Family Literacy Day: Homemade Books

It's no secret that I am a former Kindergarten teacher. My friends will often remind me of that fact by teasing me about some of things that I do, say or have around my house.

One of the things that I love to do is make books for my kids.

I've made simple picture books, I've made ABC books, a Father's Day book, repetition books, a baby book (for the bunny before Little Man was born) and I've made memory books.

Here is how I made an ABC book:

For my daughter's 2nd birthday, I made her an ABC book especially personalized with items that are important to her. She had the book memorized after the second time reading through it because the items were so familiar. This book continues to be in her top book picks on a regular basis.

Here's how I did it (there are many different variations--the sky is the limit):

I bought a 4x6 photo album from the good old dollar store.

I glanced through our digital photos and picked out photos that I knew would be appropriate for each letter. For the letters where there wasn't a photo, I chose an object that she would recognize from our home and took an individual photo of it.

I bought foam capital letter stickers from the dollar store.

I cut out 4x6 pieces of card stock and made the book.

A is for ....
B is for....
etc.

I typed out the "is for...".
After assembling the book, I wrote my daughter a special message at the back and wrapped it up for her birthday.