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This giveaway for a storybook-making kit has now ended. Congratulations, Jodie and Mum-me!
A few mornings ago I found Emma (aged 5) doing this:
She informed me that she was making a book. It’s called, “The Caterpillar Story”, and it starts off with a little caterpillar and a little cat. Then we learn that a little girl had a cat, and then we learn that there is a little girl alien. Not exactly a plot, but definitely a sense of connection between the pages:
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Then it gets pretty random, starting with a fireman and fire fighter truck, moving on to a hippo, then to a bumblebee greeting two cats, and ending with a dog.
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Johnny (aged 3) joined in, making a spider book. His book consists of a many-limbed spider, two aliens, and a house. In green ink, of course, because he loves green:
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Lily (aged 1, for a couple days at least) started to make a book, but got distracted after the first page. Emma and Johnny were extremely proud of their books. I thought they were pretty neat, too, so we ran them through our laminator, punched holes, and tied the pages together with a bit of string. Now they can read their books all they want!
My kids enjoyed this so much, I thought it would be fun to put together a small kit to inspire other children to make books of their own. I have two “make your own book” kits to give away to readers of this blog! They are very simple: 8 pieces of cardstock (5.5 x 4.25 inches) hole punched (heart shaped because that’s what I own, although you can’t really tell that it’s a heart once the yarn is in), and a bit of blue yarn to tie the finished book together. Nothing fancy, but enough to keep a child creatively busy for a few minutes, at least! And hopefully something they will go on to duplicate on their own. =)
To enter, leave a comment on this blog saying that you would like to be entered in this giveaway and who you would give the kit to. You can leave a comment without saying that; it just won’t be counted as an entry in this giveaway! You can have an extra entry if you share an activity you think my kids (aged 5, 3, and nearly 2) would enjoy!
This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE. The giveaway ends August 13th at 11:59pm. Two winners will be drawn by random.org and announced on this blog (at the top of this post) as well as emailed. The winners will have 48 hours to respond or new winners will be drawn. Include your email address in your comment to win.
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My 7 year old started writing like that at a very young age. She loves to write now and often makes books of her own. Great way to publish them! :)
Jen
loveforlit@comcast.net
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I’d like to be entered in the giveaway and I’d give this to my 3.5 year old daughter.
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What a neat idea. I’m gonna have to check out what other people have. My kids are hugely into writing books right now.
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I would like to be entered in the giveaway. I would give the book kits to my daughters since they love to make their own books!
momofquads at gmail dot com
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What a great idea, and I love the heart hole punches! :) I would give the kit to Nikki, who loves to tell me stories.
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I’d love to be entered! I’d give it to my daughter and make another one for my son!
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I would love to be entered into the giveaway and if I won I would give it to my 5 year old son.
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I don’t want to be entered (we also make our own books), but the idea is awesome, and I loved Emma and Johnny’s book. Maybe one day Emma will become an illustrator, she definitely has a talent for it!
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Enter me, please. I’d give it to my daughter and we’d make a book together!
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What a sweet idea! I would love to be entered; I would give it to my 4-year-old son. It would be fun to see what he came up with!
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What a fabulous idea. I would love an entry. I would give it to one of my daughter and make another one for another of my daughters. (Although I might have to find a heart hole punch first because I know the will both want heart holes in theirs.) =)
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Please enter me…I’d love to give this to my daughter.
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Your kids might enjoy some of the activities I just posted about at growingagodlygirl.blogspot.com
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I have a fabulous activity that I am sure your budding book writers would enjoy. One of my daughters’ favorite activities is story dictation. They tell me their story, and I write down exactly what they say (grammatical errors and all). Even if they can write on their own, dictating to you gives them the freedom to use vocabulary beyond their spelling abilities and the ability to let their ideas flow without having to stop to think about spelling or focus on writing. When they are done, you can have them draw pictures illustrating various parts of their stories, and either you or them can copy the story onto the pictures to make a book. My daughters’ favorite thing to do with their stories, however, is to act them out. The author gets to decide who plays what part, and then the author is the director (an if she wishes also an actor) as I read her story aloud and everyone acts out her story. Our only rule is that any fights or other stunts in the story must be pretended–no touching your sister. You can even set up stuffed animals to be the audience (bonus points if you have relatives or friends nearby who can be a real audience). You can even take a video of them acting out the stories. You can also act out stories or songs written by others. We have an adorable video that we did at Easter time of the girls acting out “Little Bunny Foo Foo.” They took turns playing Bunny Foo Foo and the good fairy, and they used a stuffed animal to play the field mice. They even dressed up in a fairy costume and bunny ears. Sorry this is long, but when I saw that you asked for an activity your kids would enjoy, I immediately thought of story dictation. We have had a lot of fun telling stories, and I hope you all can too.
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maryanne Reply:
August 2nd, 2011 at 12:48 pm
Thank you for sharing this idea, my kids will love it! Good luck with the giveaway!
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I would give this kit to my daughter who is 3 1/2 and work on making her own book. :-)
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Oh my 7 year old would so love this kit. She has already made a few books, but gets a bit frustrated when she can’t find matching bits of cardboard for the front and back covers, or something to bind them. So she would make very good use of it.
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I love this post! You are nurturing your kids so beautifully, I am glad I am able to see them blossoming so. I would send the kit to my grandson Logan in Missouri. He has such an imagination, it mind-boggling. 8-)
Thanks for a chance to win something for him, especially since his 7th birthday is in a few days.
xo Linda
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Love to see real kid art, real kid writing, real kid creativity, real kid imagination . . . I love everything about his because it comes from the children. It shows how simple engaged learning can be. Keep writing and keep publishing! :)
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I would love to be entered in the competition. I would give the kit to my 4 year old. She likes to make ‘books’ to read to her 2 year old sister.
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My 5 year old, Luke makes a book every single day! I plan to post one of his…he says he plans to illustrate and write his own book….soon! they are truly amazing! Now Annika is making books too!
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I want to be entered..please! I will help my 2.5 yr old daughter make a book.
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I bet your kids would like to go on a color hunt. Give them each a colored box and have them fill I t with items from the house that are the same color as their box.
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this would be a wondrful activity for my granddaughter when i am watching her.
lovebirdmom at gmail dot com
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I would give this kit to my oldest daughter if I won as she loves anything artsy. I would love to be entered in this giveaway.
cleaningrhouse at yahoo dot com
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I have 2 daughters ages 3yrs and 6yrs old. Here are a few of the activities we have done together that they like:
Make our own rainbow crayons – we take all of the broken crayons and bits and pieces that they won’t use and peel all the wrappers off. Then we break them into smaller pieces and put them in muffin trays and place in the oven until they melt. (You can put all one colour per layer or just mix up all the coloured pieces.) I let them cool a bit when we take them out of the oven and then put the tray in the freezer until hardened and then they just pop out of the tray. My kids like to give these rainbow crayon ‘tarts’ to their friends on their birthdays – they just wrap 2 or 3 in some tissue or cellophane with a pretty ribbon and that is part of their gift. (of course they same some for themselves to colour with too! – they love that 1 crayon has so many colours)
Another thing we do is collect rocks and then wash them a bit. The kids love to paint, so I let them paint on the rocks with whatever type of paint we have and after they dry, I spray them with an outdoor sealer so they can decorate my garden with all of their coloured rocks. If you don’t have sealer and have alot of old nailpolish, they can use that instead. My kids love to do this and my garden looks nice and colourful!
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I love the little books! Book-making has been a bit hit with my eldest.
And if I won, of course I’d give the kit to my kiddos :).
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I’d love to win this kit! I would work on making the book with my 2.5 y.o. son. Then, we’d hand it over to my oldest (13 y.o.) and ask him to make blackline drawings of some his anime/manga characters (he’s a manga artist.) When he is done, Little Guy will get it back and have his very own coloring book!
ohmiss14 at yahoo dot com ☮
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If you go for nature walks, I have a great project for you. I know how kids love collecting their finds and then all of the sticks and leaves pile up somewhere. We use a little glue and imagination to make art out of our finds! Here’s a link to my post about how we made a dragonfly from a stick, some leaves, half a walnut shell and some glue!
http://mccrenshaw.blogspot.com/2011/05/heres-what-we-do-with-our-nature-walk.html
ohmiss14 at yahoo dot com ☮
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Here above that art is very nice. I am so impress by that and now i want to make it for my kids. Thanks for sharing it.
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I’d love to be entered in the giveaway. My little one would use this kit.
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What a lovely kit. My daughter loves dictating me stories,too. She would love to make a book.xxx
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I would love to win this and use it with my 3 year old as we begin more preschool activities!
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One craft that we love in our house with a 19 month old and a 3 year old is tearing or cutting paper and gluing it onto pre-drawn shapes – like the rainbow!
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I’d love to be entered to win. I think this would be the perfect gift for my youngest that is going into kindergarten on the 23rd.
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I would give this kit to my daughter; aged 4.
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Please enter my children and I – they are craft addicts and would love this! They are 7 and 5.
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Oooh what cute little books :-) Love the craft and what a sweet giveaway!
Maggy x
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My 4 year old son would love this- he’s always making up stories. Thank you!
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This would be for my little ones who love books. :-) I enjoyed your photos above, so cute! creedamy [at] yahoo[dot]com
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I would like to be entered and I would give it to my 4.5 year old daughter.
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great giveaway!
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Would love to win for my daughter-she is a crafty girl-always wanting to make something
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I have a 2 yr olda nd a 4 year old i would love to win this for!
shannonsweep at gmail dot com
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