Carnival of Natural Parenting 2010 Year in Review

December 31st, 2010 by Dionna | 9 Comments
Posted in Carnival of Natural Parenting

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In January 2010, I teamed up with Lauren of Hobo Mama to create the Carnival of Natural Parenting. One of our main goals in creating the Carnival (or #CarNatPar, as it is abbreviated on Twitter) was to bring together the awesome community of parenting bloggers who identify as “attachment” or “natural” parents.

CarNatPar has been amazing. We have had such a wonderful response – both in the beautifully crafted posts and in the outpouring of support for a natural parenting community – that we took it a huge step forward and created the Natural Parents Network – a website that informs, empowers, and inspires parents across the globe. Many of our CarNatPar writers are now our most valuable volunteers/contributors/editors on Natural Parents Network, and we’ve reached and connected with even more parents that lean toward a more gentle, natural approach.

We look forward to seeing how both the CarNatPar and Natural Parents Network will evolve and grow in 2011. But before 2011 starts, I wanted to sum up our first year and share some of my favorite Carnival posts once again.
And for Carnival updates, be sure to look for the #CarNatPar hashtag on Twitter, or follow the Twitter list of our #CarNatPar writers. On Facebook, you can get Carnival updates by “liking” the CarNatPar Fan Page.

You can also subscribe to all our participants’ RSS feeds in one go by subscribing to the shared CarnatPar feed.

Here are a few quick facts:

  • In the 11 months that we hosted CarNatPar in 2010 (we took August off), we had 117 different writers.
  • Besides me and Lauren, the writer who participated the most was Jessica of This Is Worthwhile – she wrote for 10 of the 11 months! After Jessica, our next most prolific writers were Alison of BluebirdMama, Melodie of Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, and Joni Rae of Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma, who each wrote for 9 of the 11 months. Thank you, mamas!
  • We had only two natural papas participate – Chris of SAHD in Lansing, who wrote for 2 months, and TwinToddlersDad of LittleStomaks, who wrote for 1 month. We need some more men to write for the Carnival — who will join us in 2011?
  • Lauren and I edited a grand total of 359 posts. I would guess that we spend a minimum of 20 minutes per post each month (counting the time it takes us to write the call for submissions posts, the summaries, our comments, our tweets and FB updates, communicating by email with the writers, etc.), so that means Lauren and I each spent approximately 120 hours each (or about 11 hours each month) putting the CarNatPar together in 2010. Wow!

Here are some of my favorite posts from 2010

*(click on each month for a complete list of posts; the monthly themes are in parentheses):

  • January (Parenting Resolutions): It Is All About Empathy: Nurturing a Toddler’s Compassion Potential — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries gives us a comprehensive post on how to help our children develop empathy.
  • February (Co-Parents): Moments in Time: A Love Letter — Arwyn at Raising My Boychick will make you cry with the beautiful way she describes the complete relationship between father and child.
  • March (Vintage Green): We Walked Softly — Starr at Earth Mama wrote a beautiful post about how her parents instilled a love of and respect for Earth and nature in her, and how she is passing that gift on to her own children.
  • April (Parenting Advice): Peer Pressure — Kate at Momopoly worries what message her daughter’s new friend is sending — but how to break up such an infatuation?
  • May (Role Model): Making A Difference for Mamas — Shana at Tales of Minor Interest took an embarrassing pumping incident at work and turned it into an opportunity for all the employees who breastfeed.
  • June (Outdoor Fun): Watching Peas Sprout — Deb at Science@home combines fun with purpose in this educational outdoor activity.
  • July (Let’s Talk About Food): Eat Your Food, or Else — Why should we not bribe a child to eat? TwinToddlersDad from Littlestomaks (Science Driven Real Life Toddler Nutrition) explains.
  • September (Learning Through Play): Early Childhood Education – First Do No Harm — Laura at Laura’s Blog provides an incredible list of tips to facilitate learning at home.
  • October (Finding Balance): The Dance of Balance — Balance isn’t static. It is dynamic, it is a dance, it is about keeping in touch with you. Read this wonderful bit of wisdom from Seonaid at the Practical Dilettante.
  • November (What Is Natural Parenting?): A Private Matter — Amy at Anktangle, who is a Registered Nurse, describes her encounters with circumcision in a medical environment and why they guided her decision to leave her own baby boy intact.
  • December (Let’s Talk Traditions): On the Bunny Slope of Tradition-Making — Jessica Claire at Crunchy-Chewy Mama is finding her groove as a holistic-minded mama with a joyful holiday spirit

I could have made a half-dozen more lists of favorites! There were so many fabulous posts this year. View Lauren’s monthly favorites at Hobo Mama.

And here is a complete list of all of our participants, with Facebook and Twitter links where applicable:1

  1. A few of the blogs are no longer active. If they have been deleted completely, there is no link. If they are still available to view, but are no longer being posted to, I included the link. ↩

9 Responses to:
"Carnival of Natural Parenting 2010 Year in Review"

  1. Beatnik Momma   
    Dec-31-10 at 11:51 am

    Thanks so much for compiling this list – as well as taking the time to host this wonderful carnival! I didn’t get to continue posting as often as I wanted this year because of school, but I hope to take part in 2011!!! <3

    Thanks so much, girls!

  2. TrueRealMommy   
    Dec-31-10 at 12:59 pm

    So glad to be a part! I hope to participate more this year, and maybe work on a post or two with the hubby.

  3. mamapoekie   
    Jan-1-11 at 10:36 am

    Happy to have participated. Keep up the great work!
    I hope I can participate more often once I get settled in in Congo

  4. Amy   
    Jan-1-11 at 6:17 pm

    Thank you for making this list! I’m glad you and Lauren continue to host such a wonderful carnival. It’s so great to be a part of such an amazing group of natural parents!

  5. Melodie   
    Jan-1-11 at 10:59 pm

    Wow – that’s so neat to see it broken down like that. And you are so nice for supplying links to everyone’s sites and pages! Thank you! And I had no idea only a few of us participated so much. I guess because I now follow more natural parenting blogs from reading so many, I just assumed they took part every month too. Anyway, Happy New Year Dionna. And I look forward to contributing many more times in 2011. You and Lauren are a stellar team!

  6. Laura   
    Jan-2-11 at 2:26 am

    Thank you so much for all your time. I feel so honored one of my posts made your favorite. I love reading the carnival posts. I had missed some of those posts. I know I promised to write you some posts for the NPN, and I started them, but I was having a hard time expressing myself. Then life happened. I’ll try to get to it soon. Thanks again.

  7. Shana
    Jan-3-11 at 1:06 pm

    Thanks for all the good work you and Lauren did with this carnival in 2010. It was great to be a part of it. I’m so flattered that one of my posts made your favorites. Hope to get back in to the swing of things and participate again in 2011.

  8. Momma Jorje
    Jan-3-11 at 11:25 pm

    You guys have done great! And I am amazed at how much you take upon yourselves. I saw you have even joined forces to host yet another carnival! I have just signed up for January’s CarNatPar and hope to continue to participate every month. Thank you for organizing this wonderful opportunity to connect with like-minded parents!

  9. Jessica - This is Worthwhile   
    Jan-4-11 at 12:22 pm

    I hope to make it 11 out of 11 this year ;) Go me! haha

http://www.nest.ca/


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