Spider Sniffing

I made it back from my Girl Scout Outdoor Training in one piece. I’m tired and sore. I learned a lot of great things. I learned that I am not camping without a cot. The ground is just too hard for these old bones. Wasn’t it softer when I was a kid?

I learned how to tie different knots, do a couple of nature arts and crafts, how to start a fire, set up and take down a tent, and, of course, spider sniffing. I arrived at camp early Saturday morning and it was non stop all day long. We cooked a great meal on the camp stove and made dessert in the fire.

The ladies doing the training with me were all really nice. We all worked together and had a great time sharing information and learning together. Soon, we got used to seeing spiders crawling on each other and brushing them off became automatic.

Saturday evening, after we ate and cleaned up, we all met around the big camp fire. We exchanged stories, sang songs and learned about spider sniffing. I must say, I was a little apprehensive when the trainers started taking us, one at a time, away from the group for “spider sniffing”. No one wanted to volunteer. I ended up going fifth. I wasn’t worried about it by that time. The other ladies seemed to have enjoyed it.

I started walking around with my “spider sniffing teacher” and she held the flashlight up against her the side of her face (level to her eye) and was shining it all around. She asked me if I could smell it. Of course, I didn’t smell anything. It was a joke, as I thought. What you are actually doing is looking at where the light is shining and trying to spot a small glimmer or glitter on the ground. When you spot one, you walk over to it, leaving the light on the spot, and when you get to it you should be able to see a little spider.

I so look forward to doing this with my daughter and the girls in my Girl Scout troop. Today went quick. We cooked and ate breakfast. Then we cleaned up and packed up everything. Down came the tent and we loaded all of our stuff into our vehicles. We had a hike and did our closing activities. That was it. I drove home and was excited and energetic when I walked through the door.

After telling my husband all about my weekend, I ate, and started to feel the affects of my camping experience. I woke up this morning before the sun came up because the ground was so hard. Saturday night, we all went to bed really late. As I started to wind down, soreness in every part of my body started settling in. My kids wanted to go to the park. Well, I found the energy, some how, for a short trip to the park. Then it was home, and I crashed. As I am writing this, I am contemplating going straight to bed and letting hubby take care of everything. Will I be camping again in the future? You bet I will. Only, next time, it will be with a cot and I will be setting the schedule.

Learning All Over Again

written by Tracy Tp
One With, One Without



Its really quite strange, but I knew that my youngest son E, didn't have autism from the moment he was born!

He looked at me, that's it. No sixth sense or anything, he just looked at me. As the weeks and months progressed, it was obvious he didn't have autism, and it was a completely new concept for me to get my head around!

It still amazes me today at the things that my youngest does, things that most parents take for granted. I never took anything for granted with S, and things that children learn automatically, from copying/imitating/instinct, never happened, so I had to teach him. I never realised this until I had my youngest, who learned things on his own, then I realised that S didn't have that ability. (he was my first child so I didn't know any different)

S rarely looked at me as a baby/toddler, and when he was older he used to take me by the hand if he wanted something, I was a tool that he could use to obtain things, and then when he got what he needed, I was no longer necessary.

Sounds harsh I know, but that's how it was. There was no emotional attachment, unlike my youngest who looked at me, wanted cuddles, wanted to be with me and wanted to get things for himself, and would only resort to asking me to help him if he couldn't do It!

Even now my youngest wants me to sit with him, do things with him and It took a lot of getting used too! I was used to a child that wanted to be left on his own, didn't make a fuss, or the extreme was having to do strange things or drawing that used to last all day because he would do the same thing over and over again, tantrums because he didn't understand, it was extremes, one or the other, no in between.
I was also used to a child that couldn't speak until around the age of 4, that didn't ask questions, that wasn't interested in going out side to play, or interested in the world around him.

I didn't realise what I, or S to be honest, had missed out on in the early years. My youngest is always playing with toys, pretend playing, cuddling me (that was a new concept for me!) asking questions, trying to write, trying to read...the list is endless.

Having my first child with autism, then one without autism,has been difficult, its taken a long time to adjust to the differences and its been a steep learning curve because I didn't know what a child without autism did! I still ask my friends if E "should be doing this" because I don't know.

In a way its like having a first child and knowing nothing, and learning to be a parent all over again.

Mayer-Johnson's Boardmaker Plus! v.6 Giveaway

Last year, I wrote up a review of Mayer-Johnson’s Boardmaker Plus! v.6. You can read that here. Boardmaker is a software program that you can use to create schedules, communication boards, picture labels, augmentative device picture board templates and much more. I first heard about this program from the therapists and teachers that were working with my son. This was more than five years ago. I started off with one of the older versions and was able to get the v.6 last year.

I am so happy to be able to give one of my readers the chance to win a Boardmaker Plus! V.6. It retails for $399 and you can get one for free if you are the winner of this giveaway. With a picture library of over 4,500 pec symbols, 600 sample boards and 94 interactive templates, you can get started using this immediately. Plus, if you have a touch screen on your computer, this version comes with the capability of assigning sounds to your pictures.


Mayer-Johnson has a variety of products that you can purchase to help your child with communication. I recommend going over to their site and browsing their pages. They have books, games, classroom tools as well as the high tech and low tech communication devices. You will find just about everything you need to meet your child’s communication needs. Good luck with this giveaway. To keep up with new and exciting offerings from Mayer-Johnson, you can follow on Twitter, @mayerjohnson or Facebook
www.dynavoxtech.com www.mayer-johnson.com



This Giveaway will run from November 5, 2009 to November 20, 2009. The winner will be announced on November 21, 2009. This giveaway is for USA only. Below are rules for entering this giveaway. Two winners will be chosen. One book per winner. Open to USA and Canada. Good luck.

MAIN RULE – Leave a comment telling me who you would give this to(or if you are going to keep it for yourself. (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)

You can get extra entries by doing any or all of the below:

1 Extra Entry - Stumble this post and leave your Stumble name (I will be checking) in a separate comment
1 Extra Entry - Follow @mayerjohnson on Twitter and leave your twitter id in a separate comment
* 1 Extra Entry - Twitter this giveaway and leave your twitter name in a separate comment
1 Extra Entry - Follow my blog let me know in a separate comment
1 Extra Entry - Subscribe to my RSS feed via email and let me know in a separate comment
1 Extra Entry - Write a post on your blog linking to my blog, and let me know in a separate comment


Disclosure: This is not a paid review and I am not getting paid to do this giveaway. The Mayer-Johnson products that I own were paid for by me or my son’s insurance. Mayer-Johnson is providing the prize of one Boardmaker Plus! V.6 for the winner of this giveaway and they will ship it directly to the winner.

Explore Winter Book Review

It’s the perfect time of year for this book review. It is titled Explore Winter, written by Maxine Anderson and illustrated by Alexis Frederick - Frost. The book is geared for children ages 6 - 9 or grades 1 - 4. I like getting books that combine learning by reading with learning by doing. This is one of those books.

If you are a homeschooler, this would be a good book to use with your young child. There are activities, projects and experiments for you to use using items from around your home. I like that more and more, authors are taking to doing this. When I have to go out and buy a lot of things to do activities in a book, it tends to put me off buying the book.

My favorite activity in this book is freezing distilled water. It is really cool. Explaining why water freezes or why it is cold in the winter and hot in the summer can be difficult for me. I was never a science person. This book helps me explain things in terms that my son will understand. It also gives us fun things to do to illustrate the concepts of winter.

Explore Winter is available in stores and costs $12.95. This book is one ia a series of children’s educational books. Others available are Great Civil War Projects You Can Build Yourself, Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself, and Explore Spring!