Dewdrops

Wow ... has it really been 1 year?

2012-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

For several reasons, the least of which being that it's a New Year, I decided to visit tonight.

And then discovered that my last post was December 18 2010! Wow! Really? Can't be? But is ...

I know that I've commented several times about how this blog intention has changed so much since I first started ... life kind of got in the way. Really kind of. And the past 12 months hasn't been much different.

But starting this month, a new chapter is beginning. We're moving, again. This makes .. um let me count ... 5 moves in the past ... 7 years. Maybe 8 years if you count the fact that it's a New Year. Way not cool, but that's how life has rolled. So this move is not the last as we'd hoped, but it's a good one nonetheless. And in our new space, I am insisting on a creative corner for me as well as work space for the boys. I am going to get back to what I had hoped life might have been like had the past 2 years not gotten in the way.

So my first step is to give this blog a new look (thanks to the tutorials I found on MammaGoRound.com). Well, really, the first step is to move. Hopefully that will be done by the end of next week.

I have no idea if anyone is reading, but the accountability keeps me going. Trust me, aside from not realizing that it had been a year since blogging (well, I do have a bunch of posts in draft so that sort of counts...) the guilt of not being here has been big. Yet another unfinished project.

Yes, unfinished projects fall first on my To Dos. The list of unfinished projects is huge! Even though a according to my Myers-Briggs assessment, unfinished projects do not bother me, they are driving me Crazy right now.

So what's going to be here? Here's my hope:

activities with the boys (they are 5 1/2 and almost 4 now!)
books I'm reading
projects I'm working on
creativity abounding
updates on Dew1's progress (he's made some ... some days it's more obvious than others ...)
accountability log - exercise, FlyLady-ing,
life ongoing

So give me a week to move and then let's see how it goes.

A Letter for the Holidays

2010-12-18T04:56:00.000-08:00

I found this through the Daily Autism Freebies Blog that I love.

This letter really helped ME understand what Dew1 goes through on a moment-to-moment, day-to-day basis, let alone during the holidays. I had to share.

The original source is HERE: My Beautiful Child Griffin & Autism

A Letter to Family and Friends for Holiday Gatherings

Dear Family and Friends was written for the purpose of it being sent to relatives and hosts of holiday gatherings who might need a crash course in what to expect from their guest with autism.

Dear Family and Friends:

I understand that we will be visiting each other for the holidays this year! Sometimes these visits can be very hard for me, but here is some information that might help our visit to be more successful. As you probably know, I am challenged by a hidden disability called Autism, or what some people refer to as a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). Autism/PDD is a neurodevelopmental disorder which makes it hard for me to understand the environment around me. I have barriers in my brain that you can't see, but which make it difficult for me to adapt to my surroundings. Sometimes I may seem rude and abrupt, but it is only because I have to try so hard to understand people and at the same time, make myself understood.

People with autism have different abilities: Some may not speak, some write beautiful poetry, others are whizzes in math (Albert Einstein was thought to be autistic), or may have difficulty making friends. We are all different and need various degrees of support. Sometimes when I am touched unexpectedly, it might feel painful and make me want to run away. I get easily frustrated, too. Being with lots of other people is like standing next to a moving freight train and trying to decide how and when to jump aboard. I feel frightened and confused a lot of the time. This is why I need to have things the same as much as possible. Once I learn how things happen, I can get by OK. But if something, anything, changes, then I have to re-learn the situation all over again! It is very hard.

When you try to talk to me, I often can't understand what you say because there is a lot of distraction around. I have to concentrate very hard to hear and understand one thing at a time. You might think I am ignoring you--I am not. Rather, I am hearing everything and not knowing what is most important to respond to. Holidays are exceptionally hard because there are so many different people, places, and things going on that are out of my ordinary realm. This may be fun and adventurous for most people, but for me, it's very hard work and can be extremely stressful. I often have to get away from all the commotion to calm down. It would be great if you had a private place set up to where I could retreat.

If I can not sit at the meal table, do not think I am misbehaved or that my parents have no control over me. Sitting in one place for even five minutes is often impossible for me. I feel so antsy and overwhelmed by all the smells, sounds, and people--I just have to get up and move about. Please don't hold up your meal for me--go on without me, and my parents will handle the situation the best way they know how. Eating in general is hard for me. If you understand that autism is a sensory processing disorder, it's no wonder eating is a problem! Think of all the senses involved with eating. Sight, smell, taste, touch, AND all the complicated mechanics that are involved. Chewing and swallowing is something that a lot of people with autism have trouble with. I am not being picky--I literally cannot eat certain foods as my sensory system and/or oral motor coordination are impaired.

Don't be disappointed If Mom hasn't dressed me in starch and bows. It's because she knows how much stiff and frilly clothes can drive me buggy! I have to feel comfortable in my clothes or I will just be miserable. When I go to someone else's house, I may appear bossy and controlling. In a sense, I am being controlling, because that is how I try to fit into the world around me (which is so hard to figure out!) Things have to be done in a wayI am familiar with or else I might get confused and frustrated. It doesn't mean you have to change the way you are doing things--just please be patient with me, and understanding of how I have to cope. Mom and Dad have no control over how my autism makes me feel inside.

People with autism often have little things that they do to help themselves feel more comfortable.The grown ups call it "self regulation," or "stimming'. I might rock, hum, flick my fingers, or any number of different things. I am not trying to be disruptive or weird. Again, I am doing what I have to do for my brain to adapt to your world. Sometimes I cannot stop myself from talking, singing, or doing an activity I enjoy. The grown-ups call this "perseverating" which is kinda like self regulation or stimming. I do this only because I have found something to occupy myself that makes me feel comfortable. Perseverative behaviors are good to a certain degree because they help me calm down. Please be respectful to my Mom and Dad if they let me "stim" for awhile as they know me best and what helps to calm me.

Remember that my Mom and Dad have to watch me much more closely than the average child. This is for my own safety, and preservation of your possessions. It hurts my parents' feelings to be criticized for being over protective, or condemned for not watching me close enough. They are human and have been given an assignment intended for saints. My parents are good people and need your support. Holidays are filled with sights, sounds, and smells. The average household is turned into a busy, frantic, festive place. Remember that this may be fun for you, but it's very hard work for me to conform. If I fall apart or act out in a way that you consider socially inappropriate, please remember that I don't possess the neurological system that is required to follow some social rules. I am a unique person--an interesting person. I will find my place at this celebration that is comfortable for us all, as long as you'll try to view the world through my eyes!

Author Unknown

Some Truths Revealed

2010-11-07T15:52:00.000-08:00

It has come time to face a few truths about my life.

- I am not going to be able to HomeSchool or even Pseudo HomeSchool my kids. No matter how much I really want to, and how much I am really inspired by it, it is not going to happen. I continually see inspiring ideas online ... Tot School, Montessori, Letter of the Week ... you name it and I am inspired by it. I clip ideas to Evernote, I download file after file, I print things out, I even have a laminator, but they never get organized and implemented.

- Part of the above realization is due to the crazy changes in my life since I started this journey. Our move, my return to full-time work, our 1 year rental home (ie. nothing getting unpacked because it will just get repacked in a few months...). The other part of the above realization is due to the nature of my children. The lack of attention and delays between the two of them make it very difficult to keep anything organized. I do try, and by trying I do make a difference, but they get into everything no matter how I try to organize it, and they mess it up, lose pieces to it, and destroy things. As they get older, I will be able to get things done with them, but right now it's not so easy.

- My time is better spent getting to bed early and trying to get sleep to take care of myself rather than stay up to the wee hours of the night trying to get things made and done. This is a hard realization for me, but I have to take care of myself so I will be around for them.

- I love to blog, but committing to it is difficult. I am trying, and that's about all I can say right now.

- I need to reduce the amount of blogs I follow in my Google Reader. Right now, when I log in, there are about 300 unread posts. This does not do me any good in trying to get my life together. I spend so much time obsessively going through all of the posts that I don't get anything else done. That is just counter productive. The hard part is going to be figuring out which ones to unsubscribe to.

I am still working on self realizations and truths. But these ones have been on my mind lately. Instead of failing at the standards I have set for myself, I figured that it's better to set new standards that I can keep (and then feel some amount of success) rather than always feel like a failure.

Thanks for sticking with me. This is by no means an end to my journey here. This journey has taken a new path - much newer than I intended when I started it a little over a year ago. I was going to be the next Carisa at 1+1+1=1 *hee hee* but now I just get the joy of reading the wonderful things she does for her family. I will continue to try and keep posting what I do, but I am done trying to fool myself and depress myself.

Thank you for listening.

Sensory: Pillow Pal fun

2010-10-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

My SIL gave the Dews Pillow Pals for Dew1's birthday. A Puppy for Dew1 and a Tiger for Dew2. They love them, needless to say, and they are in bed every night. Dew1 sleeps on top of it, like an actual pillow, and Dew2 rolls around with it.

Disclaimer: I sneak in every night after they fall asleep and take them away as they are super soft and have rather deepish plush. I don't want either of them to end up face down in one, or have it entirely cover their heads / faces. I know that they are old enough to turn away from it to breathe, but why tempt fate?

But here's the interesting thing. I never considered the Pillow Pal to be a great Sensory tool. But Dew1 loves his Pillow Pal, and last night I realized what the deal was. He's soft. He's squishy, and He's very sensory. I never expected this! He is a wonderfully soft and furry that he's a sensory activity on the go - and not terribly expensive, either.

Organizing ...

2010-10-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

I am a victim of my own brain.

I see tons of great ideas online. I clip them to Evernote or bookmark them in ReadItLater ... I print them out ... I even start to make some of them ...

and yet I feel like nothing gets done. I see these great blogs that have new and exciting activities out every week, and I feel like a failure.

My biggest problem is that I think too much. Possibly, to take some of the blame off of me, it's the Dew's faults that I do this. They are not your usual kids, and as a result I can not approach some activities the way most parents can.

For example, they do not like matching activities that are just cards in a box. The dis-organization of it is too much for them to handle. As a result, they become file folder games. Which pose their own problems ... the biggest one is what to do with the pieces? I know that if I tape an envelope or zip loc to the back, it will get torn off first go-round. so they end up stuck inside, and then within a few minutes they are all over the entire house, never to be seen again. sigh.

I have many many ideas and activities that I have printed out and started to organize, but just never finished.

I can't just put out workboxes - they'll pop off the lids and we'll have stuff everywhere.

And then there is LapBooking vs NoteBooking. I have spent countless hours, insomnia-filled nights, and travelling time pondering it all. I love lapbooks, but like the functionality of binders. So, how to join them up? and then when I finally do get one together, they destroy another. The Cars totbook from Carisa at 1+1+1=1 lasted a little while, but the books are torn out, and the cards are missing (because let's face it, paperclips are just not enough for that job).

So I need to subscribe to my scrapbooking mantra...

Done is Better than Perfect. Just do it. By the time I get it all figured out, the Dews will be 15.

Language - Hockey 3-Part Cards

2010-09-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

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

Milestone - First day of Junior Kindergarten

2010-09-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but Dew1 has officially started Junior Kindergarten.

He has been going to a typical preschool since he turned 2 (he's an August baby by birth but was a September baby by due date ...) His first year went well - it was 2 mornings a week, and his delays were not as apparent as there were not many demands placed on them that year. It was more social, and getting used to be away from Mommy for a while. They did activities and such, but didn't have circle time or anything. He had a great time and it was very good for him socially. It was during this year that we took him to the Easter Seals Step-Up program as well. (more about that another time.)

Then last fall he started the 3 year old program. We decided to keep him at 2 mornings a week because we had to register him in February and he was transitioning in the Early Intervention program to the Intermediate Unit. We didn't know what they were going to provide for him in the way of therapy and we wanted to keep his schedule as open as we could. Turned out that he got 3 hours a day of in home therapy so it worked out well. He did alright, but by December his Behvioural Consultant determined that the situation wasn't working as well as it could be. We looked into switching him into an IU Classroom, but really wanted to keep him as "Typical" as we could. In the end, we got an Aide into his room, and it was the perfect solution. He started coming home with completed assignments, he was joining circle time, he was being more social with his peers, and having fun.

We registered him for 5 day a week 3 year old programs for the fall. We decided to do a combination of 2 day and 3 day programs and keep him back a year to let him catch up with his peers. Then, the year after, put him into 5 day 4 year old preschool, then off to Kindergarten a year behind his age mates but in with his developmental peers. He wasn't potty trained yet because his language wasn't ready for it yet, and we weren't worried about this.

And then it happened. We decided to move back to Canada.

Suddenly it was a whole new world. Instead of 2 years before Kindergarten, he was going to be going to Junior Kindergarten this fall! Whole day, every other day, alternating Fridays. And he had to be potty trained!

We had contacted the school in June, as soon as we knew where we'd be living and made as many arrangements as we could for him. We prepared them for his special needs, and while they weren't able to get him his own Aide (mostly because it was June and that planning happened in April, but even more mostly because he's not officially in the system yet for service. .. and that could take years...) but they paired him in a classroom with a little guy who does have an Aide, so that Aide will work with both of them. Which is good b/c I don't believe that he needs a Full Time Aide, but just one to keep an eye on him and guide him a bit.

So it's been a busy summer with the potty traning (another post to come!) and this past week he he had his orientation. He did really well (or so the school told us.) He didn't use the potty while he was there and they were concerned that he was holding it (which i think he was.) They gave us a great booklet that they have prepared that is a photograph tour of the school. He loves to read his "school book" and I'm going to put a template together to share here for everyone to see. I think that all kids, typical and non-typical alike would benefit from it.

I can't wait to see how things go next week!

What's coming up?

2010-09-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Things to look forward to ...

we have made:
- a geometric floor puzzle
- a geoboard
- sandpaper letters

we are working on:
- a Brown Bear Brown Bear activity unit

now to just take pictures and start posting!

Where have we been? What's up?

2010-09-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wow! Time certainly has flown by since my last post! I can't believe it's September already.

Well, here's the story.

When I started this blog last fall, I had all hopes and intentions of blogging regularly, tot schooling my two little ones, and being a normal family. We were well on our way in the first few weeks of September, getting into a nice routine of preschool, tot school, Early Intervention Therapy, the gym ... it was all good.

And then DH (Dear Husband) came home early one afternoon and our entire lives changed. He had been let go at work.

This led to a 6-month unemployment stretch during which our family has been to he!! and back and made a lot of life changes. The first of which is that we decided that I would go back to work and he would stay home with the kids. I am a Librarian (Administrator, actually) and he is in the restaurant business, so we decided that my career was more stable at the moment than his, considering the economy. The second major change is that we moved from the US to Canada. I'm from Canada so it was a move home for me, but after 13 years of being in the states, and finally settling in down near DH's hometown, I never dreamed that our life path would bring us here. We are now closer to my parents, the Dews are in love with their grandparents, Dew2 has started preschool and Dew1 has started junior kindergarten.

So needless to say, when my life when into survival mode, blogging fell to the wayside.

But we have been working on activities and I can't wait to start posting them again. And filling in on the challenges that we are facing here in Canada (like a 4 year wait for Early Intervention therapy. sigh.)

Oh - not to forget that the youngest got tubes in his ears in April so he can hear again (we think!).

Thanks for sticking around. Hopefully I will be able to make it worth your while.

Thrift Shop Find: Fisher Price Animal 2x2 Game

2010-03-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

Another great find at the local Thrift Shop.

I just saw the blue Fisher Price case and knew that something great was in it because it was the same case that Barnyard Bingo is in.

So when I got home and opened it up, I was thrilled to find what was inside. A Matching / Animals / Memory / Tic Tac Toe game! Perfect for our family.

So the game comes with 24 "coins", each of which are half of a whole. They match up by animal (turtle, zebra, bumble bee), and then they fit together to make a whole coin. At that point, you can also look at the shape on the coin that matches to the slot on the top of the ark. It then drops into the ark like Connect 4.

This is such a great game for any child, but especially for a Special Needs kid.
Fine Motor: not only does it take good coordination to put them into the ark, but matching them up is tricky too, and then keeping them together while putting them in is yet another level of skill.
Memory: you can flip them all face down and play it like a memory game.
Matching: we put three in a row (eventually four, then five, and so on) and have the boys match the one we hand them to the choices in the row. We could also turn the choices over so they can start to learn to remember where the match is or isn't.
Colors/Shapes: once the animals are matched, you need to talk about colors and shapes to get them into the ark.
Manding: so easy to have a child mand for the coins simply by "coin" (or use the sign for it), by animal name (or sound!), or by shape name or color.
OT: make it a sensory activity! Put the ark on one side of the room and hide the coins in the rice table on the other side of the room. Dig for a coin, run it across the room and put it in the ark. Or roll across the room. Or pull yourself across on a scooter board. Or put them in a bag and have the child reach in and pull them out one at a time. Or put them in a baby wipes box and have the child reach in through the slot in the top to pull them out (Huggies wipes have a great rubbery slot that little hands reach into nicely and easily but also provide good resistance.)

So, while I hate it when other people post about great thrift shop finds that I will never have a hope in finding, I've discovered that you just never know what you might find, if you just open your eyes a little bit.

Language - Valentine's Day Cards

2010-01-11T14:42:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know that I keep tagging these as 3-Part Cards, and technically they are not. I am working on making them 3-Part cards, but life keeps getting in the way. I promise to get to it soon.

So Dew1's VB team was looking for some new vocabulary to work on, and with Valentine's Day coming up next month we decided that would be a good theme.

I came up with a few words - there really aren't too many for Valentine's Day - and here they are.

(ok, when I get the chance to make the cards, I'll take a picture of them and insert it here. If I wait, I may never get the post up!)

I choose Cupid, Bow and Arrow, Chocolates, Valentine (card), and Heart.

The file is available for download here.

Valentine's Day Language Cards

Family Time - Game Night with Candy Land Castle Game

2010-01-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

I'm really trying to get into having a regular Family Game Night. I think it is important for all kids, but especially for Dew1 and Dew2 to learn everything that is involved with games. Taking turns, having someone win (and technically, someone lose), following rules, taking care of toys ... all rules that our boys need to be reminded of often. No pieces in mouths (a big one in our family!)

So this game was on Dew2's Christmas List, and was a gift from Uncle G. Admittedly, I thought that it was going to be a challenge and learning activity for Dew2, but it turns out that he's already mastered matching shapes and colours. So now it's an actual game!

I'm sure there are rules to follow (in fact, I know there are as they are printed on the back of the gingerbread play shapes), but here's how we played. Each person got a Gingerbread board that has four shapes on it - two on the hands and two on the feet. Each board has a different combination. The plastic castle shape holds and dispenses the shapes. They are put in the top of the castle, and when the plastic candy cane is pulled down, a coloured shape pops out the bottom. We played that each person got a shape, and if it didn't match their gingerbread board, then it was put back into the castle. Regardless of a match or not, each person got one shape per turn.

We played tonight for the first time, and had good success! Everyone took turns nicely - Dew1 even repeated "My Turn" or "Dew2's turn", and no one lost their temper. Each person worked the castle on their own turn, and everyone was fine about that. We even got to play an entire game! The boys didn't quite get it at first, so DaddyDew and I helped things along, like asking if they had a match, or deciding that they didn't and moving along to the next person. But if they did have a match, we let them make it on their own. And the amusing thing is that Dew2 won! We celebrated the win together, and then cleaned up. There was a bit of upset at the clean up, but everything went so well we just sang the clean up song to distract them.

A successful family event! Yea! We might be making progress yet.

Thrift Shop Find: Dot the Dog

2009-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I'll start with Dot the Dog - A Matching & Memory Game. Not my first find, but today's find and sitting right here beside me, so why not start there.

I found out about Dot the Dog when I was researching Tic-Tac-Tony (another post for another day.) I believe it was Playskool's answer to Fisher Prices' popular puppy. Both are wonderful for autistic kids for various reasons.

Dot the Dog was made in 1995, and I was lucky to find her on my Thrift Store shelf today. Not only was she marked at 3.50, but she was tagged in green, which was half price this week! A real bargain at 1.75! I've seen her on ebay for upwards of $15-$20, but who knows what she really goes for.

And back in 1995, Playskool was doing it's "Ages & Stages" thing, which, as I read through the instructions (yes! it had the original instructions in the package!), really helped me out a lot.

Dot is designed with a series of dots on her body. When you pull down on her tail (Wag her tail), the pattern of dots (and fleas) changes. On the back of her body hangs a series of cards (ingenious storage spot) which depict each possible pattern of dots and fleas. Each pattern has a name, which is hidden behind the plastic dog tag hanging around Dot's neck.

So Stage 1 of play is simply to match the fleas. You turn all of the cards face down, wag her tail, and have your Little One turn over a card. If the flea size and colour matches, they get to keep the card and try again. If not, it's the next person's turn, until all the cards are exhausted.

Stage 2 of play is to match the colour (and eventually the words) on the dog tags around Dot's neck. It's similar in play to Stage 1 in that the cards are put face down and the tail is wagged, but this time you are looking to match the color of the tag. Cards are turned over until a match is made, and then the tail is wagged to change it up and the play continues. This is also memory oriented as you'll want to try to remember where the red tag card is for when it comes up, for example.

Stage 3 involves matching the dot and flea patterns. The cards are all placed face up on the table, the dog tag is closed, and the tail is wagged. Each player takes a turn, examining all of the cards to find the one that matches the dot and flea pattern. When a match is made, the dog tag is opened to check if the player is correct (this is, of course, self corrected privately until it's confirmed to be right so the other players don't get a peek ... in case they were wrong the answer isn't blabbed to everyone.) As this gets easier, you can alter it so that every player is racing to find the right card.

So for Dew1 especially, this game has a lot of great aspects. As far as OT goes, the wagging of the tail is great fine motor skills. Matching and memory work is what this game is all about. It will work in with his ABLLS work nicely, as well as just working on his observation skills. Not to mention manding. But ultimately, games are great for learning about turn taking, following rules, behaviours regarding sitting at a table for a period of time, and winning and losing. Plus, both Dews love to match and love dogs, so this is right up their alley.

So keep an eye out for Dot the Dog by Playskool. It's a keeper!

(and yes, I stole the pictures from Ebay. I'm feeling a bit rushed today.)

Our Story: The Local Thrift Shop

2009-12-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

I just recently discovered my local thrift shop. I can't believe it took me over 2 years to venture in to it (I spent at least a year telling myself and DaddyDew "I really want to go in and check that place out - I hear good things about it" every time we drove by.) But I'm really grateful that I did go in finally. It's addictive. You just want to stalk the toy aisles constantly, and inevitably, like today, you'll see someone in line ahead of you with something that you wish you'd seen first, regardless of how excited you are about your find.

It's run by the Mennonites. It supports all sorts of wonderful causes. The toys are carefully examined and inspected - the boxes are taped shut to indicate (and ensure) that all pieces are inside. Anything electronic has an "It Works!" sticker on it. Everything is clean.

And every time I have gone in, I have found a great find. Something perfect for the Dews developmentally speaking. And while I want to share them with you so you can keep your eyes out for otherwise innocent appearing items in your thrift shop, I apologize for sharing something that is not readily available. I hate it when other blogs to that to me, but at the same time, it has opened my eyes to things I wouldn't have looked at otherwise.

Patience

2009-12-05T16:55:00.000-08:00

Please be patient with me these days.

I started this blog for several reasons and with several intentions.

Main Reason: to give back a little to the blogging community that has inspired me so very much, and enriched my children's lives in ways I never dreamed of.

Main Intention: to blog on a daily basis about two special needs kids, our activities in many different areas of life, our progress, and as a result to create a resource of entries for other families to use.

However, as life often does, a huge curveball has been thrown to me and my time is not as available as it was a short while ago. I am doing my best to keep all of the balls in my life in the air, but occasionally, one hits the ground for a bit.

So, if this blog is the ball that hits the ground occasionally, please bear with me. Please don't give up on me. I'll be back sooner rather than later (as opposed to my personal blog which I have visited later rather than sooner ...)

I put two new posts in today, so please check out about the Star Box, and Star Matching.

Thank you.

Tot School: Felt Star Matching

2009-12-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, I found my Star Box the other day.

And put it to good use.

We have a felt board mounted to our wall. When I find the post that inspired it, I'll post about it. Until then, please be satisfied with the statement that I have a felt board on our wall.

So I pulled out my Star Box, and opened it for Dew2. We played with them for a while, checking them all out. I have a weird assortment of colours now, because many were destroyed or taken home during my programs, and I'd have to hastily make more with whatever colours of felt we had on hand at the time.

We went to the felt board, and I put one of each colour up to the board, labeling the colour as I went. He tried to repeat me as much as he could.

Then we pulled out more stars, and I gave them to him to match. He did really well! I was very impressed with how well he matched his colours.

And it was a bit of a challenge for him to work standing up, and to get them to stick, which was also perfect. When I can fit a bit of OT in, it's a good day :-)

So we matched stars. And now it's a favourite activity.

The Star Box

2009-12-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning up my work stuff the other day (in my real life, I'm a Children's Librarian) and I found my "Star Box". It's an ornament box from Bloomingdale's (I used to live a few blocks from Bloomies in Manhattan and bought a lot of ornaments from there ... and for every ornament I bought, I got an ornament box because they are cute and cool and great for storage.)

At my old library, we were lucky enough to have an Ellison Machine. I wish I'd had the foresight to make better use of it ... it would have been a great way to make the sandpaper letters that I keep meaning to make ... but I digress ... I used the star die for the Ellison Machine to make a boat load of felt stars. So much faster and easier than with scissors, but you could do that, too.

So at the end of my toddler programs, I'd pull out the Stars. Every child would come up and get 1 star for themselves and 1 for their Big Person (my way of addressing Mommies, Daddies, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Babysitters and Nannies in one sweeping statement.) They would return and sit down, and we'd talk about the stars. Count the points. Look at the colour. I'd run through the colour and have each child hold them up if they had that colour. We'd see if they were soft (they're felt, so of course they're soft.) We'd also see if they'd stick to our shirts - sometimes they would and sometimes they wouldn't ... it all depended on what they were wearing.

We'd say the Star Rhyme ... "star light, star bright, first star I see tonight ..." and I would often hold up the Richard Scarry Nursery Rhyme Book page (a childhood favourite of mine!) for everyone to see while we said the rhyme.

The we'd sing "Twinkle Twinkle", and sometimes run into "The ABC Song" and "Baa Baa" as they all have the same tune. Sometimes I'd have some props for the ABC song, sometimes not. I did have a stuffed sheep (a Serta Counting Sheep, actually. a treasured gift from a now passed dear friend) and I'd pull it out for Baa Baa.

And then we'd say good bye to the stars and the kids would come up and put them back in the box for me.

And that was my Star Box.

And why am I writing about my Star Box? Well, because when I found it this week, I put it to good use in another way.

But that's another post.

Bargains: Free Christmas Music Downloads on Amazon.com

2009-12-02T09:32:00.001-08:00

Every day, Amazon is releasing a new free Christmas download. Check HERE every day!

Tot School / Sensory Activity: Alphabet Rice Table Hunt

2009-11-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

On a whim yesterday, I came up with this great idea that not only occupied both Dews for a good 10 minutes solid (!) but was such a good mix of things: sensory input, OT involving big muscles and work, alphabet identification, OT work using the magnet board standing up, and team work. You can bet we'll be doing this again.

Materials:

1. Alphabet Letters - from the Dollar Spot at Target, currently one of our Activity Packs.

2. The Sensory Table - currently filled with Rice. From Lakeshore Learning.

3. The Magnet Board - a DIY from a blog suggestion. I can't find the link now, but will post it as soon as I do.

4. The Alphabet Strip - I made it from a word document - it matched a foam magnetic letter set that a friend passed down to us, and Dew1 loves to match the letters. I should say Loved because many of them have, sadly, been chewed to a lettery death.

The Game:

1. Hide the letters in the Rice table.

2. Encourage the Dews to dig and hunt for the letters.
3. When they find one, they have to say which letter it is, and then run it across the room to the Magnet Board and match it on the Alphabet Strip.

At this point, I asked Dew1 what sound the letter makes, because he knows them. Dew2 doesn't know the name of his letters yet, so I told him which letter he had found, but he's getting really good at matching them so we cheered him on big time for that.

4. Continue until all letters have been found.

This activity is excellent as an OT Sensory activity because they really have to dig for them, and then run across the room. Then add the letter recognition, and letter sounds!

Next time, maybe I'll make them drag themselves on the scooter board! I also intent to share this with Dew1's OT because he really liked it and it might be a good one for them to do together. He enjoys his letters and he needs to do some good OT activities at the beginning of his session to chill him out.

Pretend Play: Freecycle Score! A Kitchen!

2009-11-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

So, a few weeks ago I was casually scanning through our local Freecycle Digest email. And I saw a post for a Wooden Play Kitchen.

Wait ... What? Let me re-read that.
I can't deal with the volume of emails Freecycle generates so I get the digest, which sometimes means you miss out on stuff because of the delay. (in fact, it might have been a day later even when I read it.) So I fired off an email to the poster.

Well, of course the response was that someone else had already emailed about it, but had failed to show once already. One more no show and it was mine!

The next morning, bright and early was an email telling me that the kitchen was all for me! I jumped into the car and off I went.

I wanted to get a kitchen for Dew1 last Christmas - his speech therapist suggested it as a language and pretend play developer - and we actually got a Little Tikes one in November from Toys R Us on one of their weekend doorbuster sales. But three days before Christmas when I went to put it together, I discovered that there was no way it was going to assemble. I was really annoyed with both it and myself for not believing the mixed reviews. So it was boxed back up and returned to TRU. And we never did find another one. I think that we wanted to get something Super Cool like the 50's Diner from Step2, but knew in our hearts that it wasn't in the budget nor do we realistically have the space.

So this Freecycle Kitchen was perfect! In our budget as well as nice and compact in size (and not Pink!). She had mentioned that it was originally from Target, and that door fell off regularly, so that wasn't a surprise. The post had said wooden, but in reality it's a laminate. I had visions of refinishing it, but that's not going to happen.

So my plan is to clean it up (it was sitting on her front porch for 4 days waiting for a pick up), touch up the red wood parts that need a bit of paint, and possibly replace both front doors with a curtain - probably in black broadcloth as I have an armload of it in my fabric stash. My Dad (PapaDew) is going to make us a faucet for the sink - I didn't really realize it was missing until I noticed the hole in the counter. I'm going to get some baskets from the Dollar Store to store the play food we have. The clock hands are broken, so I have to decide how to fix that - new hands? a whole new clock mounted on top of the old one? And I'm going to make a bunch more felt food for them so they can do a little more pretend play than what they can do now.

And once it's dressed up, it will be their Christmas Present! Yeah, maybe sounds like I'm being cheap, but it's new to them, and in a way will be handmade by PapaDew and I. And there is something fun about the story behind this. One of my fondest Christmas memories is the year I got my new purple bike. My parents will deny it to this day, but I knew it was my sister's blue bike spray painted purple for me. But I loved it just the same - and what kid doesn't want to find a bike under the tree! It took up the whole living room!

So this is my Freecycle find! I'm so very excited.

(And if you haven't checked out Freecycle before, check it out now! there are some very generous people out there sharing neat stuff - all in the name of keeping it out of the garbage. And when I get around to cleaning out my clutter, I plan to Freecycle some stuff too, to pay forward the generosity others have paid to me.)

Ooh! As I'm writing this, I look over and the Dews are playing with their play food right now! Dew2 seems to be making a stew and Dew1 is making ice cream sundaes. They are going to Love their kitchen!

I'll be sure to write about my progress, as well as 'after' pictures when it's done. I'm so excited!

Language - Thanksgiving / Fall Cards

2009-11-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I lied.
As I was cutting out the Christmas / Winter cards, something just felt wrong. It's a sunny, warm day, the sky is blue, the grass is green, and I'm going to start teaching Dew1 about snowflakes and candy canes? It's just not right.

So I did make a Thanksgiving / Fall card set. They came from the same place as the Christmas / Winter ones ... Montessori For Everyone's Free Download page.

However, when Dew1's Verbal Behavioural Consultant was going over the cards, we realized that there were several that were missing that would be good ones for him to learn.

So I hopped onto Google Images and did some quick searching, into Microsoft Word, and as fast as you can say cut and paste, I made up some cards to add to the deck. There was only one to add to the Thanksgiving cards, so it ended up in the middle of it.

You can download it here:
Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Language - Christmas / Winter Cards

2009-11-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's that time already.

Well, not quite. But between my Canadian stubbornness to deal with the fact that Thanksgiving wasn't a month and a half ago, and my procrastinative skills, I just haven't wrapped my head around Thanksgiving yet, and it's a week away already. So I figured I'd get a jumpstart on Christmas.

I have spent a lot of time googling Christmas 3 Part Cards, and I'm just not finding what I'd like to find.

But this is what I did find.

A great set of Christmas/Winter Matching Cards at Montessori For Everyone, in their Free Downloads Section (even better!). They are not 3 Part in that they don't have words labelling the cards, but that's ok for now. I like the fact that they are photographs, multi-cultural, and nice, large, clear images. They are meant to be used as cards as well as a matching game, so once he's set with what they are, we'll start matching.

I also found a set of Christmas flash cards over at Free ESL Flash Cards. I think that once Dew1 masters the Montessori set, we'll move on to these ones. The images are iconographic, and when it comes to the ABLLS that he is doing, I know they prefer photographs to images. But that doesn't mean that I don't want him to be exposed to both.

I know that some people don't love cards, but Dew1 really responds well to them and enjoys them, and I figure that it can't hurt to expand his vocabulary any way we can :-)

So, I guess ... It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over here...

Update:

Well, Dew1's Verbal Behaviour Consultant looked through them and we decided that there were several cards missing (and 1 missing in Thanksgiving) so I did some quick Google Images searching and came up with the following file.

Christmas _ Thanksgiving Extras

Activity Bags - Travel Coloring Book

2009-11-15T09:28:00.000-08:00

So starting tomorrow, Dew2 and I have 30 minutes to kill every Monday morning while Dew1 has his speech therapy at a local school. Eek! Time to make more Activity Bags!

The other day while I was browsing through a store, I found a great little travel coloring book kit - it was a small, thick pad preprinted with a character (the one I saw happened to be Dora) and with it was a pack of crayons. $8! Um, not in our budget right now. But I knew I could figure it out.

After a little research, I figured out how to use Adobe Acrobat to print Multiple Pages per Sheet. Perfect!

So I went on a hunt, and found lots and lots of coloring pages for things I wanted. I then printed them to a PDF using Bullzip PDF Printer. Then, in a Very old but Full Version of Adobe Acrobat 5 that I bought a hundred years ago, I consolidated all of the PDFs into one large document. At this point, I pulled up the Print Menu and selected the Multiple Pages per Sheet option - I selected 4. And off we went. If you don't own or have access to a version of Acrobat that will allow you to do this, you can print them individually - it just takes up more paper. Or, there are various Free PDF creators online that may let you merge different files into one.

How To Print Multiple Pages per Sheet in Acrobat:
1. Select File, Print
2. Under Page Scaling, select Multiple Pages Per Sheet
3. Choose how many pages per sheet you'd like to print.
4. Click Print.

It's that easy. And I printed on the back of some old scrap paper, so I was somewhat Green about it all, too.

And here's what happened next.

My printouts. I selected 4 pages per sheet.

Using my favourite Fiskars paper cutter, I chopped them up into their small wonderfulness.

Stacked in their themes. There is Dora, Spongebob, Blue's Clues, Little Einsteins, and a whole set of Shapes.

I cut a piece of cardboard out of a shipping box that was headed to the recycle bin. I also selected a fun blue binder clip from a pack I picked up on clearance at Staples over the summer.

The Completed Activity Bag!
Clipped together, the pictures and cardboard make a mini-clipboard. Add a small pack of crayons, and toss it all in a pencil pouch (yeah, hard to see it on the black table ... sorry ...)

And you have a Travel Coloring Book Activity Bag all set to go. I can't wait to try this out tomorrow.

Activity Bags

2009-11-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

I was first introduced to Activity Bags through This Post at Chasing Cheerios. Instantly, I was hooked. As time evolved, they decided to use pencil pouches instead of ziploc bags - and while I liked this idea, I quickly realized that fabric and zipper pencil pouches are just not in our budget. During the summer Back To School sales at Target, I found vinyl zip pencil pouches on sale for 50c a piece. Hmm... I'm sure they won't be as durable as the fabric zipper style, and hopefully in time we can move over to those. But for now, this is working for us.

So far, they have traveled to Canada with us on vacation, to numerous doctor appointments, and on day trips to see family.

As time goes on, I'll be sharing them. I love to see what others make for Activity Bags so it's only fair to share ours, too.

Quiet Book - Shape Puzzle Page

2009-11-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

My first page! You'd think I'd have chosen an easier one, but the inspiration to it looked easy ... and then I started to modify it a little and then trouble began.

I used a Discovery Toys Progressive Puzzle as the pattern. Traced it onto the white felt, then cut it apart. My first mistake. Were I to do it again, or help anyone else do it, I'd do this.

1. Trace the puzzle onto the felt.

2. With the felt still in a square, sew the velcro onto the white pieces.

3. Arrange and sew the shapes onto the white felt. Be sure to watch how they overlap the piece lines so there are not any little pieces hanging around or left behind. Each shape will require two separate sewing lines - around one half and then on the inside of the jigsaw shape, and then around the other side and on the inside of the jigsaw shape. When sewing the shapes on, be sure to follow the jigsaw lines on the pieces.

4. Take your scissors and carefully cut along the jigsaw lines. you will cut through the shapes, but because of your careful sewing, the pieces will separate perfectly.

I, on the other hand, cut the pieces apart, then had to fit them together and pin the pieces on. And then I cut again. Doh. Then I had to sew the open jigsaw parts together (I should have done it by hand at this point) and everything was sliding around and it got very messy.

The bottom. I traced the paper shape patterns onto the background, and stitched around it with black thread. Also, sewed on the velcro after matching it up to the pieces.

All in all, I'm very happy with it. Doing it a second time would be so much easier ... but isn't it always?

Quiet Book - Simplicity Patterns

2009-11-11T12:28:00.000-08:00

So I found these two patterns in the Simplicity Pattern Book. I bought them both one day when JoAnn's had a 10/$10 sale on them.

Neither have left their envelopes. I meant to make the Christmas one for Dew2 for his first Christmas, and then didn't. Financially, the fabric was just a little too much at the time. But hopefully for this year? The more I look at it, the more I realize that the fabric doesn't have to be that fancy - all on felt would be just fine. Next time felt goes on 20/$1 I'm all over it.

And the regular one - even though I no longer plan to make the book this particular way, I plan to make these pages using the patterns.

Simplicity #3709 - Baby's First Book

Simplicity #2726 - Holiday Soft Book

Quiet Book - The Project Begins

2009-11-11T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how it started. I believe it was when we decided to drive to Canada to visit my parents. I knew that it was a 9 hour drive, but at the time we didn't realize that we'd drive it overnight, so all I could think of was ways to keep the Dews occupied. (of course, once we decided to drive overnight so they could sleep, my time constraint to get it done was gone ... so the project has lingered ...)

I had already fallen in love with the idea of Activity Bags (oh I'll post more about them as time goes on.) But I was fascinated with the idea of a Quiet Book. I think that I wish I'd had one when I was little.

About a year ago, I googled it and all I really found was the link to the Simplicity Pattern (which I picked up one time when JoAnn's had a 10/$10 sale. I also got a Christmas Quiet Book pattern that day.) Both patterns remain unopened.

So then I googled it again a few months ago. Wow! What a difference! Links galore! I was so happy to see such a wealth of information. But, of course, with such information comes decisions.

Do I make one that is stitched together and done? Do I make one in a 3-ring binder? Do I just make loose pages and put them into a folio of some sort? Do I put grommets in the edges and use binder rings? Everyone has a different approach, and I love them all.

So I just decided to start sewing and see what happens.

My Decisions:

1. Page Size: I decided to use 12x12 (before sewing.)
2. Page Fabric: I decided to use muslin, but then scored a huge hit on Freecycle - a woman had purchased the contents of a fabric store and was giving away everything she didn't want! I am not kidding when I tell you that I could have filled my car. I had to be careful b/c we don't have tons of room, and a lot of it was knits, but i did find a good amount of medium weight fabric that will work well for the backgrounds on these pages.
3. Binding: I decided to go with the buttonhole on the edge / bound with binder rings. I will make cover pages at some point. I have yet to actually buttonhole and bind any, but then again, I've only made about 4 pages.

I will try to include patterns when I can. I have found myself to be frustrated by blogs that I am inspired by but don't have patterns, so I've tried to stop myself and scan when I can.

My pages are few and not bound, and, in fact, my book is well in it's infancy. I've been distracted by one of thousands of other projects. By the time I finish this, my grandchildren may be the ones playing with it.

I will do another post with links to my inspiration blog pages.

Coupons - Nabisco Coupon Book Find!

2009-11-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

Coupon Book Find - Nabisco Keep the Jingle in your Holidays Party Planner booklet with $40 in savings

I found it at ACME (Albertsons) in a display with Ritz Crackers - Snowflake Style.

Inside are the following coupons:

$5 off Clue Secret and Spies game (1.31.10)
$5 off The Game of Things (1.31.10)

All other coupons expire 1.15.10
$1.50 off any 1 starbucks coffee 12 oz bags
55c off any 1 nilla wafers, any variety, 11-12 oz
$1 off any 2 maxwell house 10.5 oz or larger
$1 off any 2 general foods international packages
$1 off any 2 toasted chips varieties (pictured wheat thins and ritz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 honey maid grahams 10 oz - 14.4 oz
$1 off any 2 ritz crackers (13 oz-16 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 triscuit crackers prodcut (8 oz - 9.5 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 wheat things crackers (7.5 oz - 10 oz) or easy cheese
$1 off any 2 planters nuts 9.25 oz - 21.25 oz
$1 off any 2 of the following:
- Nabisco stoned wheat thins
- sociables
- better cheddars
- chicken in a biskit
- easy cheese

TWO different $10 Mail In Rebates:

Save $10 when you buy 10 participating Nabisco crackers, easy cheese, planters nuts receipts dated 10/1/09 - 11/30/09.
Save $10 when you buy 10 participating Nabisco crackers, easy cheese, planters nuts receipts dated 12/1/09 - 1/31/10.

Giveaway - Katie's Nesting Spot / Green Toys Inc

2009-11-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

Katie's Nesting Spot, along with Green Toys, is giving away a Green Toys Dish Set. Seeing as how I just scored a Play Kitchen for the Dews for Christmas (more about that later), this would make a great addition to that.

Upon checking out their site, I discovered that Green Toys has a bunch of really nice play kitchen accessories, and next to the Dish Set, we really liked the Chef's Set.

Canadianisms - Snakes and Ladders

2009-10-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am from Canada. I live in the States. I've been here for about 12 years (and counting) and I still have these moments where I make a comment, and every one in the room stops and stares at me, like I have two heads.

I call them Canadianisms. And they still happen to me. You'd think I'd have sorted them all out by now, but apparently not.

So a few weeks ago, when we had our first Family Game Night, I suggested that we play Snakes and Ladders. DaddyDew gave me this odd look. I know that look. It's the Canadianism look.

Turns out, Snakes and Ladders was never in the States. A little online research (thank goodness for the internet!) revealed that Snakes and Ladders was originally from England. Well, there you go. It constantly amazes me how things from England are prolific in Canada but never cross the border into the States.

So the Wikipedia article was actually rather fascinating on this particular topic. The game hails from India and was actually a game based on morality. Each ladder represented a virtue, and each snake a vice. The same concept carries through today - apparently if you look closely at the board, there are good behaviours at the bottom of the ladders, with the children or characters enjoying the rewards of such behaviours at the top of the ladders. And the reverse for the snakes (chutes) ... bad behaviours at the top of the snake and the consequences at the bottom.

Who knew it was that designed? And who knew that Snakes & Ladders was Canadian? (well, British ... but ...) Now I need to send my mother out to find a game ... just for memory's sake.

Family Time - Game Night with Dora Chutes & Ladders

2009-10-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

We're trying to start playing games. We need to learn about taking turns, winning and losing, and just spending a few minutes together. I figure it's never too early to start ... and if we don't try, we'll never figure it out.

So tonight was our second attempt at Chutes and Ladders. And we did better!

Last time we only got to about square 30 before it was game over. We needed octopus arm extensions to keep the game moving, keep the kids off the board, and keep hands off of the playing piece (the little Dora figurines are way tempting!)

Tonight we got to square 50! And we probably could have gone further, but it was getting very squirmy and we decided to cut it off while it was still a good experience. Dew2 won, we celebrated that, and Dew1 was very happy for him. I was pleased to see it. Amazingly, we got both boys to square 45 before someone hit either a chute or a ladder! So the game was actually longer than it seemed. And it was longer than last time - progress is being made, even if it took both adults to wrangle both kids.

The weird thing for me is that I grew up with Snakes and Ladders. But that's another post.

Giveaways - 5M4M ArchiQuest blocks from Kobold Toys

2009-10-30T13:52:00.000-07:00

When I saw these building blocks on 5 Minutes For Moms Giveaways, I knew we were in trouble. They are Archiquest Blocks from Kobold Toys and they are are SO cool! They have sets that cover the major architectural influences of the world - Egypt, China, Rome, Medieval Europe, and the Byzantine.

The Dews just might need them all :-) Someday.

But I'm going to try to win them a set from 5 Minutes for Moms Giveaways. It's a pretty cool site, if you haven't checked it out already.

Matching - Halloween Mix and Match Creatures

2009-10-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

I found these cute Mix and Match Creatures on Family Fun's website. They have some really cute printables, and this one caught my eye. I want to say that another blog led me to their site if not this specific activity, but I can't remember exactly (sorry!)

I printed out two sets of the page. One I cut up into each part, the other I just cut into each creature. This way, the Dews would have a master to work from. Eventually we'll get to using it as it's intended (as a Mix and Match make your own type of game) but for now this is a great activity. I put magnets on the back so they are for our magnet board.

As usual, I wrestled with magnets or felt. I try to go for either of the two as our boards are mounted against the wall, and it's really good OT for Dew1 to work standing up. Helps strengthen his trunk.

There are 6 creatures all together. Happy Haunting!

(now I just need to find some mix and matches for next season!)

Language - Halloween 3 Part Cards

2009-10-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

I found these great Halloween 3 Part Cards on United Teaching's website - Free to download. There are 12 of them altogether, plus a control chart.

Dew1 Loves them! I realized that while he is still behind in speech and such, there is no reason to not try to teach him new words to expand his vocabulary. I think his favourite right now is the Cauldron. He also loves "cards" in general, so I try to keep new ones in his box for he and his VB teacher to work through during their session.

If only I had a printer that would take cardstock! That is an essential feature for my next printer purchase. Instead, I print them on regular paper, and then glue them to a cardstock weight paper, and cover them in contact paper. It makes them a little more durable for Dew1. If they are cards that we are really going to use a lot, I'll use the Xyron to stick them down (I hate gluesticks ... they never really stick ...) and then also laminate them with the Xyron. But for something as quick and short lived as Halloween cards, glue and contact paper is all that's needed. For even quicker, I won't stick them to cardstock, and will only contact paper one side.

I did not get into the full aspect of the 3 Part Card, as clearly he's not old enough yet, but I have filed the other parts away so when he is ready, they are good to go. One of these days I'll come up with a better way to organize it all, but for now, this works. Right now we are simply running through the cards and labeling them for what they are. He does like to match, but I kept these as straight vocab cards.

I store his 'active' cards in Tupperware sandwich keepers. I had a set of 4 from my single days, and have repurposed them this way. It works well as they are generous in size, hold the cards well, are durable, and slightly tricky to open so it forces them to ask for "Help to Open Cards". (Although Dew1 has become quite good at using his teeth to open the little latch ...)

I really like these cards, and United Teaching was a great resource. They have other downloads, as well, some free and some at cost. But thanks to them for helping me introduce Halloween to my son.

Stereographs, View Masters and Slides, Oh My!

2009-10-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

Independence Hall, Philadelphia Pennsylvania. 1865?-1880? From the Digital Collections of The New York Public Library

Why a stereograph, you might ask?

Well, I found this blog entry on The Movable Alphabet about "Teaching Children to Look and To Study: A Lesson on How To Use a Slide Viewer".

Very inspiring. Not for my Dews right now, but in the future. It's never to early to teach your little ones how to look closely at things. But here is where I was inspired.

My first thoughts on reading this entry was a ViewMaster. Today's version of slides and a stereograph viewer. There are tons of vintage ViewMaster Reels available online as well as in thrift stores (agh. I knew I should have picked up those ones I saw a few weeks ago!) There was a time when you could get ViewMaster reels at just about every tourist attraction in the world.

My next thought was how happy I am that I still have my parent's and grandparent's slide collections and hand viewer upstairs. Some sets are complete, some are not. Some are of outdoor camping trips, some are of family events (my parent's wedding, even!) and some are just random, out of order shots that at this point, no one even knows who is in them, where they were taken, or why. But still fun, nonetheless. Now I know what to do with them!

My next thought was about the stereograph viewer. I think my parents had one. I'm sure they don't still. One more thing to put on my list of things to keep my eyes open for at flea markets, in thrift shops, on freecycle, or craigslist.

But, what if I can't find one? Is the art of the Stereograph viewer lost to my kids? Well, a quick Google search and there are plenty of articles on How To Make a Stereograph viewer (also known as a Stereoscope.) Ok, neat! A fun science project for the family.

The next problem ... the Images. Not as easy to come by, I bet. And then my Librarian mind began to turn. When I used to work for the New York Public Library, they were just beginning their Digital Collection (and did I go to training after training on it ...) I will, at some point, do a whole post on the amazing contents of the Digital Collection. You can spend days and days just browsing. And it's all Free. But to the point. They have a digital Stereograph collection that is over 42,000 images strong! (I just checked)

So here's my thinking. Don't have a stereographic viewer and plates available? Well, that's ok. We now know that we can make a stereographic viewer. And now we know that we can easily, and free of charge, download and print one of literally tens of thousands of images from a library more vast than one can imagine. The tough part is choosing one. Now, to be fair, these images are preserved exactly as the originals are, so some of them are faint, or perhaps in poor condition. But with 42,000 to choose from, that's not such a big deal. I'd say that the majority are black and white, but I did see a few colours in there, too.

Here's how to find them.

Go to the New York Public Library's Digital Collection: digitalgallery.nypl.org
Two options here. You can Search "Stereographs", or you can go to Browse, select 'S' and work your way down the list to Stereographs. Both yield the same results.
You can then narrow down your search, if you like. Once you browse through a bit and get a feel for how they are catagorized, it becomes easier. You can add a state name and / or subject to the search box. For example, I searched "stereographs philadelphia independence" to find a picture of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. I got an image from the 1860's. How much fun it would be to compare that to a photograph of today!
You can print or download the images as you like. A warning - do a print preview first to be sure it fits on your page. My first attempt was in portrait mode and i only got about half of it.

I would also suggest printing out a few before making your own stereograph viewer, just to be sure that the dimensions of these images are correct for the viewer. I do not know if they are printing out "life size", or how they compare to an real viewer card. It would be great if they fit vintage viewers. Anyone out there have one to compare it to? Leave me a comment!

So thank you to The Moveable Alphabet for inspiring me in this direction. This will be fun (and likely my newest obsession...)

Matching - Jack O Lantern Faces

2009-10-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

With Halloween coming, and Dew1 starting to figure these things out, I decided it was high time to have some Jack O Lantern Fun. Dew1 loves to match - he finds it to be a very rewarding task.

This is by no means an original idea. I googled around, and found a great Pumpkin Body and Jack O Lantern Face pieces patterns on the Family Education website - the patterns are free to download, and copyright to Pearson Education Inc.

Because we have a great flannel board mounted on the wall, I finally decided to make this out of felt (I wrestled with magnetic as we also have a great magnetic board on our wall as well.) I chose sensory over fine motor, and I thought the felt would be fun. I have had troubles getting things to stick to our flannel board - I suspect it's because it's mounted flat against the wall. All of the flannel boards I have ever used at work have been standing easel-types, and I am thinking that the angle is a big help.

Anyway, after testing velcro and other types of sticky assists, I discoverd an article on about.com that commented on using sandpaper. Well, sandpaper is a lot cheaper than velcro (I bought a package of 5 large sheets for $1 at Dollar Tree to make sandpaper letters. Haven't gotten there yet but I had the sandpaper!)

I traced the outline onto the back of the sandpaper (right side up ... I made that mistake the first time.) Then I ran it through the Xyron to stick it up, and then stuck it to the felt. It made it very easy to cut the felt out, I must say. Same for the eyes, mouths, and noses. Then I realized a problem. Our felt board is black. The face pieces are black. Hmm.

So I put a few pieces of sandpaper onto a square of blue felt to use as a landing zone area for the face pieces. Not ideal but it works for me for now. Perhaps a basket on the shelf beside?

I have also taken pictures of several face combinations for Dew1 to match. I punched a hole in the corner and put them on a binder ring. He has tried a few, but is more interested in the pieces for now.

He is also very wrapped up in the sensory experience. It is soft on one side and quiet scratchy on the other. This makes it fun to just hold and reposition on the felt board.

Update:
Emily at Learning Vicariously posted about her Magnetic Jack-O-Lantern here. It looks great - I might have to do a magnetic one after all! I love how they used it as a springboard to talk about feelings. Great Idea!

Organize - Our Art Gallery

2009-10-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

Last year, Dew1 brought home about 2 pieces of art a week from preschool. We put them on the fridge, and then when it was time to replace them, I put them in a plastic 12x12 scrapbook storage box.

Well, this year rolls around. And there are two problems immediately presenting. The first is the fact that I now have a box full of last year's art. The second is that he now brings home about 3 pieces a day - 6 pieces a week - and many of them are 3 dimensional. Way too much for the fridge. I've seen cute ideas that involve screwing binder clips into the wall, mounting plastic frames to the wall, painting fancy art frames on the wall or even nailing empty picture frames to the wall. All lovely ideas, but we rent and i don't want to do anything that I am going to have to reverse later.

Enter the amazing and wonderful 3M Command hooks. Add some ribbon and a few clothes pegs and we have the Dewey Family Art Gallery. It's not pretty nor is it perfect, but it works. The moment it was up, Dew1 and Dew2 were fascinated with it. Dew1 was telling me about Big Bird. He was naming all of the items that we painted on his fall picture the other day (leaves, corn, pumpkin - and a new one - acorn.) It holds art of all shapes and sizes, and makes our drab white walls much more interesting.

Remember my motto? Done is better than Perfect. I spent all of last year trying in my mind to make it perfect. But it never got done.

It can be improved. Prettier ribbon (I used some leftover Christmas curling ribbon.) Pretty clips (I had a bunch of clothes pins in the Tot Tools box.) 3M does make little springy clips - I could add some of those as well. But I think that the first thing to add is a second line. Or even a third. One for Dew1 and one for Dew2 ... or one for school work and one for home work ...

But today, it's done and it's another project off of my list.

Oh, and problem #1? Well I emptied the box of art from last year into a file box and brought the clear one back downstairs to use this year. I'll have to deal with both problems soon - the box upstairs and the soon to be full box downstairs. I'd always heard that pizza boxes are great for this. But before there was a pizza in it ... there is the problem ... for another day.

Coupon - The Children's Place (Dead)

2009-10-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

This coupon is no longer available! Sorry! I'll be sure to let you know when another is out.

If you love shopping at The Children's Place as much as I do, you'll know that the best way to get the most bang for your buck is to use their coupons.

Get the Children's Place Holiday Pass for 15% off your next purchase. Click Here

Family Time - Lowe's Build and Grow Clinics

2009-10-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

Be sure to gather up the family and head to Lowe's by 10 am Saturday morning (October 24th).

This week's project is the Frankenstring Magic Trick.

If you haven't been to a Lowe's workshop before, they are a lot of fun! Each child is given safety goggles and a mini Lowe's Apron to wear - and keep! The projects are packed up in kits, all ready to assemble. They say that the age is from 6-12, but we've been taking Dew1 for a few months now and while he clearly can't build them by himself, he's getting really good at hammering, and he enjoys putting on the stickers - both good Fine Motor skills for him to be developing.

It's a great project for he and DaddyDew to do together, and over time he'll get some good building skills.

When the project is complete, each child receives a certificate and a Badge - that is specific to each project - to sew on their apron. It's so cute!

So far, Dew2 has just been an observer, although he is quite interested in the hammer and steals it whenever he can. However, the next project is a NASCAR Car and Garage, so I've signed them both up - there is no way that it's fair for Dew2 to watch his brother make and play with something as neat as a car and garage, and not have one for himself! Looks like both MommyDew and DaddyDew will be building that day - and, if this is any indication, every day from there on out.

You need to register online - Here - and then print and sign a waiver to take with you. That's it! They are every other weekend.

Have fun!

By the way - Home Depot does a similar kid's workshop once a month. I'll let you know when that is coming up!

Tot-Book - Thomas the Train

2009-10-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

Our First Tot-Book!
We were inspired by Carisa at 1+1+1=1 and used the Thomas the Train Tot-Book that she so generously shared. As it was our first, we followed it a little to the letter, or so to speak. (In addition to being our first Tot-Book that we've made, it's the first I have tried to photograph ... hopefully I'll get better at that, too!)

The Cover. I downloaded some Thomas clip art, printed it out, covered it in contact paper and ran it through my Xyron to make it sticky. Dew1 helped me decorate. To make the flap cover, I found a graphic of a wooden Thomas track and used it to cover up my bad folding job (first lap book fold - I missed it a little!)

The inside, open. I covered just about everything with contact paper for my first go round. It was very time consuming but I figured that Dew1 was going to Love it Very Much so it was worth it. I also put a piece of cardstock weight paper behind the center panel to give a bit more support to the folded part.

The inside, right side. Dew1 used dot markers as well as crayons to colour the trains. I covered both covers and the pages to the Thomas and Friends book with contact paper for a little durability. I also ran the back pages of both books through the Xyron before stapling the books together to make them stick better.

The inside, left side. I made two copies of the shapes so they could be matched. I covered just the front of the shapes, pockets, and pages of the How Many book with contact paper to make them old up a bit better. The pocket (after assembly) and the last page of the How Many book also went through the Xyron.

We were supposed to go spend a Day with Thomas this past summer and I had planned to take a picture of Dew1 with Thomas and use it to make a puzzle to put on the back cover. Our trip had to be rescheduled, but when we do go, I'll be sure to do the puzzle and update.

I've found that the Xyron adhesive works so much better than a glue stick, even if it is more expensive.

Dew1 has loved this book dearly. My only minor annoyance is the fact that you need to use paperclips to keep the shapes and How Many book in. But as you follow Carisa through her Tot-Book journey, you'll see that she has solutions to all of these little problems (Hello Activity Pack!)

Language - My Pictures

2009-10-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Dew1 loves to look at "pictures" and more recently, his "books".

His pictures involve anything that has interesting images on them, mostly the cover sleeves to a DVD, inserts from toys (the Thomas the Train mini catalogues that are inside the trains are favourites), postcards, maps ... anything. I tend to laminate them so they'll last (well, after he ate the Thomas the Train Yearbook ...)

His books are mostly catalogues. He loves to pour over catalogues of things and discover all they hold. We have learned so many new words in describing what he finds in there. I ordered some seed catalogues, so we are becoming very familiar with just about every fruit and vegetable known to man, as well as many flowers.

But they always ended up everywhere.

And then I remembered this denim pocket I bought at Old Navy a million years ago, in my single days when I spent Sundays shopping in the city, and perusing the Old Navy General Store to see what neat new things they had. I love it when I find a new use for something like this ... it gets it out of a box and makes it useful again. What's really annoying is when I think of a use for something that I purged in one of our many recent moves.

But I digress.

I grabbed a 3M Command hook and hung the pocket at kid height on the wall leading into our kitchen. Now, it's easily accessible to him, he knows where his pictures or books are, and it makes clean up really easy. I add new pictures and books as I see fit, and toss the old ones as they get shredded (the 'books' are great this way - there is never a shortage of mail order catalogues on our doorstep.)

Have Fun!

Tot School

2009-10-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

We have been inspired by both Carisa at 1+1+1=1 and all of her Tot School friends. Many of our ideas are from them, or inspired by them.

As a result, we decided that if they can share and inspire, so can we!

This is the first Tot School post. Nothing Tot School-y about it, but keep your eyes open ... it'll get fun!

Fine Motor - A Bottle and Clothes Pegs

2009-10-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

It doesn't get any easier than this - and the boys love it. Dew2 more than Dew1, but it has held both of their attention for lengths of time.

I'm not sure where I first saw this idea. Possibly on a blog somewhere (if it was you, please let me know so I can give credit where due!) It might have been in a book.

But it's easy. A 2 Liter soda bottle. A knife or scissors to cut a window in the side towards the bottom. Some masking tape to make it safe. Some clothes pegs.

Ok, at this point, you can make it pretty, if you like. I have a motto in my home and in my life ...

Done is better than Perfect.

If I wait until I can make it perfect, it will never get done. And the boys don't give a hoot how pretty it is.

They love to drop the pegs in the top, reach in and pull them out, put them in the side, line them up side by side or end to end ... chew on them *hee hee*. And, of course, it's easier to put them in 'head' side down, but Dew2 likes the challenge of putting the split end in first.

Enjoy!

Here we go ...

2009-10-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

So here we go.

This is a new venture that I have decided to take on to help record and share the fun that myself and my two boys, Dew1 and Dew2 have every day.

This will likely be my longest post ever. But the beginning must be documented in order to know how we got to where we are today.

We have been given challenges in life to meet - some big and some small. As a result, some of the things we tackle are unusual, or may appear to be age-inappropriate. But this is our family and our life and we take each day as it comes.

Dew1 was a 34-week 4 pound preemie. Arriving 6 weeks early because I got sudden-onset severe Pre-Eclampsia. Our lives forever changed that fateful Monday morning at our routine doctor's appointment. Instead of the usual chipper check in with the nurse, we were met with silence, double checks of tests and blood pressure, and immediate instructions to lie on my left side. The doctor was with us immediately. Seemingly overnight, my blood pressure had skyrocketed, and as I had other symptoms, I was told that I had Pre-Eclampsia, and that the good news was that the cure for it was delivery of the baby. The bad news was that it was going to be this week. So much to struggle with, but after a few days our baby boy arrived, and immediately sent to the NICU where he stayed for 2 weeks. He was small but healthy. I was less so. It took a week and one relapse before I was well enough to go home. All in all, we were very lucky. So many other families are less so.

Dew1 has been healthy. He got Plagiocephaly very early on, and wore a StarBand cranial remolding helmet 4 months. Emerging with a beautifully rounded head and a lifetime of medical complications averted, we were on track for the arrival of his baby brother.

Dew2 arrived after a much fretted but otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy. My full term, 8 pound bear came on the scene in full force and has not stopped since. The difference between the two was remarkable. Dew1 came home from the hospital eating no more than 45 mL at a feeding. Dew2 came home from the hospital eating 2 to 3 ounces. Dew1 was a wonderful sleeper. Dew2 was a horror. Dew1 is in the 50th Percentile, Dew2 is in the 95th. The similarities? Dew2 developed Plagiocephaly as well, and spent 6 months in a StarBand.

When Dew1 turned about 18 months, we started to become concerned about his speech delay. We had given him time to work it out on his own, and nothing was happening. A hearing test showed loss. An appointment to the ENT showed massive amounts of fluid - that had possibly been there for 8 months (he had a very mild ear infection way back when.) After 6 weeks of antibiotics, and the institution of a daily dose of Zyrtec, the fluid began to disappear, and his hearing tests got better and better. This led to an evaluation by Early Intervention that revealed not only a speech delay, but developmental delays, as well as some OT issues (later diagnosed as Sensory Processing Disorder, or Sensory Integration Disorder.) The snowball had started rolling and wasn't about to stop yet. A consultation with a Developmental Pediatrician resulted in a diagnosis of mild autism. He was high risk for these things - first born, preemie, male.

The therapy began. His OT started him on a brushing technique. I didn't get it ... what's this about brushing Organizing him? but it was working. slowly, his crashing behaviours slowed down. Speech started with him, as well as Ed (a "special teacher".) Eventually, a Verbal Behaviour program was introduced, and he attended an "after school program" twice a week that focused on all sorts of things - ABA, OT, sensory, fine motor, manding, group activities. And through all this, he was attending a "typical" preschool, where he was with his age mates, and getting wonderful socialization.

We are just now a year from that beginning, and his progress is amazing. A year ago, he was learning to sign "open" and "help" - and we marveled at the walls that even the little bit of communication opened. Now, he is beginning to speak in 3 word sentences. His play is much more functional - he wants to play with a toy instead of just holding it and checking it out. We still have sensory challenges - his eating is sporadic (he 'squirrels' his food a lot) and he still crashes, but sensory therapy is fun and there are a lot of things we do to help him out. We have transitioned to the Intermediate Unit of Early Intervention, and his new team has been in place for almost 2 months now. He's back in his typical preschool. This year is harder, though, because the delay is so much more obvious than it was last year when they were all 2 years old.

And Dew2? Well, when Dew2 turned about 18 months old, we suddenly realized that we'd forgotten to teach him how to talk! With all of the teachers coming and going for Dew1, Dew2 had fallen between the cracks. We had him evaluated by Early Intervention as well, and he is receiving weekly speech therapy. Luckily, he has yet to show any signs of anything other than a speech delay. In fact, his fine motor is amazing, and his logic and reasoning is wonderful.

Dew2 had his hearing test last week. The test was a disaster - significant loss in both ears. The next day at the doctor's office we discovered that both ears were packed full of fluid. Massive double ear infection. Gee, this is familiar. So he's on antibiotics and we're to check in again in 2 weeks. Who knows how long this has been going on. But at least he's a little less cranky that he was the week before, so we can hope that this will improve his disposition (although, to be honest, he was born cranky...)

So here we are. Dew1 is just over 3 years old, and Dew 2 will be 2 in January. They are about 4 inches apart in height, and 2 pounds in weight. People are starting to ask me how old my twins are. A girlfriend referred to Dew1 as my hollow chocolate bunny and Dew2 as my solid chocolate bunny. I couldn't have described them any better myself.

Since the diagnosis and therapy has began, I have been online searching out anything and everything that will help me help my boys. I was amazed to have a world of homeschooling, Montessori, and Tot School opened up to me. As a Children's Librarian by trade, I thought I knew what I needed to know to let my boys grow and thrive, but was I wrong! I have found more resources than I will ever use, and such wonderful people willing to share what works for them. It is all of them that inspired me to start this blog. I have been blogging on my personal site for at least 8 years, but this is different, and as such I wanted to keep it separate.

Our lives are very chaotic with the therapists coming and going, but we try to do bits and pieces of things. We are also restricted by space. One day I would dream to have a 'classroom', but until then, our dining room (which, incidentally is open to a kitchen that is not eat in, so it is our main eating area) functions quite well. Our living room is also a work area. We do not have neatly organized trays and shelves, as traditional Montessori would lend. We do not do workboxes (yet!). They are still at the stage of pulling everything out and making a mess. But we love it. And wanted to share it. This blog is growing just as we are. It's not pretty today - no funky page colour or fun graphics. But right now I'm too busy with my boys to spend hours and hours making this look neat. But who knows what it will look like in a day, or a week, or a month. I think it will be fun.

I hope that anyone who might decide to read all of this will give us a shot. It's a crazy life but it's ours and we love it.