Books! Books! Books! Always a good idea!

What can you do with a preschool grandchild that would ensure their love of reading AND strengthen their relationship with you?

Make them a book! Collect some fun pictures of them and get going. I love making books for and with my grandchildren.

One of the first books I made was for my three-year-old granddaughter. I patterned it after what I would call a "modified" language experience story. In a typical language experience story, it begins with an experience that you share with the child. Then you write about it, or rather the child tells you about the experience, and you use their words for the story. They take ownership of the book right away as it's their own words.

I describe this first book I made as modified because what I did was gather some photos of my grand through the year in various activities, and then briefly captioned them (she was only three--didn't want to overwhelm her with a lot of text). I kept it very simple and on every other page I added the sentence, "Do you remember?" Hence the title of the book I made her, "Do You Remember?"

When she read with me or a parent or her sister, she got the concept of reading. Young children who are read to at home figure out early on that they are getting meaning from text and pictures. Viola--they begin to understand how reading works.

And what better place to learn to read than in a beloved parent's (or GRANDPARENT'S!) lap, and with a book made especially for them!

The procedure:

Find some pictures of the grandchild from the past year--or it could be from a visit with them as that would make a good book too. If the pictures are on your computer or laptop, put them all in one folder and you are pretty much set. Visit a book-making website (just google if you're not familiar with any); I used mixbook.com. These sites make it so easy for you. Just follow their instructions to make your book. You can add your own text and pictures and they also have cool graphics that can add kid-appeal to your book.

Here's the finished book. Be sure and pick out a cute picture for the cover.

Some fun action shots make for good illustrations in book.

Photos of another tea party.

Have a tea party when it's published!

I hosted a tea when the book arrived. We invited family members in the area, but one could also invite their young friends.

This activity was over six years ago, but my granddaughter still talks about that book and how she remembers each and every experience I documented for her.

Always a time for celebration when you present your grandchild with a book you make JUST FOR THEM!