Homemade picture cards

I've been making my own picture cards ever since he was 1+ years old and he does love them. I try to use real pictures as much as possible especially when he was younger as it'd be easier for him to relate to. I also realised that he's very much a visual learner.

Why picture cards?
- When I started off back then, the objective was to increase his cognitive skills (colours, shapes etc) & vocabulary.
- When he started speech therapy, I used it to get him to verbalise.
- Then moved on to numbers & alphabets.
- Now that I'm embarking on the montessori reading method, I'll use it to teach him reading too.

Why make my own?
- I make it myself because I can personalise them. I choose words that he can relate to in his daily setting. I'm a practical person, so I dont see how it'd be useful for him, for e.g. to learn the national flags of the world. If knowledge is not used, it'll be lost. Our brains trim unused neurons.
- Also, commercially available ones are great, but limited & often does not have local flavour to it.
- Saves money too

Where to get pictures?
I use 2 websites, both are subscription based. I dont subscribe & I'm still able to download them (for personal use) but will have the company's "watermark" on the image. That doesnt seem to bother my son though, so I continue using their photos.

(1) http://www.corbis.com/

(2) http://www.clipart.com/

Corbis has beautiful professionally taken real life photos. They've got art work & illustrations too but mostly photos. They recently revamped their site & collection, so there's more available now.
Clipart...we all know la. I use it when the word is not in his daily vocabulary & therefore I need the picture be just that word & no other object in the frame. Or whenever, I cant find it on Corbis.

How to make them?
- I use powerpoint to create the frame & simply insert the image into the powerpoint. Powerpoint has its advantage as it allows me to easily resize the image, put in an arrow, circle an area etc. Useful for certain words which would otherwise be hard to depict. E.g. the word "hips", or "lap"
- When he was younger, I made the pictures quite large. About half of an A4 page.
- Depending on the purpose, I may or may not add the word below it.
- After printing them, I cut & paste (the manual way!) on to cardboard. When he was younger, I used those cardboard boxes which the photocopier paper comes in. Those boxes are thick & hard enough to withstand his then habit of crushing paper. I asked my hubby, ex-colleagues etc to save them for me. Cheap & saves the environment.
- As he got older & as I ran out of storage space, I stuck it to cut out pieces of manila cardboard.
- Depending on the objective, I used different layouts in the powerpoint. I do not prescribe to rigid rules prescribed by the likes of Glen Doman etc in terms of the size, font type etc. I'm very sure they have their research to back up those rules, but it's just that I didnt follow them.