Homemade Books

A fun homemade gift that I’ve done for a lot of my nieces and nephews has been to create a little book for them.  It takes a little time and creativity, but it’s really fun and the kids love it when the book is all about them.

Here are some examples –

For my daughter (when she was really little), I did a book about the family, so that we could practice names.

For my nephew Simon (who LOVES Star Wars)  I created a little story –

Simon’s Light Saber

A Star Wars Adventure – in a Galaxy quite close

By Aunt Ryss

Once upon a time, in a far away galaxy, Master Yoda, the great Jedi Master felt a disturbance in the force coming from a quiet planet named Earth.

Qui-Gon Jinn was sent to find and train the young boy who was to be Earth’s only hope –

Young Simon “Padawan,”  in whom the force was very strong.

You get the gist.  I filled it full of pictures of Simon rescuing his siblings and pictures from Disneyland’s Star Wars adventure.

He loved it and read it so often that it broke apart.

For other nieces and nephews, I’ve cut up pictures from magazines and made little books.   For example, I wrote out Sammy’s name (a letter on each page) and made an acrostic, (S is for smile) and decorated the pages.

For Jack, I made his book about his name and filled it full of poems featuring his name –

Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

Jack jump over

the candlestick.

I take each book and laminate it – a hot or cold laminator, or in a pinch, clear packing tape works well.  (These are typically not big books, 4″ x 4″ squares of paper, etc.)

Then I punch a hole in the top corner of each page and I use a loose leaf book ring (you can get a package of 10 or so at an office supply store for under $5) to fasten it together.

It’s very easy for little hands to flip.   I also imagine that this would be a great and fairly easy project for kids to work on.

Any ideas on subjects for a book?

• favorite family songs
• childhood poems
• favorite things
• family stories, traditions, or family lore

Maybe a set of easy readers to teach basic reading words?

• My cat is big, my dog is red, etc.

Other book making strategies?