BookBairn: Creative Crafts

Showing posts with label Creative Crafts. Show all posts

A book that's illustrated with almost purely dots, circles and splodges can't be the most exciting of books, right? Well if you haven't read the series of books by Herve Tullet you might believe that. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of these books at first, I had seen them at the library and always assumed that BookBairn was too young for them and that even when she was older they would probably only get a read or two. In general, I don't like to admit that I was wrong. But... I was wrong on both counts (yes, Papa I'll sign to that!). These are some of the most engaging and interactive books that we have ever read!

We have four from this brilliant series: the original 'Press Here', 'Mix it Up, 'Let's Play' and the newest release 'Say Zoop' (which we currently have three copies of to give away on our social media). I'll start of by being honest with you - Let's Play doesn't get read very often. But I would estimate that we have read at least one of the other three on a daily basis (and often more than once a day) for months. And if that doesn't tell you how much BookBairn enjoys them I'll tell you a little more...

In 'Press Here' there is a little yellow dot that you can press in the centre of the page and if you do magic starts to happen. You press, and when you turn the page more dots appear. As if by magic. And as you read through the pages and follow the various instructions what your little ones fingers and hands do affects the story. It's rather ingenious.

Sorry for the strange filter - it was a phase I went through on
Instagram and I have lost the original photos.

BookBairn likes 'Mix it Up' too which follows the exact same premise but it also teaches children about mixing colours. So your little one dips their finger in the red and rubs it on the blue and on the next page they have made purple. Shake the book and yellow mixes with blue to make green. Slam the book shut and... splat... the yellow and red have mixed to create orange. Then you can talk about different shades as white and black are introduced. We have paired reading this on with a paint activity too which was so much fun! I squirted primary coloured paint into ziplock bags and BookBairn squished and squeezed until she saw the colours changing. The Wee Page Turner (who was very wee at the time) had a go too! Brilliant, if, like me, you hate messy art.

By far the favourite of the bunch is 'Say Zoop' and BookBairn and I like this for different reasons I think. She likes to make silly sounds. She likes to make me say silly sounds it's all fun and games as each dot is given a sound and you have to read in specific ways and as the dots are bigger or smaller at specific volumes. But I love it because this is the first book that BookBairn can actually read by herself. After several reads together she now puts her fingers on the dots and shouts "oh" for the large blue dots, or whispers if it is a small dot and similarly the corresponding red or yellow spots. She is beginning to translate symbols into sounds - pre-reading skills. But this book isn't just an awesome learning tool. It's great fun! Really great fun! So much fun, in fact that we made our own one using coloured dot stickers. Another mess free and fun bookish craft!

Herve Tullet is an expert in participatory bookmaking and ensures that children really engage with reading and books. It's no wonder kids have gone dotty for these!

Happy dot-reading!

Mummy and BookBairn xx

As the days get more and more autumnal (and sometimes wintry), there are days where the weather is miserable outside and the thought of going out in the dreich, wet, windy days is just too much to bear. But it's ok, I've got some great new colouring books up my sleeve (ok there in my book-stash box) to keep BookBairn entertained whilst we are stuck inside.

In this series of 'Lift-the-Flap and Colour' books by Alice Bowsher you can create your very own colourful habitats including Jungle, African Animals, Forest and Ocean! In collaboration with the Natural History Museum, young animal enthusiasts can lift the flaps on each page to reveal hidden animals in the natural habitats. From the dense jungle-floor to the tree-top canopy; from the shallow waters to the open ocean; from the plains of the savannah to the lush watering hole; and from woodland undergrowth to the tall forest trees, you can explore a whole world of environments and creatures. Each page has accompanying rhyming text that allows the reader to learn a little more about each environment and parts of the text are hidden under the flaps too meaning that children really reveal the story as they interact with the books.

But these books are a little dull - they are in black and white. So it's up to you to add the colour! The illustrations are bold using wide lines that a perfectly suited to little ones just learning to colour inside the lines. But they will also appeal to older readers/colourers as they are filled with character and humour and they will get a better sense of the overall scene.

BookBairn is beginning to make attempts now to colour deliberately. She doesn't stay inside the lines but she is beginning to pay attention to them. I decided to start with 'African Animals' knowing that she would enjoy colouring the elephants and giraffes and lions best! I love to sit down beside her and share the pages of a colouring book - it's a great way to chat and spend time together. Perfect for wet and windy winter days too. These books really are great fun!

Happy Colouring

Mummy and BookBairn xx

*Disclaimer: these books were sent for free from the publishers but words and opinions are our own!

You know how much we love to read our books! But do you know that we also like to do activities based on the stories and books we love too? If you follow our social media you will see that as BookBairn has got older I have started doing more and more art, craft and play activities with her. It's fascinating to watch her skills develop and to really observe how much language she is using and developing through these activities.

So I thought I would start a new little series of blog posts to share with you some of the ideas for activities that we do based on books. If you follow our social media you will see these straight away, as we do them, but I'll aim to include more information and photos here as well as a summary of the book. So let's look beyond the book!

If you follow our blog you will know that we loved 'So Many Feet' by Nichole Mara and Alexander Vidal and it's one of a select few books that BookBairn has memorised (you can see her reading it and our review in our 'What Can Your Feet Do?' blog post). When I saw what @play.pack did on Instagram recently I knew I just had to try it with this book.

It was quite simply really. We used Playdoh and our Duplo animals to create footprints. BookBairn and I collected a whole bundle of the Duplo creatures that we have and she pressed their little feet into the dough. It was fascinating to sit back and watch her play and create lots of moments for language learning and discussion. First I noticed that she liked using the penguin on the white dough: "it's like the ice"; and that the ducks were only allowed to make prints on the blue dough because it was like the water in the duck pond. Then we compared the footprints of the big polar bear and the baby polar bear and used lots of language for comparison. She was also interested in the fact that our two rabbits didn't leave the same imprint.

Then I got the book out and we worked our way through the animals that we have like goats, ducks, tortoises, tigers, polar bears but unfortunately Duplo don't make a blue footed booby. Ever the problem-solver BookBairn quickly got the blue dragon toy that we have because he "has blue feet like the booby". This made me laugh out loud.

I can highly recommend this activity - it was fun, relatively mess-free and created lots of discussion and comparison. I think I might try it again with paint! But only on a day we can deal with the mess.

Hope you enjoyed this little idea for an activity that goes 'Book Craft & Beyond'!

Thanks for reading,

Kim and BookBairn xx

If you follow us on social media, you may have gathered that one of my New Year's Resolutions was to be a more creative and crafty mama! Entertaining little ones is not easy and it's made all the more challenging when you are 30 weeks pregnant and find it difficult to muster the energy to do all the busy things that you used to do. But fortunately the wonderful online world of mamas have inspired me, along with some marvellous books! (Of course!)

So here are a few sources of my 'inspiration' for some of the crafty activities we've been getting up to!

KidArtLit

Two of my favourite insta-mamas have started an instagram community using the hashtag #kidartlit with a weekly theme posted by their guest collaborator. You know me, linking books and activities would obviously appeal to me! But what a great bunch of creative people are already taking part after just under a month. So far we have been crafty with penguins, Chinese New Year, snow and my favourite has been the 'STEAM' challenge (Science, Teachnology. Engineering, Art and Mathematics based activities). There is also a fabulous website where you can sign up to access their 'free resource library' which is an online magazine packed full of creative ideas. Check it out here: https://www.kidartlit.com/ This has probably been my main weekly 'kick in the butt' to get an activity going with BookBairn and I'm so glad it has moved me out of my comfort zone and got me motivated!

The Big Book of 100 Little Activities by Laura Minter and Tia Williams

Last year the bloggers 'Little Button Diaries' launched a wonderfully inspiring book packed full with great activities for pre-school aged children. Divided into sections varying from 'nature lovers' to 'little laboratory' and 'rainy day' to 'paint and print', there are 100 activities to keep fickle and easily distracted toddlers and kids busy. You are truly spoilt for choice with projects from simple pipe-cleaner crowns to more complicated cardboard tube marble drops, there is something for every sort of kid and every sort of parent (you will notice I avoid the messy activities - BookBairn doesn't like messy hands lucky for me!). If, like me, you are looking for inspiration this is a great place to start!

Gruffalo Crumble and other recipes: The Gruffalo Cookbook

BookBairn loves to bake! And what could be more fun than baking Gruffalo recipes? This is a fun book for any Gruffalo fans out there with 24 recipes from the deep dark wood. We have tried several of the recipes but the 'Purple Prickle Pancakes' were the most fun! Simple enough for kids to join in, and with fun-looking results, the recipes would be great for getting kids to try new foods. We highly recommend trying some of these out.

Image taken from the
Oh Creative Day website.

Oh Creative Day

Shannon is the most creative mama I've come across. Her activities are always achievable and blog and Instagram feeds. She has two kids and one more on the way, so like me she has been keeping her little ones busy by crafting and making at home when she doesn't have the energy to pack everyone up and out for the day. Just love her ideas, my favourite recent post of hers is 'Creative Ways to Entertain Kids (When Your A Billion Weeks Pregnant)' - it's like she was writing it just for me!
realistic and when something goes wrong she's happy to share that too - how many of us have had a 'brilliant' idea for an activity with our kids that ends up with a huge mess everywhere? Well, Shannon sometimes does and she shares them too! Based in Australia, I'm envious of the sunlit photographs on her

I have always loved pinterest but I often pin things and never actually make an effort to do them! Scrap that! Now I'm going to try them out. Follow my boards here to see what I fancy trying next!

I hope that helps and has inspired some of you to get crafty with your kids. Who knows how long I will manage as I get rounder and rounder and begin to resemble a Weeble Wobblen and goodness knows where I will muster the energy with a newborn but I have promised myself I will continue to try. And if in doubt I'll get the sticker books out. Because sometimes simple is just as fun!

Happy Crafting,

Mummy and BookBairn x

*DISCLAIMER* We were sent copies of The Big Book of 100 Little Activities and Gruffalo Crumble in exchange for an honest review. Words and opinions are as always our own.