Thanks for this article.

I take the ideas from coloring books, paper craft books, felt patterns, activity books, and so on. If you buy the fabric squares that you can print on and then sew that to felt you have your felt boards pieces. you can purchase these premade but are somewhat expensive. We print 3 sheets full 8.5 * 11 for 10.00 our cost in color or you we print them in black and white and then we use markers or fabric markers.
I love creating our own stories, games, and so on that goes with each lesson. I have even used lapbook projects to make items from. Anything out of paper or fabric you can make out of felt ot print it. 
We have a ministry that we use them in and we send our completed projects to other ministries all the time just for cost and shipping. Just a tip you can go to www.digiscrapkits.com and order downloadable clipart that you can use with the printable fabric. Just think you could even print and make photographs for you felt board creations.
However, finding the time to create, print, sew on, and then cut out could be time consuming.
We offer our ministry services to those churchs, groups, and homeschools that don't have these resources avialable like an inkjet printer, computer, and internet. If you wish to water proof your fabric then a brushing decopauge works great.
We are in the process of making bug studies, garden in our heart studies, and so on for the church that goes along with www.daniellesplace.com content.

Para educator is what we call teacher aides here. I was trained from 2 universities and private schools and have worked with several public schools and homeschools. I then went on to become a Certified Homeschooling Professional through a private association. I am working on getting my Christian Education training leading into a Doctorate of Christian Ministry.

My special field was gifted and talented program, and modification of content. I then went on to train in technology intergrating it into the special needs field, then into health and nutrition, art therapy, christian education, and then to homeschooling.

Here we can take the para-educators exam and be considered a teachers aide 3. I never got to finish getting any type of state credentials but my experience and training seems to have paid off. I got to work with several differant types of teachers, educators, doctors, and so on every day that I worked. i loved learning and creating and modifying content, and then creating software for those who needed a little more. Creating software for a parepalegic was the greatest gift ever.

Once again it is that time again and this year I am going with felt toys, and handmade tote bags for presents. i love making things out of felt. This year it is felt educational books, and felt toys. We have the Bible People Dress Me Up Doll Book with his/hers clothing, we have Kids of Courage Multi-cultural Dress Me Up Book, and then last we have Career People Dress Me Up Doll book. We have asked our teen co-op members to create and design their own line of clothing for the dolls. It is turning out great! We also are making shape game toys for the smaller kids, and construction toys for the boys. By LO's love playing with the dress me up doll book even though they are boys.

what is everyone else working on this year?

Do you use felt boards or felt books in your teaching?

I love using and maning felt boards and books. we love creating and making new felt items to teach with. Do you?

How many of you use puppets in teaching?   

I love using puppets to teach for the little ones. You can even allow the older children to perform for the younger and so on.

Would you consider using puppets if you could make them yourself?

This around here is called credit recovery. It seems to be working so that the drop out numbers are decreasing.

Is anyone homeschooling in India? We are planning a mission to India soon and was wondering about sending school curriculum for the children. Can anyonw help me to know what to send, or what not to send?

I too worked in the school systems at first and never intended on homeschooling but once I saw how much that it helped the gifted and talented programs and how the test scores were being reported of homeschooled children I decided to help others and then when I had my own children it was just me. Since you are teacher then starting your own homeschool group or co-op is a great option for you, or even setting up your own homeschool umbrelled. I can say that at first it will be an adjustment but just imagine the education that you have the more resources that you have at your finger tips and the more attention that you can give your child not only as a teacher but as a parent as well. You can also consider that it will be a change for your little one as well if currently taught by a daycare or babysitter. There are so many differant methods of homeschooling, this forum contains tons of information to have as a great resource.If you need any help and have questions about how to start homeschooling, the transition, etc, then I would be glad to assist you. We have currently 13 children that we homeschool and I have 3 LO myself that we homeschool from ages 1 to 18.

Copy and paste the link into your browser. May need to allow the site in your security for allowed sites? just an option or maybe the pop up blocker?

Good information from all of you, something to think about, however, I do think that with special needs children sometimes rewards are the only way to get them motivated but to each their own way.
I too place stickers on my kids shirts for good behavior.
We buy our stickers at the Dollar General stores for 1.00 that has tons of stickers, and then we sometimes purchase from Oriental Trading Company. And ofcourse you can make your own with sticker paper for your printer from Walmart or whereever.
In some cases I have seen rewards get out of hand, my rewards are for example finish this problem and we can go swing, finish this worksheet so we can paint, etc. It isn't so much rewarding with stickers or foods (which can be not so good at times I agree, and we don't do foods, but some do) I prefer to give my children a choice when work is completed like listening to their fav song or reading their fav book or watching their fav tv show, etc. 
I created by own so called reward chart that is used everyday, for example for the smaller ones a picture of todays assignments then 2 choices for rewards, spending time with a buddy, or say watching a 30 minute DVD, before the child begins their assigned work they choose a reward by placing a sticker on the space provided or when we use our dry erase schedules the child uses a bingo dopper to choose their choice.
We use sticker chart as for our reading racers, to see how many books have been read by each child once they pass a small quiz about each book it is called AR. the child that reached the goal each month gets to pick a party theme for the entire class or co-op once a month. it is a fun way to get social and to experience new cultures and foods.

Do you use sticker charts? Sticker charts for us seem to work well, including reward sticker charts, reading record, attendance, and so on. How many of you actually use sticker charts to get your kids motivated and eager to learn and or recieve a reward for a goal accomplished. We even use a sticker chart for our schedule for the week that the children them selves actually places the sticker on what has been completed. Here are some resources;
http://www.freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com/
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/sticker-charts.html

http://www.completecurriculum.com/language-arts even though it is 50.00 a year for 10 books that you can print as well but you can create your own books from these books and publish them yourself, 25 of them all for this price. They have K-12th grade. Check out the free pdf's to download and check them out. I am glad I found this website it is going to help us out so much with the co-op. I don't have to purchase copies of textbooks any longer, I can just view them online and or print and make my own textbooks. Neat! If anyone is interested in this let me know how that you like it. I plan on purchasing as soon as the resources come in. and if anyone purchases before I do let me know by referring me because they have the 10.00 referrel program that the purchaser gets and the fact that everyone else can get 30% off by being referred. So as soon as I purchase others can get 30% off from my understanding. so if you are interested let me know so I can refer you, and if someone else purchases before I do please refer me.

I just wanted to let those who are interested in hands on activities for 2-6 year olds then Danielles place is a great source of get ideas. We just paid for one year and we love it, there are so much to do and make, however, it does take some time to prepare but not much. They have a bug lapbook set that can be for 3rd graders as well, so the crafts, lessons, and resources can be for toddlers to 3rd grade. We are using this with other curriculums like hubbardscupboard and my LO's love it. Has anyone else purchased danielles place or the resource room? Did you like it as well?

Of course I usually modify some or add some ideas that I have to the mix as well but it is great for not having a lot of time to gather materials and planning each day with all of our kids. Time well spent is the key for us, plus on a budget.

If anyone has highschoolers in public school then the word is around here that if the student fails an elective then they have to seek the elective out of school from other sources, so on that note K.I.A. Homeschool has started a new program for just electives, online and or paper or both content avaliable for highschoolers. Has this idea started in your state? Has anyone heard of this? We hope to service our community as well as online students. Here in our state it is easy to get the electives that one may need via online or performance credits for electives. I just thought I would share about this just in case later on it may effect the homeschoolers in highschool.

Please remember to check the HSLDA for news regarding homeschooling in your state or government.