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

Language - Halloween 3 Part Cards

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!

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.

1. Go to the New York Public Library's Digital Collection:  digitalgallery.nypl.org 
2.  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.
3. 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!
4. 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...)