Make a book!

Are you amazed at the creative and clever things your kids say?

Want a way to capture what’s in their imaginations right now and keep it forever?

Pick up a pen and produce your very own book, written by your kids!The best way to capture the childish handwriting, made-up words and spelling, scribbled artwork and extraordinarily creative written voice and imaginative thinking your kids exhibit right now is an old classic: write a story. You probably have shelves full of books at home, but there’s nothing quite so fun as to read the stories you make up yourselves. It only takes about an hour to complete this special project!

You Will Need:

• Paper for pages
• Construction paper
• Markers or crayons
• Stapler

Preparation Time5 minutes to gather equipment

Activity TimeDepending on how long your story is, 15 minutes to several hours

Your books can be long or short, but the most important thing is to have fun making them!

Now it’s time to think of your story! Encourage your kids to use their imaginations. Children can often come up with amazing story ideas even without adult guidance. Let their imaginations go wild!

There are so many things to write stories about. If your children are at a loss about where to start, give them some topic ideas. Here are a few to suggest:

• Write about your life. Even the most mundane topic can become an exciting adventure, depending on how the story is told.
• Write a parody or a retelling of a classic story. It’s fun to take a new look at a story everyone knows and make it funny or scary or just give it a new twist that other people might not have thought of before.
• Add yourself, your friends or your family into a story or situation you like. What would happen if you and your pals were friends with Goldilocks? Or Cinderella? Or a pirate king?
• Use your imagination to create characters and a plot that are all your own. They can be as silly and unbelievable or as realistic as you want. Just be sure to have a main character, a problem or challenge he or she has to solve (most of your story will be about how your character tries to do this) and a result at the end.

You may also want to remind your child that he or she should think about a story arc. In other words, the story should have a beginning, middle and an end. Not only will that help the story make more sense, but it is also good practice for improving your child’s storytelling technique in general.Use a pen or a marker to write down the words so they’ll be clear and readable. If your child is too young to write all of the words, you can help him or her out. But do try to capture at least part of the story (a signature, perhaps) in the child’s own handwriting.If your child is writing the story without your help, don’t worry too much about correcting spelling. It’s more important that he or she gets excited about writing than all of the words being spelled correctly. Remember to leave some white space on every page for pictures.Be sure to leave a margin on the left side of each page too so that the words and pictures won’t get blocked when you bind the book. 

Once the story is finished, it’s time to illustrate it. Use crayons or markers to add a picture to each page. Make sure that for each illustration, your child focuses on a single idea that’s captured on that page.Create a cover page for your book with an illustration, the title of the story and the author’s name.Include the author’s age or the date on the cover. That way, when you read the story again in the future, you’ll know when it was written.Bind the sheets. Your Book is ready!

Make photos of the process and your Book and upload the collage to the App. Add some words what the book is about and impressions of the Book creation!