My boys are 10, 8 and 3 and I am very happy that I am raising creative boys who love to draw, make up stories and make lists. They however are not huge fans of printing or handwriting but I hope this activity will help with that.
Start by taking a trip to the dollar store to stock up on summer notebooks. Pick up notebooks in all shapes, sizes and types like the exercise type books like the kids use in school, small purse sized note books or my personal favorite spiral bound books. The purpose of notebook shopping is to encourage your kids to WRITE, DRAW OR CREATE daily. The notebooks are inexpensive enough that you can pick up a bunch, small enough to fit in a purse for outings, great to use in the car, airplane or cabin and inspiring enough to even the toughest convert.
You can let the kids decorate the front on a rainy summer day. Give older kids their own set of multi color pens (also available at the dollar store), rubber stamps and stickers. Scrapbook supplies and ribbon (great to tie a pen or pencil to a spiral note book) also help to personalize each book. The key is to set aside 5 minutes a day to encourage your child to put pen, pencil or crayon to paper.
Here are thirteen (13) motivating ideas to get your kids to write or draw in their books.
- Creative writing prompts for older kids like “I am going on a trip to the (fill in the blank) and I am going to need… and have the list or draw what they would need. ClassroomJr.com has a large selection of Story Starters for kids of all ages.
- “Make me a list” – kids can make a wish list, a toy list inventory, grocery store, things I want to do over summer break
- Make a rhyme
- Have your kids purposely write backwards or upside down and have them decode their work at the bathroom mirror
- Write some jokes or riddles (even if they have heard them a thousand times before the point is to get then to write them down)
- Teach them to play Tic Tac Toe (visit Printables4Kids.com for blank Tic Tac Toe sheets and Dots and Lines Game sheets), hangman or create their own word searches and have them switch with their siblings or friends
- Have kids color an emotion like happy, sad, angry, etc.
- Give them the advertisements section from the paper and have them collage a page with pictures or have them cut out individual letters to create their names (for the very young or create sayings with the other letters)
- Write a story
- Practice handwriting or printing by putting your own prompts in your child’s book (Create your own handwriting worksheets)
- Have your “start” practice their “autograph” or for the younger kids just practice writing their name
- Have the kids make a space alien, princess, cat, dog or other favorite object out of the letters in their name
- Illustrate a comic (my oldest loves to do this)
Introducing the kids to the summer note book is a healthy way to promote literacy, creative writing and it promotes a great pre-organizational skill set, too.
I can not wait to see how my boys’ summer notebooks look at the end of the summer! We will have a great keepsake. I hope this helps you to create lasting memories of your summer vacation and help you to create moments that will last.
Remember it is not the days we remember it is the moments.
By Karen Owen of KarenMomofThree’sCraftBlog