Texas Instruments I had a Little Professor but no Speak and Spell!

You might remember this way back from the mists of time (if you are 30 or under forget it!) the Little Professor. Millions and millions were sold in the past 25 years it's a very  simple but funny educational product. The basic idea behind the Little Professor is opposite to a normal calculator: The child has to type the answer of simple questions like " 3 + 5 = ? ". You can choose between the four basic maths functions and four different skill levels. If the child gives a wrong answer "EEE" occurs, otherwise another of more than 16000 different questions is asked.



This educational toy was designed  by Texas Instruments for childrens aged between 5 and 9 years. And I loved it, as my dad worked for texas Instruemnts in Bedford. I however did not have a speak and Spell. Why I don't know ? I always wanted want one and when my child was younger I bought him one of ebay . And of course  I bought him a Little Professor as well. It just goes to show you that retro can work , I think toy manufactors need to look back in order to go forward. Texas Instruments was way ahead of their time I  loved it.

Cats and Comping

Rollie as a Chef used in quite a few compeitions!

I like comping that is no secret , I love winning things especially for school. I suppose its the thrill of the chase. Yet a little known secret my cat actually comps with my help. And you know what? Rollie is rather good at it! He won a weekend away at a hotel thanks to Laterooms.com as part of their pet factor competition.

He's won pet food, recently a rugby shirt  and even some shopping vouchers for wearing a teacosey on his head. And the runner for this was a chicken so anything goes really!.

 There are many great sources of competitions out there - my friend Di Coke has her own blog all about creative competitions at http://super-lucky.blogspot.com. There are lots of quirky photo and video comps about that your pet can get involved in, they're great fun to enter and you might even win a prize. So why not get comping with your pet, you never know what they might win!.

Rollie matching in with the roof tiles.

Silent Sunday

Speech Language and Autism

My Autism teaching has taken another turned and I am having to delve into the speech and language side of this. I am finding this very very daunting and it presents a whole host of problems, but I am hoping to find my way through it all and come of it more knowledgeable , no one likes change do they I don't!. But I have to put this aside and deal with the card I have been dealt after all it's not about me it's about the Autistic children. So I have started to investigate this myself with the help of who I know. I have been send some great links which I shall be sharing with you all.

http://www.senteacher.org/

http://www.theschoolrun.com/
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/


Thanks to a lovely lady on twitter.

The first task I will be dealing with is preposition "in" " under" "behind" etc. I found an excellent game on the Internet for this and all that is required is to print it out and buy some plastic frogs. It is a wonderful cheap resource and it just show you.

Is your child having trouble his prepositions. So I found this game that may help. its from a wonderful website and it's well worth a visit http://freeprintablefun.org/2007/09/free-printable-preposition-game.html

Swingball Pro review an ideal Christmas gift!

Do you remember playing Swing ball as a child in your garden in the summer?. Remember how exciting it was , playi
ng it all summer long , the constant flow of friends in your garden wanting to play. Then the problems set in as the certain swing balls of old had a metal tube that you put in to ground, then slotted the swing ball into. Trouble was it was alright during the summ
er when one of your parents was mowing the lawn, the problem came when you couldn't play it in the winter and then the grass covered up the metal tube where you slotted the swing ball into. And come the next summer basically you were stuffed as you couldn't find the metal tube to slot the swingball in to. And try as you might swing ball was never the same as you tried in vain to drive it into the lawn with the tube which in essence supported the swingball ball. So your summer w

as lost and you had to find something less interesting to do instead.

This is where the Swingball Pro set comes in as its portable ! no more lost time playing and no more hunting for the hole in your lawn to popo the Swingball into!.

Just because it's Winter its no excuse not to get outside and play

see my post on outdoor play. So this Swingball Pro set makes an ideal Christmas present as well.

This version of the game is portable, with all the parts fitting into the base unit which can then be carried using the integral handle. It can be used virtually anywhere making it ideal for taking to the park, to the beach or for playing in the garden. Assembly is simple and the base unit just needs filling with water or sand to stabilise the unit. So perhaps your local Youth club could play this in a hall making sure that there is plenty of room when you play.

Swingball Pro is available from here: http://www.swingball.co.uk/product-range.php and costs £39.99 and why not check out their other great products.