Monday, April 18, 2011

Moms Who Teach Monday


Homemade Books

I was able to teach 6th grade for two years until I had my sweet little boy. I enjoy teaching but I thoroughly love staying home with my almost two year old.  So many of the things I was taught while becoming an educator can be transferred over to being a mother. One thing that I loved to do with my 6th graders was to write stories.  After they were drafted, revised and edited my students got really excited about getting it “published.”  So we made our own homemade books!  Kids love to read books they wrote themselves.

We would make them in class, but the great thing about making them at home is you have more one on one time with your child and their book.  And the best part is you probably have most of the materials at home already!

I know my son is too young to write books for himself but here are some other ways you could use a homemade book:

-Make a book containing names and pictures of family members.
-Have your child make a book for Grandma to give her on this upcoming Mother’s day.
-Make an “About Me” book for your child to bring to school for Show and Tell
-Use the book as a drawing book for your child to draw pictures in.

Now this bookmaking process isn’t totally kid friendly. There are needles and a hot glue gun involved just as a heads up.  (My 6th graders actually did really well sewing with needles but I always did the hot gluing.) However I’m sure you could use modge podge instead of a hot glue gun to help involve your child.

Materials:

Cardboard
Computer paper
Needle and thread
Glue gun
Fabric

Steps:
1. Cut out 2 cardboard pieces 9in by 5 ¾ in. (Slightly larger than a sheet of computer paper folded in half)
2. Fold pieces of computer paper in half (hamburger style!) I used 5 pieces of paper and that gave me a title page and 15 blank pages. But you can adjust to how many pages you want.
3. Unfold paper and stack together. Using a needle or pin, poke holes all along the crease of the paper going through all 5 pieces of papers. (I colored mine with black marker so you could see them in the picture.) It doesn’t matter how many holes as long as it’s an even number.

4. With a needle and thread, sew a running stitch along the holes. Start by tying a knot and going up through the first hole, down through the second, up through the third, etc. You want to end going down through the last hole so your knot will be hidden.

-Then take you cardboard pieces and tape them slightly apart with thick packing tape or duct tape. This allows your book to fold easily.

-Cut out your fabric to be a little larger than your book, about 17in. by 13 in.
-With a hot glue gun, fold in all your edges of fabric tightly around the cardboard. Don’t worry if it’s not that pretty, it will be covered up. (As you can see, mine is not very even!)

-Lastly, glue down the first page and last page of your book to the inside covers of the cardboard book.


My book is very basic and there are so many ways you could embellish it to make it your own.
-Study some books with your child and help them write a dedication page and an About the Author page.
-Embellish the cover with buttons, ribbons, etc. before you glue it to the cardboard.
-Use colored paper instead of white.
-Use a cricut or silhouette cutter to make letters or pictures.
-Let your child practice typing their story on the computer and then glue the text in.
-Use plastic bags as pages instead of paper for small toddlers that might rip the pages. This also allows you to switch out your pages to make a whole new book!

Happy bookmaking!

Thanks so much Shanna! I can't wait to make one of these myself!

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are really cute. I am going to make these with my girls!

Julie said...

I really can't wait to make one! You are so talented Shanna. :)