We are humbled, honored and super excited to have been placed on the short-list of nominations for TWO Edublog Awards this year!! These types of awards are a way for educational bloggers (and those that follow them) to recognize and show their appreciation for the resources and knowledge that these bloggers take the time to share each and every day. When we started this blog back in May, our plan and intent was to use this blog as a way to interact with parents and early childhood professionals. We wanted this to be a useful resource for people to ask questions, seek input and ideas, and get support from each other.

Flash forward to today ... and we are on the list for BEST GROUP BLOG ... woo hoo!! The BEST part about that is Tressa and I get to share this nomination with all those who participate on our blog with their expertise and experiences! So just in case you haven't yet met them ... here are the people who have shared with us on our blog since we started in May!

Bill Corbett of Cooperative Kids
We have been so fortunate to meet Bill back in January 2010 when he was the keynote speaker at our Early Childhood EXPO. Since then we have collaborated with him on various projects, including being guests on his cable TV show and panelists during a presentation at a recent CT AEYC conference. Bill is the author of the book series "Love, Limits, & Lessons®" and the founder and president of Cooperative Kids. Bill serves as our parenting expert and has provided some great posts answering questions submitted by readers of the blog.

Colleen Brunetti of Little Hands, Big Ideas
Colleen is our Early Literacy (and Signing) expert and a Masters level educator with a heart for kids who need that special boost! She has worked as both a special educator, a reading specialist, stay at home mom and is now the owner of "Little Hands, Big Ideas", which specializes in sign language for kids, caregivers, and teachers. Check out some of Colleen's posts on signing and early literacy.

Shannon Perry of SoccerShots
Shannon is our fitness expert and shares with us his experience on keeping young children active and healthy. Shannon is a former collegiate and professional player with 10 years experience working with children of all ages and is the Soccer Shots Connecticut Director. Check out Shannon's posts on fitness.

Mary Tabb of Early Childhood Consultation Partnership©
The Early Childhood Consultation Partnership©, is a wonderful resource that is available to support the social and emotional development of children in your care and in your early childhood program. Mary Tabb is a consultant for the group who has given us permission to post some articles and information that the Partnership has put together and distributes to early care centers in their area. The work Mary does, and the information that she shares with parents and early childhood providers is so important to the development of of young children. Check out the posts we have on social-emotional development.

If you enjoy the information that we (and all our contributors) share here -- we would love for you to take a minute and vote for us as BEST GROUP BLOG! You can vote once per day from now until Tuesday, December 13, 2011. Also please check out and vote for all the other ECE bloggers on the list who were nominated in various categories (see our Facebook page for a list of all ECE blogs nominated).

Do you have a question you would like answered by one of our experts? Do YOU have early childhood expertise that you would like to share here on our blog? If so, use the blue submission form on the right to send us an email! We'd love to hear from you!