About

About Global Mama

Launched in November 2008, Global Mama is a parenting blog covering inspiring and useful stories about children, families, nature and education. Purposefully optimistic, I focuse on positive and intriguing stories often overlooked in the wider media, and highlight the handmade, imaginative, simple, and beautiful. I want to provide a space that inspires, supports, and connects families from around the world. I would like to emphasize the diversity of approaches to child rearing and education; the hope being that through our dialogue we will increase our understanding of our children and of each other.

Global Mama is updated with one to two quality articles each week, and features reviews, activity ideas, home organization and travel tips, interviews, news, DIY crafts, and special projects that encourage reader participation.

About Me

I have been intensely interested in children and nature my whole life. I grew up in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and my family always supported my love of animals and nature as a child. Our home was always full of pets — from hamsters to birds, rabbits, and cats. As I grew up I enjoyed spending a lot of time playing outdoors, whether in my own backyard, on nature walks, or through camping trips and other outdoor adventures. I wanted to share my love and reverence for nature with children, and decided to become an educator.

After receiving my BA in Child and Adolescent Development, magna cum laude, from San Francisco State University, I went on to complete the Multiple Subject Teaching Credential program, also at SFSU. During my studies I was particularly interested in learning about the worldwide history of childhood and the multitude of approaches different cultures have taken to education.

I have taught reading classes to every age person, from preschoolers right up through adults. This experience gave me the unique opportunity to observe the full range of human development, and how the stages of life lead into and build upon one another. In addition, I taught full time in a large preschool with a wonderfully creative group of teachers. Through my teaching experiences I have gotten to know hundreds of children and their families, and one thing that really struck me is that there is never enough time to communicate with parents…and there is always more to talk about!

I founded Global Mama as a way to allow an open and meaningful dialogue to flourish in a way it can’t always happen in our day-to-day lives, and I hope that you find something useful to you and your family in these pages. I am currently living in Providence, Rhode Island.

Laura Gaskill