Endless potential for raininy days (Scrap Books)

Member Name: Gretta

Product:	Scrap Books
Date:	24/03/01 (153 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, and so many options

Disadvantages: Hard to find one, needs supervison (if you call that a disadvantage)

When my elder son was born I tried to buy a scrap book, as a lot of the tiny baby books, such as the touch and feel ones which have textured parts of the page for kids to feel, are very expensive. I decided that while he was tiny and into chewing, spitting, puking etc., a home-made scrapbook would be better for him to practise on then expensive books. He's now two, and has neither outgrown scrapbooks or unfortunately, his yucky baby habits!

I had a lot of trouble finding one, neither the ELC, or the W H Smiths in my town centre had any, and Woollies were out of stock. I thought this was rather sad, as it suggests they are no longer as popular as they were when I was younger. A few weeks later I finally got one from Woollies, for under £2,and now snap up at least one or two whenever I see them as they have so many uses. Here are a few ideas, with those for younger babies at the start, getting progressivly older.

FIRST BOOK - Babies find it easier to focus on black and white images when they are tiny, so if you draw some simple designs on white paper with a thick black marker and stick them in you may find your baby enjoys focusing on them.

FACES - Babies tend to enjoy looking at smiling faces, so if you fill a book with either black and white drawn images of smiling faces, or cut images of smiling faces, particularly other babies, from magazines, this should also prove popular.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS - When babies are tiny they do not understand the concept of object permanence, that objects still exist even when they can not see them. Filling a scrapbook with photos of friends, family and familiar objects such as their own teddy bear will help them as they are learning this.

TOUCHY BOOKS - Fill a book with samples of materials for your baby to touch. When I give old clothes to charity shops I see if there is a seem or hem I can take a sample from without it damaging the clothing. Other things around the house t
hat are interesting for your baby to feel are washing up scrubbers, flannel, shiny card, thin sponge, net from citrus fruit, dried candle wax, ribbon, very fine grade sand paper.

FIRST WORD BOOKS - As your baby learns to speak stick pictures of words they know in a book. You could try getting images from clip art, or use photos, drawings or magazine clipppings.

COLOURS AND SHAPES - Name a page 'red' or 'circles' and fill it with images that fall into that category.

ABC - Name a page with each letter, then fill with words starting with that letter as your baby learns to say them. This way you avoid silly words your toddler doesn't know, that often seem to appear in alphabet books. You could also do a number version.

THEMES - A theme book really helps when you are teaching your toddler more complex concepts like 'night' and 'hot'. A page full of images of things like candles, radiators, steamy baths, cookers which you point at and say hot will help your toddler realise that they are not called hot, hot is a way to describe them.

CLOTHING BOOK - You can staple or glue a ribbon in a book to help learn to tie bows. Use the white stickers that are suppose to strengthen holes for ring binder file paper to strengthen holes you have made in a page, then string a shoe lace through. Stick two large pieces of cloth, felt is very light and cheap, and sew a button on one side while cutting a buttonhole in the other. Do the same for a popper, hook and eye fastening and some Velcro. Also in this book have a picture of a body labelled with the different parts. You could also include related rhymes, like heads shoulder knees and toes etc.

ACTIVITIES - Stick in the various colouring sheets your child gets given in restaurants, Sunday school etc., then they don't get lost and you can pull out the book on a rainy day.

RECIPES - Collect recipe leaflets, your Health Visitor wil
l probably have some, as will your supermarket, and keep together in a scrapbook so your child can choose one to make on a rainy day.

DIARY - Let your child who is too young to write keep a picture diary, sticking in things from the day, even if it's just a leaf, or the wrapper from a chocolate they ate.

STORYBOOKS - Older children usually enjoy making stories, help them to make their own books, which they can illustrate.

ALL ABOUT ME - Most kids enjoy reading about themselves, help them to make a book with a family tree, photos, stories about their birth, first words they said etc.

HOLIDAYS - Any event they are looking forward to can be anticipated with a scrapbook dedicated to it, such as a Christmas book, or a New Baby book.

SEASONS - Collect things from your walks to show the changing seasons, and either press to dry, or do so in a microwave (this only takes a few seconds, be careful you don't do it for too long). Just be careful when its snowing, my toddler was not impressed when mummy wouldn't let him stick snow in his book.

FAVOURITE THINGS - If they have a hobby a scrapbook can be used to store associated bits. My son has an aeroplane book, with sachets people have got him when they went on planes, postcards, photos, and brass rubbings from Heathrow visitors centre etc. Very sad and anoraky, but hey, he enjoys it! His Thomas the Tank Engine one has the wrappings form every Thomas product we have ever bought him!

SPORTS CUTTINGS - As King Herold and Smark 1985 suggest in the comments on this opinion, your older child may enjoy keeping a selection of clippings relating to a sport they enjoy. You may even be able to persuade them to put their stickers in a scrap book, which may prevent them buying endless packs of stickers to complete a sticker album, as missing stickers wouldn't show up so much. My exuse for not thinking of this is because I support QPR, and when I was a fan
atical season ticket holder we were doing awfully (as we still are) so press clippings weren't exactly abundant. The main time we were in the news was regarding are lucky black cat going missing...

If you have any more ideas, please post them in the comments section for me. Happy sticking.

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