Sunday, October 13, 2013

Books - Through the Eyes of a Child


I came home from one of my work trips to find my four year old had made me a book.

A Valentine's Day book for Mommy - by A. Myers 


I didn't really take a look at it until the next morning when I saw her working on another one.  Sitting at her art table, she was very carefully folding her construction paper in half, putting a straight line of Elmer's glue down the crease in the paper she just folded and then placing another piece of paper on top of it and repeating with the glue and another layer of paper.


A Sunday art project for Mommy - by A. Myers



While she was doing this, I was sitting in the kitchen with her trying to get caught up on a few emails.  Here she was working in the world of paper, and I was in the e-world.  Now of course this story would be better if I was saying that I was reading an e-book, but then, that would have been too perfect a fit for this blog.  But my point is, that even in this day and age where kids have access to so many electronic devises, including e-books and e-readers - which my daughter has - many of them still like paper.

From the very beginning with her, my husband and I made sure to expose her to the world of books.  We tried to keep her exposure to electronic devises to a minimum in the first year or two of her life so she would develop an age appropriate appreciation for books, which she has.  While she enjoys listening and following along to her books on my Nook and her Leap Pad, she still wants us to read a book to her every night before bed and likes "reading" her baby books to her baby sister in the morning.



But what I find most fascinating is her desire to create books.  Of course these two were for me, but she has created others.  One of them is a letter book where she practices her letters.  Another is her Hanukkah book - a place for her to put her Hanukkah wish list  and the other I'm not sure about, but it is definitely one of her creations.

Hanukkah wish list
She has alway been a creative soul, crafting with paint, beads, clay, paper, rainbow loom, and pretty much anything that you could find in a craft store.  But this paper craft is different than the others.  Not only is she taking the time to make the book, she is then going back and defining it, giving it purpose. While it is not always words on a page, it is her...her raw emotions, thoughts, creativity...right there in multicolor for all to see.  She has titles for her books and I document them so that both she and I can remember them after the years pass by.

I will encourage her to continue with her book making and hopefully over time, she will seek other ways to enhance her books, either through a different method of binding, starting to write stories in them or even using them as her own personal journals.

For now, they will be her simply created paper and glue bound books for her to paint, sticker and practice in.  And I will cherish them as they mark her creative milestones.

1 2 3 Paper books:

1 tube of glue
2 lines of glue
3 pieces of construction paper folded in half

Take the first piece of folded construction paper and put a line of glue in the fold.  Next take the second piece of folded paper, line up the folds and place the piece on top.  Then put a line of glue in the fold of the second piece of paper, line the fold of the third up on top of the second and place it down.  Apply a little pressure so the papers stick, but not to much that the glue pushes out onto the pages.  Allow to dry and then decorate.

Great craft for a 4+ year old.