SqueekMoo's WordBook

I mentioned earlier that I was working on a word book for SqueekMoo. I'm going to now describe what this actually entails.

As a wedding present my dad gave me a Epson PictureMate Dash and with the refill pack to go with. I've haven't used it to its fullest potential because the greatest thing about digital pictures is you haven't have to actually have to have hard copies. 

SqueekMoo however is a sponge. He'd adsorbing information at an enormous rate. I decided to help increase his vocabulary by making him a word book. The trick is to get words in there before he actually learns them. I think its fine that some words I know he knows before I even work on them, but it does help enforce the concept of "Hey Mommy is showing me what these things are called."

We are also going on a trip to see some relatives soon and I think it would be divine if SqueekMoo could say people's names or at least come close. So I've included pictures of relatives.

So take for example the word Clementine. SqueekMoo knows these as clemes. I took a picture of a handful or them, plus a peeled one.

In PhotoShop I have made a template. Since the pictures print 4x6 I made an image that's 4x6 with a dpi of 300. I then made a layer that's an inch tall at the bottom. And another layer that's 5 inches tall at the top.

I then use the text tool set at 30 pt Lucida Console with the word "CLEMENTINES." Place it on the one inch bar and center align both vertically and horizontally with the bar.

I next copy and past the picture of the clementines onto a new layer. move the layer to be on top of the five inch layer, right click and select create clipping mask. Then its CTL + T and I fiddle with the size of the clementine picture till i have it centered the way i like it.

I then save a copy .psd file. For printing I save a .jpg fill in its original dpi. and since SqueekMoo really likes it when we use the Wii, I save a 90pdi .jpg version to load on to the Wii photo slideshow.

here's what the 90 pdi version of Clementine looks like:

I've taken pictures of his body parts (hands, feet), clothing items (socks, shirts), foods, things at the playground, pictures of relatives, pictures of his favorite stuff animals, things around the house (his potty, his bed), etc.