kids storybooks

What kid doesn't like stories? Reading them. Making them up as they go along. Making up words when they don't know the words. Any way you look at it, children love books. Do you remember asking to hear one more story about you as a child? A current family favorite is "Goodnight, Gorilla
", which is a cute book about a zoo keeper and the animals in the zoo. The only words in the the book are Goodnight Gorilla, Goodnight Hyena, etc. The whole story is essentially made up as you go along - it can change each time.
This tutorial uses the same principles - a book with out words, that can change each time. A variation for older children would be to add words.

Age: 3.5 and up
Materials: crayons, colored pencils, markers
rubber stamps and stamp pad
old magazines or catalogs
various colors of paper
cardstock or bristol board
glue, glue stick, etc
scissors
photo album (from the dollar store or walmart)

1. Have your child stamp on a sturdy piece of paper. In this case, we used bristol board, which is slightly sturdier than cardstock, and is much larger. The stamping can be in a random pattern, as they are going to be cut out in a later step. *Note* you can pick up rubber stamps for cheap if you hunt for them. :) I've gotten mine for as little as .25. Check the bargain bins at Michaels, Target, etc. If you don't have rubber stamps, your child can cut out pictures from an old magazine, or draw pictures.


2. Have your child cut out the images to his or her liking. If the stamp is square, the cut out image does not have to be square. The way your child has cut it out is the way he or she wants it.
2a. While Junior is cutting out the images, cut the background page to the size of the photo album. We used a 4x6 album. Ask your child how many pages he would like to have for his book; you can always add more later. We used 4.

3. Glue pieces to the cardstock. You can have multiple images on one page. The randomness does not matter. Remember this is your child's book.

4. Allow him to draw pictures on separate pieces of paper for "filler". He doesn't need to know this is "filler". :) Simply say, "Ok. Now draw some pictures for your book." No power of suggestion, just his own imagination!

5. Ask him to arrange the pages to his liking, and help him insert them in the blank pages.
Your book is complete! (Be on the lookout for variations of this tutorial soon!!)


*Variation for older children* I came across a fun quilt called a story quilt. It had a series of lines (diagonal and straight) and X's. You could decide what part to tell next based on the line. An older child can have multiple images on a page with lines to tell them which part to tell next. Again the story can vary each time.