abcteach, a TOS Crew Review

The fact that I didn't know about abcteach at all and didn't expect to like it when I first logged on set me up for a huge surprise. I had no idea how much I needed a resource like this one until I began using it in order to review it. I even subscribed to the member section after our review period was over.

abcteach explains on it's website that it's aim is "to be a user-friendly educational site that provides quality printable materials for immediate use by teachers, education majors, and parents." Topics include math, reading, science, social studies, Montissori materials, shapes, art & music, foreign language, test taking, theme units, seasonal activities and and and.

Created by a retired schoolteacher, it's target student audience is pre-school through 8th grade. That's right up my alley! :)

There is a FREE section that offers users more than 5,000 documents, ranging from single page worksheets to "full ten-page units".

The MEMBERSHIP section provides subscribers access to more than 35,000 printables that include the handiest document generators I've ever seen, all in ONE place. "abctools are designed to help teachers create the documents they need for their classrooms when they can't find exactly what they are looking for elsewhere. We currently have tools for creating handwriting worksheets (ZB-Style Font, D’Nealian, Handwriting Without Tears, and Queensland), crossword puzzles, shapebooks, word walls, word unscrambles, word searches, math_worksheets, and sudoku. You can try all of our tools for free!" I get a kick out of creating my own word searches.

My (incorrect) first glance impression was that abcteach is a web site of busy work. MY FIRST IMPRESSION WAS WRONG.

I use abcteach a lot more than I thought I would. Because my homeschooler's academic skills are scattered from pre-school to 1st or 2nd grade, I can pull from different grade levels. I am a collector of workbooks, and they take up room on bookshelves and require time to browse through as I search for the "just right" page or lesson. abcteach is set up in a way that makes browsing on-line easy and quick, because I can search by grade level and subject matter. (Yes, I've wasted some time here just looking at it all, too--it's so much more comprehensive than my workbook collection! I wonder how long I will need in order to browse everything on the member section? I haven't seen it all, yet.)

Several times, I stumbled across something in abcteach that compliments a curriculum or resource we are already using. (Yeah, baby, print that and put it in my stack!)

abcteach sends members a weekly newsletter, which spotlights new items, which are sometimes seasonal in nature. I was able to print some October activities right away, even before I had the idea to do some October and autumn themed activities. I probably get a little bit too excited when I see the newsletter in my in-box. I've learned that abcteach always spotlights something I can use right now, for where we are.

There are fine motor activities for little hands that include cutting, coloring, and pin-pushing on abcteach.

abcteach also gives me the ability to print some activities that I know my daughter can complete independently along with some that she and I will complete together. Several times, I've studied some of the worksheets without printing them in order to get ideas on how to teach a new concept to my daughter.

If you have a child who needs visual supports at home, abcteach offers a section of graphic organizers and another section that is a nice variety of daily schedule cards. Some of them are more school oriented, but there are many that can be used at home, too.

We live 600+ miles from relatives, and I think that I'll print some activities for our next drive back "home". I need to start a folder of activities to take along when I know we're going to be in a waiting room.

Here's the pricing:

$40 per user per year / $70 two years — individuals/groups 2-9
$35 per user per year — groups of 10-2
$25 per user per year — groups of 30 or more. **SUPER SITE LICENSE pricing available for groups of 100 or more. Contact support@abcteach.com for details.

Obviously, once you purchase a membership, there are other costs involved. You'll need a printer, toner, paper, and maybe card stock.

There are enough documents on the free section of the web site for you to take a good look and decide if you'd like access to the membership section. Please take a few minutes to browse and see for yourself, and watch this intro video to learn more.

abcteach provided me free access to the subscription area of the web site for several weeks so that I could use the web site and review the product here for you.

My experience with abcteach has been limited to preschool and early elementary levels. Some of my crewmates are homeschooling older children. To read what my Crewmates thought of this product, go HERE.

Maverick Books - a TOS Homeschool Crew Review

I am always thrilled when I find products that give us opportunities to experience imaginative play. Children on the autism spectrum pretty much always need experience in imaginitive play. Our family, like many families who include a child on the autism spectrum, need fun resources that we can do together. Maverick Books offers products the whole family can enjoy together.

Maverick Books is one of those companies that is new to me. Maverick Books offers books, music, storytelling CDs, games, posters, and t-shirts based upon the characters created by author John Ericson. Ericson created the character, Hank, the cowdog, "the famed head of ranch security" and he's written a series of books about Hank's mystery adventures, in addition to producing audio CDs that sound like old-time radio shows with sound effects and sometimes comical voices for each of the characters. Maverick Books has created some games to fit the Hank theme as well.

Maverick Books sent us book #25, The Case of the One Eyed Killer Stud Horse ($4.24/paperback); a board game called Hank's Tornado Game ($12.99); and the audio CD, Tales and Tunes, ($3.00) .

My 12 year old and 10 year old typically developing children think Hank is a bit too young for them based on the cover (arg) and my 10 year old on the autism spectrum is not quite ready for the stories, yet. I am a 40-something mom who thinks The Case of the One Eyed Killer Stud Horse is hilarious!

I predict that Hank's stories will be a wonderful resource for individuals with autism because of the level of perspective taking that is involved in understanding the tales. Hank's stories are told through his eyes, and Hank, remember, is a dog. He misunderstands the words and actions of other characters in the stories, and they misunderstand his words and actions, sometimes. Hank often reminds me of Deputy Barney Fife! The stories are quite entertaining, and I laughed out loud several times while reading the book and when listening to the Tales and Tunes CD while running errands by myself. Ericson has a fun sense of humor and he is incredibly talented at telling tales using a different voice for each character.

I tried to use the Tales and Tunes CD on one of our long car trips, but my younger princess would not tolerate it. She does not process auditory information fast enough to grasp even excerpts of stories on CD, and a CD like this one frustrates her. The CD is more tales than tunes.

I would rather try a read aloud when she is ready for some more involved perspective taking from a dog's point of view, and Maverick Books offers a huge series for us when we are ready. The stories are just plain fun -- and the opportunities for predicting what might happen next, and for self-to-text and text-to-self comparisons as part of literacy development and development of self are big. These stories are meant to be ENJOYED and not picked apart for perspective taking and literacy comparisons, and (note to self) I will need to self-monitor when we use them so that I don't ruin the enjoyment factor while trying to get some prediction and some perspective taking value from them.

Our favorite item is the game. (!!!!!!) We have all thumbs up from sibs and a BFF for Hank's Tornado Game.

The girls (my daughter and her bff) wrote some notes for me to include in my review, explaining that the game is easy to assemble and put away. All of the pieces fit inside the folding frame of the game. The girls said that getting tornadoes is fun and that the rules are easy to remember and follow, and that this is a good game for a combination of older kids and younger ones to play together, because it's exciting for all of them while not being too challenging for the younger ones. The girls told me the dog characters are cute! ;) They told me that they don't spin the spinner too hard because it takes too long for it to stop, and that they think the sound of the spinner spinning is a little annoying. I didn't think the sound is annoying....

A heads up: Hank uses some words that we avoided when our children were smaller. When my children were little, they thought that the "s" word was "stupid" and the "d" word was "dumb". We tried very hard to avoid using those words (and a few others), and as the children have grown older and understand appropriateness more, we have relaxed a little. The stories are fun, and if you have a problem with "dadgum" and "stupid", you may choose to use the books for your read-alouds so that you can choose to skip the words, or explain them to your listeners.

Overall, Hank the Cowdog is a lot of fun!

For reviews of these products by my Crewmates, click HERE.

Nikalas Catlow's "Do you doodle?" -- at Costco

I found "Do you doodle?" from Nikalas Catlow at Costco over the weekend, for about eight bucks. There are similarities to Taro Gomi's "Doodles" and "Squiggles", where children of ANY age do more than just color.

I love the addition of thinking and perspective taking -- they're especially useful with children on the autism spectrum.

Nikalas Catlow has a web site with samples that allow you to peek inside the book.

What to do on long car rides?

Vacation season is fast approaching. (For some of you, it's already here!) We happen to be a day's drive away from our families, and finding activities for the car can be a challenge. I thought I'd blog about some of the stuff we do and some ideas I have.

I Spy and I See Something You Don't See are not the greatest games on the interstate. Parents, you have to remember to use these perspective taking games that provide experience in attention shifting and attention sharing when you are off the interstate looking for a gas station or restaurant.

Animal Sounds: I stumbled on this one by accident. I traveled with a friend of mine to a national ASA conference a few years back. We had a day-long drive. Sue made me laugh, because every time we passed any animals in a field along the interstate, she began making their sound. She "mooed" and "baaaed" and whinneyed all the way to the conference. Our next family trip to see the grandparents (same route as to the ASA conference), I thought of Sue every time I saw animals grazing in a field, and I imitated her, making the sounds of the animals I saw. I thought my kids would moan and cringe, but they all looked around to see what I was looking at. We were in our early RDI(r) days then, and I was delighted to see that my daughter on the autism spectrum joined too. She had to understand what was in my mind, that I had seen animals and was making their sound, and then she had to follow my gaze to see where the animals were. We even saw buffalo on that trip, and when I mooed and she squealed "BUFFALO!" I fought back tears. (Now, I need to figure out what sound a DEER makes.)

Rubberneckers is a great game. It's hilarious. It's RDI-able.

Taro Gomi's coloring books. TOTALLY worth the price. Info here. Very RDI-able.

Year-round, I "cruise" through the red-tag clearance sections at craft/hobby stores, department stores, even grocery stores, for markers, crayons, colored pencils, invisible ink notebooks, gel pens, velvet art kits, word searches, crossword puzzle books, sudoku, etc. I store them in a box, and when we are packing for a trip, I pull them out. Sometimes, I pack them up in large baggies, one for each child, and hide them until we are on the road. They get a kick out of going through all the suprises. Sometimes, I let my children go through my box and choose what they would like to take.

An aside: At the homeschool convention in April, I bought some "good" colored pencils (not the cheapie back-to-school ones from the department store) for my children (gotta love Miller Pad and Paper!), and they really like them so much better than the "cheapie" ones.

One unusual item that I look for is a notebook of black lined paper, made for matching with gel pens.

A clipboard is a "must have" for drawing in the car.

Magnadoodle or Etch-a-Sketch

BrainQuest travel games

Bubbles, sidewalk chalk and a soft football are ideas you can pack for a break at a rest stop.

Alphabet game: Search for letters of the alphabet on road signs, starting w/ "A". You can play the same game w/ numbers.

The license plate game -- keeping track of all the states is fun! Sometimes we see a vehicle from Alaska or from Canada.

Yellow Car -- If you see a yellow vehicle, you call it out, loudly: "YELLOW CAR!" and that person gets a point. We play a little differently on every trip. Our game is quite flexible. An unusual yellow car gets more points, and we all talk about what might get more points and why.

On a short trip from my parents' house to a nearby lake area, my mother began playing, "I'm thinking of a number between one and nine!" I took that idea and ran with it with variations: "I'm thinking of a day of the week between Wednesday and Monday." Or, "I'm thinking of a letter between A and F." Or, "I'm thinking of a month of the year between June and September." For a younger child (even an older child who is a developmentally younger child), you can say, "I'm thinking of a day of the week between Wednesday and Friday." The kids like to take turns thinking of these questions as well as answering them. And I like to throw them a curve with questions that go backwards, like, "I'm thinking of a number between92 and 85."

Carol Barnier's "The Big WHAT NOW Book of Learning Styles" describes some math games that would fit into this category of "I'm thinking of" games: "I'm thinking of two numbers that have a sum of 8 and a product of 15?"

We have introduced our kids to "our" music, from the 80's, on long car rides. Garage sales are great places to find old music for next to nothing.

We have introduced our kids to the silly songs of Ray Stevens on long car rides. "Gitarzan" and "The Streak" still make me laugh.

Cracker Barrel gift shops are a treasure on the road. Yes, we let the children choose a ring pop or whistle pop or push pop (corn syrup and artificial colors, arg). A hard candy like one of those lasts a LONG time, keeps the kids quiet for a little while, gives some oral-motor input, too. The gift shops sell little fidgets and travel games, coloring books, audio books as well, and I try to budget for a small purchase there.

Audio books: An option for families whose children will tolerate them. One of mine, the one w/ auditory processing challenges, does not like them. She did listen to a Jim Weiss story cd with the family a few weeks ago, so maybe we will try them again. I own a few. I did try bringing the actual BOOK along w/ the audio-cd, and my daughter did not like that compensation. We will try that again, though.

My mother (bless her heart) sometimes gives the kids a "game" when we leave my Mom and Dad's to head home on our day long drive. She writes a list of the bigger cities we will pass through and she puts a dollar or cents amount beside the city names. And she gives me the cash to distribute at each city. The kids have a check-list of cities to watch for and anticipate getting money along the way. They get to add up the amounts to see how much they'll have when we arrive home. And they get to talk about all the ways they might spend that money!

Giant Lifesavers candies can be fun for a contest. See who can suck on one the longest and make it the smallest, whole ring of candy on the tongue. Crunching them is SO tempting!

Teach a child to blow a bubble w/ bubble gum.

Teach a child to tie a bow (I'm thinking of shoe-tying here). Knot tying lessons might be fun.

Teach a child to tie a man's tie. We did this on a church bus on the way to church camp one year when I was a teenager.

String games: Jacob's Ladder. Cat's Cradle. Teacup and saucer. Remember those?

Our drive can be as short as 9.5 hours or much longer, depending upon how often we stop and for how long, and depending on traffic. We've had trips that took approximately12 hours because of construction and accidents. So, YES, we bring along our share of electronics. Our van came with a VHS player, and I hook a DVD player to it and the kids watch movies. Two of my children have ipods. We have a collection of handheld video games that I purchased from clearance racks.
Google "games for long car rides" for more ideas. Here's the first hit I got when I did: http://www.momsminivan.com/bigkids.html (She has way more ideas than I do!)

If you have any fun ideas for long car rides, please pass them along!

Happy travels!