Home » Blogging » My Top Twelve Posts in 2012

My Top Twelve Posts in 2012

mama smiles

2012 was a big year for this little blog! I am grateful to everyone who has supported this blog, and I always enjoy the kind, thoughtful, and insightful comments that my readers make. Thank you!!!

Here are twelve posts that proved especially popular in 2012:

Raising kids who get alongParenting: 20 ways to cope with sleep deprivation
playing with boxes for hours of imaginative play
  1. Raising Kids Who Get Along: These tips make all the difference in our home. This post was so popular that it prompted a sequel, focusing on preparing kids for a new baby and helping them adjust once their sibling arrives.
  2. Parenting: 20 Ways to Cope with Sleep Deprivation was written because that is one of the questions my in-real-life friends ask me the most. I got a lot of help from fellow bloggers for this post, and have seen a big response from readers.
  3. Fancy Shaker Eggs. I love making my own toys, and I love rhythm instruments; these were the perfect combination of both. This was version two of these for me – I had made a slightly different type of fancy egg shakers two years ago, which are still used every week by the kids at our church.
  4. Sensory Wall Mosaic Art is my personal favorite children’s activity post from 2012. It’s amazing how much creativity a sheet of contact paper on a wall can inspire!
  5. The Child to Cherish Handprint Ornament was a sponsored post that I agreed to do because I had always wanted to make a baby handprint ornament. The finished ornament was beautiful, and it looks like a lot of readers have dreams of baby handprints on their tree as well!
  6. No-mess art was extremely popular this year – as was its sequel, no-mess color mixing art.
  7. My candy experiments post was popular year-round – and the growing gummy bears portion is always the most popular of the series with my kids!
  8. Thanks to the invention of Pinterest, several of my older posts got to see the light of day again this year! This sun-upcycled crayons post dates back to 2010. It’s still one of my kids’ favorite summer activities, and I was thrilled to see that other people liked it as well.
  9. I had been searching for a good hard boiled eggs solution for years, so when I figured this out, I shared it with my readers. Turns out I wasn’t the only one searching! Readers’ comments also corrected my belief that fresher eggs would be easier to peel – turns out the opposite is true!
  10. I love the way being a parent allows me to relive the magic of childhood – and I was excited as any kid would be when I came up with my self-inflating Halloween ghost experiment. My kids loved this too, and it was fun to see it catch on with readers as well.
  11. I live in Massachusetts, home to LONG winters. My post from 2009 on keeping toddlers active indoors is one I turn to on cold, grey, gloomy afternoons.
  12. Raising Kids Who Love Books was a sequel to the nearly-as-popular Raising readers post. I was raised by parents who adored books, and my house was always full of them. My goal is to pass that love of learning through reading on to my children.

And that’s my year in review! Honorable mention goes to #12 for pageviews, which I didn’t include in the list because technically it’s a page, not a post:

exploring geography at mama smiles

Exploring Geography is a series that, I hope, makes world culture more accessible to all children. Each post is written by someone (sometimes me, but usually another blogger or, in rare cases, a non-blogging individual who reaches out with an offer to write something) who knows the part of the world they are writing about very well.  The series has 47 posts so far, and I was thrilled to see it getting a fair bit of traffic!

What was your favorite post this year – on my blog, someone else’s, or your own?

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

13 thoughts on “My Top Twelve Posts in 2012”

  1. I didn’t see the perfect hard boiled eggs post! That really is a life skill..off to check it out..love how you put a thumbnail of all the best posts..great idea!

  2. I love your joyful fun and simple approach and am always interested in what you share! Here is to a great 2013 for Mama Smiles!

  3. Love your roundup and how you’re always learning… and sharing what you learn with the rest of us! Happy New Year!

  4. Oh I love this round up of posts! What a good idea :) Loving the idea for a mosaic wall, definitely something I will have to try in the New Year!!

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top