Wednesday, June 30, 2010

My new finds....

Took a trip to the Education Shack today, they were open all week with several new shipments.
I know this doesn't do it for everyone, but I was so excited! This place is a wonderland of boxes of all kinds of therapy and educational equipment and materials. Really they don't even know what they have or what it's for. I had two HUGE deals I found today...

We have been using these recorders in therapy with Faith for a while. They are little handheld recordable switches that fit perfectly in a child's hand. Our therapist suggested investing in one or two to use at home. At around $13 a piece, not bad for a primitive AAC device but I hadn't forked over the money for one. So while scrounging around in random boxes, today, I found one lying right in the bottom of the box! I was on cloud nine, so I asked a few employees if they had seen anymore and they said they had seen a few boxes of them but couldn't remember where. So we dug around and came up with 7! SCORE! I asked how much and the cashier says "I'll give them to you for $1 each." SOLD! Faith has been hauling them around all afternoon, I programmed one to say "Hi" and whenever someone would come thru the door at therapy she would press that button! She was so proud of herself.

My other cool find was this adapted walking sheep! We use adapted electronic toys with switches a lot with Faith and over the last few weeks her therapist loaned us a bubble machine with a small switch and a delayed response device. Got this little sheep that was already rigged to be plugged into a switch for $5! I had just brought home two books about sheep so we worked them together this evening while we read.
Found a few other steals...a bunch of Crayola washable markers in different color combinations for a $1 a pack, a 25# box of white sand for her sensory table- $5, a little plain apron to decorate while we work on letter A stuff-$1 and a decorate yourself pencil box-$1. I also saw a platform swing for $40, which I am told is a pretty sweet deal (soooo tempted) and they said they had a bunch of those canopy/bag swings at their other store for practically nothing!

I get a BIG rush finding good deals, so I walked around all day with a big smile on my face. I am so tempted to go back later this week when their new truck comes in. I think Carl would strangle me, though!

7 comments:

Mo said...

Some things you just can't afford to not buy!!

Junior said...

wow, those are some wonderful deals, wish we had a store like that near us. Have fun.

Jen said...

Well done, great finds. I love finding a good deal too, gives me such a thrill :)

I know you are really busy these days with homeschool but just wanted to say that I miss your updates.

Jen

The Henrys said...

Great finds Candace! I think I need to come down there so I can go to that store too! Sooo jealous! As far as I know, there is nothing like that here in Michigan.

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Do you read Lisa at Elijahland? She has recorders like those on the wall next to a couple of doors. Elijah can hit them to ask to go outside.

Barbara

Jennifer Ortiz said...

OH my goodness, I need to come to your place. That's amazing deals!!!!

Candace said...

Dr. Boucher, Yes I read Lisa's blog and I think I remember her post about that a while back. Little Elijah is so cute. Today I programmed sentences about ANTS for our ants studies. She has been pushing that button ALLLLLLLL day!