Feature Yourself Friday: Meet Cathy

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Hello! I'm Cathy James and I blog over at NurtureStore. I'm the mother of two girls and an Early Years professional from the UK. I'm passionate about play and giving children a great start in life. NurtureStore is packed full of ideas you can use with your children - things that are fun and full of learning opportuties but also frugal and easy to do at home.

I try to cover all aspects of children's play and offer ideas for all ages from babies through to around age ten. On Monday's we have a SUPERbaby feature with gentle, playful ideas that are just right for the youngest children. You might like our Lift the Flap Love book idea which captures a baby's love of faces in a homemade book.

Most often I blog about the things I've been playing with my daughters and the children I work with. This week we've been auditing out outdoor play space ready for spring and being letter detectives.

I think children learn best when they're exploring something from all angles and using all their senses, so we often mix lots of activities on a particular theme. Our Five Little Ducks theme included songs and painting in with maths activities, with a vlog of my daughter singing for you!

My older daughter is passionate about crafts and lots of her ideas are featured on the blog. We always try to use recycled materials for our crafts and love it when our craft sessions result in a toy or model which gives us even more play opportunities. A couple of our favourites are our egg box dragon and our peg doll mermaids and superheros.

It's such a priviledge to belong to this on-line early years community and I get so much inspiration from the people who read and comment on NurtureStore. We have a great Facebook community and I'm on Twitter ashttp://twitter.com/nurturestore. We also host a Play Academy Idea Swap each Friday, where people come to share what they've been playing that week. I'm always inspired by everyone's ideas, so maybe you'd like to come along and swap an idea with us too?

We have a themed carnival once a month you might like to take part in too. This month is the Carnival of Small World Play which is on Friday 25th February and if you have a play idea for model farms, fairy gardens or any kind of small world play you would be really welcome to come and share an idea with us.

I love ABC and 123 and it's wonderful to be able to use some of their space to say hello to you all. Maybe you'll stop by NurtureStore and have a look at our ideas and say hi?

Hope you have a great play day with your children today. Cathy

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