Allison McDonald
Founder and editor of No Time For Flash Cards

I have been teaching children in various capacities since 1993, so you can imagine I have done my fair share of crafts, songs, and circle times. I started as a day camp leader at a local recreation centre while in high school. Taught various preschool age and after school programs through university and worked as a reading tutor while pursuing a second degree in elementary education. After graduating with honors I set out to teach, ended up as a director of a large childcare center and preschool and returned to the classroom after a year realizing pretty quickly that I belong in a classroom not an office.  My son’s birth brought me home and my love of teaching and helping other parents sparked the idea for NTFFC.

Since starting NTFFC in early 2008 I have had the opportunity to contribute activities to some wonderful websites , become a staff blogger at FamilyEducation.com and write curriculum for Itty-Bitty Bookworm a literature based preschool curriculum.

Early childhood  education is my passion, despite my degree in elementary education my heart belongs to the little guys!

Contributing Writers

Carrie Anne Badov, a mother of three wee ones, has a love of children’s literature that extends beyond her mothering years, back to when she would remove pages from books and insert her own stories as a child. She continues to write her own stories in the hopes of seeing one of them published but in the meantime she loves to read and review great children’s books. She is the Managing Editor and Review Editor at EverythingMom.com and reviews more books every Wednesday on her blog Another day.Another thought…or two.

Katy Bird graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English Education, grades 7-12 from Louisiana State University. She fell into teaching Special Education and did so for the next five years. Katy worked almost exclusively with children with learning disabilities or mental impairments. She might have gone on to get a degree in Special Ed, but her son was born in 2007, suffered a massive stroke the next day, and quit her job to stay home with him full-time. He has a condition called cerebral palsy which effects the body’s ability to move. These days, she pulls out all the stops trying to prepare him for the great, big world. Katy believes all children can learn and love sharing ideas for teaching with other parents. Katy blogs at Bird on The Street

Kim Young is a Texas girl that ended up in Illinois (via her husband). She has been a lifetime crafter that is temporarily trading her craft knife and hot glue gun for safety scissors and glue sticks. When the kids get old enough, she will get to go back to the grown up toys, but until then she is having fun with the safety scissors! Kim loves finding new ways to introduce learning into daily activities and crafts. She loves the excitement of a child as they experience new adventures. Kim blogs at Mom Tried It !