While most parents intend to spend time teaching and enjoying quality time with their children learning through arts and crafts, unfortunately, it don't always happen. Too often life gets in front of us and too often we're too quick to hand them an Ipad (which is hard when you love yours), turn on the TV or tell them to go play. I know I am guilty...not because I don't love my kids, but that "spending time" seems like it has to be a big ordeal, project or outing and after all the "stuff" that has to be done, you just don't have anything left.
Author Emily K. Neuburger of Thanks to Show Me a Story: 40 Craft Projects and Activities to Spark Children's Storytelling makes sharing, learning moments easy for both parents and kids to enjoy with her award-wining book. This guide provides a plethora of easy ways to create a project or game with things you can find around your home in an easy-to-follow format. While many of the suggested ideas may seem as simple as building a list based on word association, it makes it possible for families to have a "moment" without putting much into the prep time and all your time into making a memory together.
Amazon.com describes the book as:
Children love to make up stories, and these 40 creative projects and activities encourage them to free their storytelling instincts. Younger children will love making story stones and a storytelling jar and then using them to create stories of their own, while older kids will enjoy word grab bags, story walks, and journaling exercises. For everyone ages 5 to 12, whatever their reading level, this book has everything needed to spark an infinite number of child-created stories.While I have children ages 4 and 1, this book is something we can begin to use sparingly at this age and grow into as we head past our toddler years and even into young adults.
I loved the artwork and the format as it reads like a recipe book - which is may favorite guide to read.
Spend this weekend and even those 20 minutes breaks between one appointment to another with this great reference book for your family library.
DISCLAIMER:
I received one or more of the mentioned products for the sole purpose of this review. No other compensating was given and all opinions expressed are 100 percent my own. (Accordance with FTC's 16 CFR Part 255, "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.")m
