just for kids… it is my favourite place to hang out with my kids on the internet!!! A website dedicated to giving books freely to underprivileged communities all over the world… this is a fabulous project and deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops. Once you have logged in you have access to hundreds of books to read online: classics; new books; fact books and story books. Hundreds of books. Also, when you sign in you can choose from a number of projects that they are working on at the time – then each time you click on and read a book from start to finish… then a real live book gets donated to your project. This site is instrumental in getting our child, who wasn’t wild about reading, to read a book every day after school. It helped his reading tremendously all the while appealing to his generous heart.
I started attending real events with real bloggers this year – meeting them in real life!!! It has been a lot of fun to meet the folks behind the screens!!! And I have to say that the event that stood out by miles, hands down best event of the year was the Food Blogger Indaba, I have to say if you attend no other events in Cape Town then this is the one to sign up for. As a lifestyle blogger, food is one of the topics I cover and this event was so inspiring!!! Learnt heaps about blogging in general and met so many local bloggers willing and excited to share their expertise and knowledge. Definitely my favourite blog event of the year and I can’t wait for the next one!!!
Apart from being the place where most of my kids want work when they grow up… it is a fabulous shopping experience. They do send a fridge magnet out with every order and I confess that our fridge has become fairly dotted this year. Easy shopping, over-night delivery, fantastic customer service… but more… they have a fabulous “magazine, called Spatula,” where they publish fabulous recipes and food trends… really exciting stuff!!!
I love the blog Head, Heart, Hand by David Murray… and his daily “Check Out” post with great links he has found all over the web is a must-read: always something thought provoking, something challenging and great gathering of good quality posts… every single day!!! I was thrilled to discover our blog on his list of Top Ten Women’s Blogs earlier this year, what a fabulous collection of blogs and in the comments you will find a whole lot more!!!
And the Se7en + 1th thing…
Finally, our big project to complete and get done before the year was out was project postage… and I am proud to say:
Everything is posted… there are no GiveAway Winners lurking in our front hall… there are no piles of postcards between me and my keyboard… everything is posted and on its way to you. I am sorry it took so long to get your post to you… illness in the last quarter and then battling with Christmas rush (why they call it a rush!!!) post-office queues… was just impossible. But all your packages are now off to you, watch your mail boxes!!! And we can start the year fresh and clean and you will be happy to hear that I am outsourcing postage next year… it is just too overwhelming for one mother to achieve!!!
I do still have three postcards, from our postcard swap… where folks didn’t leave me their street addresses… I will contact two of them and the third: to the Barnsley Family if you are reading this – please contact us, I don’t have your email and can’t give you the swap details. Thanks so much!!!