Bookmaking With Kids

My must-have bookmaking find so far this summer is a rubber stamp from Hero Arts. It strikes me as perfect in lots of ways:

• It’s small, about 5 inches long and just over 2 inches high, so it’s not daunting for emerging writers.
• It lends itself to lots of different book formats, two of them shown below.
• It’s open-ended, part calendar and part log book.
• And its three key words conjure, for me, the kind of summers I wish for kids: adventures, exploration and discovery.

This stamp lends it-
self to a spectacularly easy loose-leaf for-
mat: the key-ring book. Kids just stamp and cut, stamp and cut, then punch a hole through their cut-outs and slip them onto a key ring. With luck, kids will enjoy these little books so much they’ll write on the back of each page, too.

For a pamphlet-style book, cut some pages the same height as the stamp and twice as wide. Fold them in half as a group and staple through the fold. Kids can design their own covers, stamp every page inside, or alternate pages so they’ll have more room to write.

For kids with lots to say, try making a taller book with more pages. That way, a stamp at the top of a page could serve as a chapter heading!

BTW, any rubber stamp that takes your child’s fancy is likely to be a great starting-point for a book; it doesn’t have to be this one. I’ve used chocolate-chip cookies stamps to encourage kindergartners and 1st graders to retell or make up variations on If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. I’ve used a castle stamp to inspire adventure stories.

This post is part of an occasional series, Summer Book Projects. Please watch for more ideas in the weeks ahead.

Whether your family is actually making a trip this summer, en-
joying a “staycation” or being armchair travelers, every kid
needs a passport!

My kids started making passports long before they needed the real thing, sparked by three examples.

The first was their father’s passport, its pages bursting with fascinating stamps accumulated on business trips.

The next was the Kids’ Passport they discovered when we first began visiting national parks. They desperately coveted those colorful stamps that conferred “You Were Here” status … and quietly despaired of ever getting enough stamps to give their passports that stuffed, well-traveled look. When they were a bit older, they were also inspired by the fabulous Top Secret Adventure kits from Highlights for Children.

So they began making their own—little booklets that were part passport, part photo album, part travel journal, part sketch book. Sometimes they were for real adventures, other times for imaginary journeys. Occasionally they were for invented personas, too!

Nothing could be easier: Kids just fold a couple of pages as a group and staple through the fold. Supply scissors, glue and collage materials like maps (free at AAA) and travel brochures (free at hotels, tourist spots and car-rental offices) and they’ll be good to go.

The passport pictured here is made from 5 x 8-inch index cards, folded in half. In it, my older daughter, then 12, was pretending to be a cat! She changed her name. She chose a destination reachable only by time-machine (Mesopotamia!). My favorite part is the reason she gave for “Purpose of Visit.” Click the image for an enlargement, and you’ll see her answer on the last line.

This post is part of an occasional series, Summer Book Projects. Please watch for more ideas in the weeks ahead.