Last week in our email, we talked about laminators. We shared some of our favorite laminators and some tips on how to make your laminator work harder so you can work smarter. 

 

Today, we are covering adhesives! Lamination and adhesives are basically the peanut butter and jelly of the disability ministry supply closet. Lamination is great on its own, but it really shines when paired with a great adhesive. 

One of the most useful adhesives for disability ministry is Velcro.  Did you realize that Velcro is one of those words like Kleenex…it's a brand name that we have used to simply describe a product.  You may find off-brand Velcro options called hook-and-loop fasteners.  Fun fact of the day. :) 

 

I'm a big proponent of making our lives easier when it comes to resource prep, so I am a Velcro dot kind of girl instead of a Velcro strip kind of girl.  Velcro dots come in the hook and the loop, so they can be attached together.  I have found that I typically use the hook (the hard side) Velcro more than the loop (the soft side).  Which brings me to my first Velcro tip…always follow the same rule when attaching Velcro pieces.  

 

I always put the soft side of the Velcro on the surface the movable pieces will be put onto. 

I always put the hard side of the Velcro on the card or movable piece.

 

Put a sticky note at your prep area with the phrase “Soft on Surface, Hard on Card” to serve as a reminder as you or your team prep materials. :)

 

This way, you can always use your cards on different surfaces! 

For example, if you are using the movable pieces in our adapted books, you can have the cards on a flannel board easel and then have students move them over and stick to the adapted book.  Keeping the hard part of the Velcro on the cards gives you more flexibility.  They can stick to carpet squares, Veltex fabric, felt/flannel boards, and more. (Click the photo below for the link to this easel)

Velcro strips are a more cost-effective way to purchase Velcro if you are on a tighter budget!  You can cut off the amount of Velcro you need, and the strips do give you a lot of flexibility to create resources with longer strips of Velcro vs. just a single dot.   I like adding strips of Velcro to the back of pencil pouches to have a visual schedule on the go.  If you use Velcro strips often, you NEED to get yourself a high-quality pair of non-stick scissors that are just used for cutting Velcro.  Here's a pair that I recommend.  If your scissors do end up getting “gunky” from the Velcro glue, use Goo Gone to clean them off.

 

 

I recommend buying Velcro in bulk - it is MUCH more cost-effective than running to Walmart and buying a small pack.  Amazon has good off-brand hook-and-loop dots for under $15 for a pack of 1,000. 

 

You can also purchase in bulk at Hoopandloop.com or Uline.com

Another great option for adhesives in disability ministry is sticky tak.  You just have to be careful that your students don't see this as gum and try to chew it. :) 

Sticky tak is great to put on Repeated storylines to be able to move them from one page to the other so that the book doesn't get as bulky by adding Velcro and storyline pieces to each page.

This is my least used adhesive, but it is still a really cool resource that you should know about.  Add this glue in a thin layer on the moveable card or piece that you want to attach to multiple surfaces.  This glue dries flexible, and you can take the pieces off and stick them to something else.  

This is really fun for errorless learning activities like this. FYI.… you can download this free resource from that linked training to make your own errorless learning activity  (this was from a free challenge I did several years back).

Being a caregiver is anything but easy, and can be extremely isolating. The Heart of the Caregiver seeks to encourage caregivers and point them to hope in Christ.

 

We often get questions about what books or devos we would recommend for a parent support group or Bible study, so we thought we would share this book. We have not reviewed it ourselves, but it looks like a great resource!

 

If your church has access to Right Now Media, there is also a free video series available to go along with this book.  Just search for “The Heart of the Caregiver” in Right Now Media.

 

Right now, the Kindle version of The Heart of the Caregiver is available for as part of Kindle Unlimited.  It was free on Kindle earlier this week, so keep an eye out if you don't have Kindle Unlimited.

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