Hey there Brother and Sister Woodworkers!

First of all, I spoke directly with John Morris who runs “The Patriot Woodworker†to obtain his permission for this.

I have been making these for awhile and they are a fun project. I got the plans from another woodworker some time back and modified them for my purposes making them a bit taller and changing a few design characteristics. The overall dimensions are 27" high from the floor to the top of the chair back and 19" wide at its widest point. The seat height is 10" from the floor and the seat width between the side pieces is 14". These chairs will work for toddlers on up and are very sturdy. They are made with 6 pieces that lock together like a puzzle and I can stand on it with no problems.

I have had a number of folks ask about templates and I decided that now was the time to make some up for a very important purpose and cause (see below).

So for those who might be interested in a set of the templates, I am selling them for $40 a set which includes shipping. These templates are made from ¼†Hardboard so they are ready to use on your ½†Baltic Birch Plywood using double stick tape and run through on your router table using a ½†flush trim/pattern making bit. If you have never worked with templates before, I can provide detailed directions on how to do it.

So If you are interested you can send me a “Personal Message†here on “The Patriot Woodworker†forum or send me a personal email at:

allenworsham@earthlink.net

I use “Pay Pal†and my account name is my email address allenworsham@earthlink.net. I will also take personal checks from “The Patriot Woodworker†members.

 

 

So now for the “Very important purpose and causeâ€

My wife Tami has been a “Special Educator†for about 28 years now. For the past 12 years or so she has worked specifically with “Moderate/Severe Autism†dealing with children from Pre-School through 1^st Grade. As a “Special Educator†you don’t do it for the money but for the love and passion of these special kids. Over the years we have paid out of our pockets for specialty supplies and items for use in her classroom which are not covered by the School District. With all the budget cuts here in our California School System and making all teachers take mandatory “furlough days†(which means days off without pay) her salary has dropped about 15-20%. On top of that the “School District†has cut back on allowed funding for classroom supplies which affects Special Education the hardest as their supplies are not your typical “paper, pencils, crayons and glueâ€. So that means that things are tighter than ever for those who teach Special Education.

One of the biggest issues dealing with those with moderate/severe autism is that many of them, especially younger children, is that they are “non-verbalâ€. This means that they are not able to partially or fully communicate using words. One of the primary ways that teachers work with autistic children is through a program called “PECS†(Picture Exchange Communication System) which uses pictures and images for the children to use as opposed to words. Another way to work with autistic children is through computer programs as they are visually based. So with the recent advent of the “Tablet Computer†(iPad), both “PECS†and computers are joined together and it is making a lot of advancements for working with children with autism. Many school districts have begun using tablet computers in the classroom with excellent results. My wife’s school district was supposed to get these authorized for classroom use for the 2011/2012 school year, but due to budget issues, they have been put on hold indefinitely. But what wasn’t put on hold was that all the administrators and principals currently have or are in the process of getting iPads but none into the classrooms. But I digress as that is a very sore issue with me.

So to make a long story short, my wife’s kids would greatly benefit from having an iPad for the classroom and the school district will not fully or partially pay for one and we cannot afford one out of our pockets. So I am working on getting enough money together to purchase one for my wife’s classroom and what I am doing is using all the proceeds from the sales of the “Kid’s Rocking Chairs†and the templates to go towards the purchase of an iPad and software for my wife’s classroom.

So if you decide to purchase a set of templates, just know that the money is going to a very good cause and not used for foolish things. Like more tools for my cluttered shop.

 

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA



allenworsham@earthlink.net



http://www.awcreationsandwoodcrafts.com



'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee

Awesome Allen, I wish you the best in this!

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

I'll be contacting you for a set. That is a great idea and a very worthy cause.

 

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John Moody
John Moody Woodworks
http://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com

I'll be getting a hold of you in a few weeks to order a set.

My wife saw your pics of the chairs and asked why I hadn't talked to you yet. Looks like I'll be making several for grand kids and great grand son. The neat thing about this is it can be taken apart and shipped. Some of the things I've made we either had to drive down for a visit, 1,200 miles each way, or box them up to mail costing $$$$.

My niece teaches (?) autistic kids in the Rowland Heights,Calif. school district and she has the same funding problems that your wife does, which is too bad. 

 

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking
Montana

Harry,

 

I sent you a PM/Friend Request.

Our school system in California has taken a lot of hard hits the past few years financially. Most is due to things at the state level, but there has been a lot of poor management on the district level as well. One of the guys in our home bible study group is an administrator in a different school district than my wife works in and has been there for over 30 years as a teacher and principal before becoming an administrator. He is really good  at hat he does and is totally non-political but has multiple degrees and a PHD in Business. He goes back and forth to Sacramento (state capital) as he is one of the top guys in the state and gives many presentations and operates as an adviser in various areas statistics and testing. Some of the things he shares with our group (we have 4 people in our group who are/were teachers and work for school districts and their spouses) about how screwed up things are at the state level due to people being in there due to politics as opposed to being qualified. Also how many of the problems are caused by political positions as opposed to what is sound business practice. It is very sad especially for special education as it is the most costly per student than for regular education. On the district level the biggest problem is that most of the principals and special education directors have little or no experience or understanding about special education and the differences between the needs of typical developing children and special needs children. So the special educators have been beaten up pretty badly over the past few years both emotionally and financially.

 

Harry Brink said:

I'll be getting a hold of you in a few weeks to order a set.

My wife saw your pics of the chairs and asked why I hadn't talked to you yet. Looks like I'll be making several for grand kids and great grand son. The neat thing about this is it can be taken apart and shipped. Some of the things I've made we either had to drive down for a visit, 1,200 miles each way, or box them up to mail costing $$$$.

My niece teaches (?) autistic kids in the Rowland Heights,Calif. school district and she has the same funding problems that your wife does, which is too bad. 

 

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking

Montana

Hey there!

I wanted to follow up with things and let you all know what has been happening since I started this thread.

 

First of all, I have sold a number of templates sets here on TPW and I still have a few set of templates left, so if you are interested let me know. Every penny of what I received from these templates (less the materials and shipping costs) went into the "iPad Fund". So with the current sales of the templates as well as couple of cutting boards I sold, I got $200 towards this cause which is great! I also passed this along to the rest of our family, one of my wife's aides at her school for her co-workers as well as to our home bible study group and I have been totally blown away support and donations that we received from my wife's co-workers and our friends. Overall we have had a total of $1,050 brought in which is absolutely amazing! Along with this, I found out that my Daughter-In-Law's sister's husband (Son-in law twice removed??) had recently started working for the local "Apple Store" where they sell the Macs and iPads. So he did the ordering for me using his 15% employee discount, which ended up saving us $100 which was totally unexpected. So with the additional savings on the cost plus all the donations, we were able to buy not only and iPad, but also get the extended warranty, adapter for connecting a digital camera/SD card, wireless/bluetooth keyboard and a high quality protective hard-case for the iPad. We also were able to purchase a new wireless printer with "Continuous Ink System" (reservoirs for bulk ink as opposed to having to keep replacing the ink cartridges.We have the same printer and "CIS" for our home office and it works great!) so that she can print things out in her classroom from her iPad as well as her laptop computer. We also got a portable DVD Player which can be used as a reward for the kids when they do all their work and a $100 gift card from C&M School Supply which is a local teacher's supply store where my wife buys out of her pocket things for her class that the school won't provide. So our total cost for all of this was $1,100 so I only had to pay out of my pocket $50.

This has been a great blessing to us and I am looking forward to Thanksgiving as we will be having Tami's family out and we will also be celebrating the November birthdays as well. So we will be giving Tami the iPad and everything else then. I want to thank those here on TPW who purchased the templates, but even more so for your friendship and support.

Thanks again and have a great weekend and Thanksgiving Holiday!

 

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

http://www.awcreationsandwoodcrafts.com

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee