A bit about me...

Family Life :  

I'm a mum of three young adults, currently living with my husband and youngest child on a farm in northwest NSW.

Our children are realising how unique their childhood was, growing up in nature, problem solving, creating, and moving around in spaces that are both beautiful and challenging. Our oldest two loved school but our youngest had learning challenges due to a rare chromosome disorder, therefore I have the experience of parenting both neurotypical and neurodiverse children. 

Living in a remote area was new to me and finding fun stuff to do also tricky. A trip to town would involve a full day and after the farm pick ups and the weekly groceries there was little time to find a colouring-in book or writing resources for the children. 

Professional Life: 

I have been an Occupational Therapist since 1994 and have worked in many areas of the profession. Over the last ten years I have been working with children in my own private Occupational Therapy practice - both in remote areas and for five years in the Southern Highlands of NSW. During this time I had the opportunity to work with children who had major developmental challenges, others with mild delays. 

One of the major occupations for children is writing which involves all the senses as well as motor and thinking skills.

Why CRATE Resources? 

When working with children, good quality resources were hard to find.  I found it very difficult to find worksheets for preschoolers and school aged children that used a similar theme throughout. Presenting worksheets sourced from different places of varying styles, fonts, pictures, and themes was confusing and distracting for reluctant writers or children with cognitive delays.  

I was looking for a suite of resources all themed the same, which encouraged familiarity so I could build other skills like confidence and concentration with reluctant writers.  After many years struggling to find the right resources I decided to create my own. 

I have developed these resources in Australia using Australian animals as the theme, they are graded to allow the child to start at their own developmental level, then move forward with increasing complexity, from prewriting through to primary. The downloadable bundles of resources can be used together or separately. The worksheets can be used differently by Parents, Educators and Therapists, I want them to be easily accessible to all groups online, removing the barriers for rural and regional access.

I am excited to bring to you good quality, Australian writing and visual perceptual worksheets to add to your own CRATE of resources for use with children at school, in the home and during therapy.  This journey has allowed me to bring my creative vision to life and I hope you all benefit from it, and have fun doing so!

Ruth