Personalized Story - One Line per Day

by Sherry Holetzky | More from this Blogger

31 Jul 2006 07:10 AM

This project is a terrific way to stimulate your child's creativity. Put together a book, using any of the different book or album designs posted in Kids' crafts. Make a really fancy cover with plenty of embellishments. Illustrate the cover with drawings or photos.

Ask your child to come up with a title for the story and display the title prominently on the front cover. Each day thereafter, your little boy or girl will add one line until you both agree the story is finished. Encourage your child to be enthusiastic in penning each line, making each one interesting so it will be an inspiration for the next. Help smaller children with writing and spelling if needed.

Stories can be cute, funny, dramatic, serious, or silly. Your child can make more than one at a time if he or she can't decide on a theme.

Have kids write on the left hand pages and reserve the right hand pages for illustrations. One new illustration should be added each day as well. Your child can draw something, use stencils or stickers, or cut out pictures and paste them to the pages.

If you miss a day, don't worry. You can either skip that day or double up the next time. It does help to set aside a time for working on the story and make it a part of the daily routine. If every day is too much, consider bi-weekly or weekly additions to the story and illustrations.

Your child will have fun, but you will enjoy seeing how creative your little one can be. When the story is finally complete, you can count on it becoming your child's favorite bedtime story for a long time to come. He or she may even save it to read to your grandkids some day.

Learn more about Sherry Holetzky

Sherry Holetzky is a work at home mom and freelance writer. Married to her best friend, Sherry and her husband are raising their family in a quiet rural setting in the beautiful Ozark Mountains.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger

Myra Turner (1560) 02 Aug 2006 07:37 PM

Sherry,

My son just finished a week-long program at the school he will attend soon. It's a program to transition kids to Kindergarten if they have not attended preschool. On the first day they gave them a book bag with a bunch of stuff in it and one of the things was a picture journal. He's "writing" a story in pictures. Each day he has to add another page to it. He loves it. We, the parents, are supposed to continue with it each day. He's definitely having fun and has come up with some good drawings and so far an interesting story.

Sherry Holetzky (11404) 03 Aug 2006 06:04 AM

I think that will definitely make the transition smoother. My youngest starts Kindergarten this year and she has a few little projects to work on (tying shoes, coloring pages with the letters of her name, etc) but nothing quite like that. That is a really good idea.

So, are you going to cry the first day, Mom? *sniffle*