Story Writing for Kids

Last Friday, I shared my scavenger hunt with you and left a teaser of how I expand that activity into another one.

After a couple of scavenger hunts, I decided to take a picture of the child with the scavenger item as a way of recording the memory and getting some great candids of them. I started taking photos of them running after they spotted the items, and as they checked it off. Really, the photos were telling the whole story.

Why not make a book of them?

Digital prints are inexpensive either at home or at a local photo shop. Three of them in my city regularly have specials for $0.10 copies. If you wait for one of these to run, this project should come in under $4.00.

I have the kids select the photos that they like the best. Just because I took it, doesn't mean that they liked it. In fact, the seven-year-old has told me a time or two that I take bad pictures of him.

Once they have their story in order, and the pictures have been printed, I dig out a photo album purchased from the dollar store.

The first time we did this, I had a wordless book from our library. I wanted to make sure that our book was just like the professionals and coached the kids into realizing we needed a cover, a title page, credits for our author and illustrator, along with acknowledgments.

We inserted the photos on the right hand side only, leaving the left hand side for our text. Adjust as needed, depending on the layout of the photo album. Our happened to have space for one 4x6 photo per page.

For the first book, I wrote the story, but the seven-year-old chipped in on the second one. Even the three-year-old added his contributions.

The boys love to share their stories with family and friends who come to visit.