Language - Hockey 3-Part Cards

It's that time of year.  Hockey time.
We are living in Canada now, and decided that Dew1 should enroll in the TimBits hockey league (he's 4) so he can learn to skate and start playing.  Before signing him up (thank goodness) we took him to the store to try on equipment.  It was at this point that we realized he wasn't ready.  He just isn't at the point where following directions isn't something we can count on, and it's way too many new things at once.  Learning to skate, trying on and wearing equipment, using a stick, listening to a coach, participating with a team ... all very complex and confusing to a spectrum sensory kid.

So we decided that baby steps were the way to go.  We bought a street net and street sticks and started playing in the driveway.  We thought that this would be a good way for him to learn the basics.  As we predicted, he'll play for a minute or two and then just run around chasing the puck.  That's fine because he's gotten up to about 5 minutes of playing over the past weeks since starting, and could you imagine if we'd paid all that money for him to play on the ice and he was pulling this?  He does have skates, so we are going to take him to open skating throughout the winter so he can become familiar and comfortable with that.  Then we'll start buying his equipment and wearing it piece at a time to get used to that.  By next fall, he will hopefully be ready!

So we stopped off at the local rink on Saturday and watched some of a practice.  He was fascinated - it's all starting to make sense to him.  But I realized that making a set of Hockey Language Cards for him would be exactly the right thing - he learns very well through his cards.  I've never made a set before but a quick google search found this template for me at My Montessori Journey, and away I went.

And, in a few short weeks, it will be time to start watching it on TV!  Yea for Hockey Night in Canada ... hmm, shoulda made a Don Cherry card *hee hee*.
Oh, and you might notice that just about every card is related to the Philadelphia Flyers.  That's because of our family allegiance.  But you can just google images replacements if you like :-).  When I have a chance, I'll make a more neutral set ... but done is better than perfect.

ps.  speaking of which, I just wanted to mention that I just realized that they are a word doc ... that works if you want to alter the pictures but not if you don't have word.  If you'd like to see them as a PDF just let me know and i'll post both.





Hockey 3 Part Cards