Do your older children have a hard time thinking of what to give a younger sibling for a birthday or Christmas gift? Why not encourage them to create a scrapbook-style (or digital) alphabet book for a fun writing project with a real purpose?
Make an ABC Book
Directions
1. Gather stickers, die cuts, and pictures. Keep in mind that young children love bright colors. Collect pictures from old magazines, catalogs, greeting cards, and calendars as well as photos of familiar faces and objects.
For a digital ABC book, go through your own digital photos, encourage your older child to take some new ones, and look for free images online at sites such as StockXchng.
Make the book as personalized as possible by including pictures of things the child knows and loves. Use these categories as starting points:
- Family members and pets
- Foods, snacks, meals, and drinks
- Familiar household objects and furniture
- Familiar places (park, zoo, yard, store, fair)
- Animals
- Vehicles
- Facial expressions (happy, sad, mad)
- Articles of clothing
- Toys
- Colors
- Seasonal words, holidays, and activities
- Action words (jump, sleep, dig)
2. Using alphabet stickers or neat printing, label solid-color sheets of 8.5- x 11-inch scrapbooking paper with each letter of the alphabet, one letter per page. If possible, include both upper- and lower-case letters.
3. Glue pictures and photos to the appropriate page.
4. Neatly label each picture. Encourage older children to also write a sentence or poem using several of the words on that page.
5. When dry, insert pages into page-protector sleeves and place into a slim 3-ring binder.
Don’t you just love this creative, personal gift idea? So will the young recipient! Get your older child on board, warm up those crafting muscles, and let the fun begin! And if you prefer to go the digital route, check out some of the resources below.
Resources, Ideas, and Tips
ABC word lists
ABC scrapbooking ideas
Digital scrapbooking/digital book resources
- Make a Digital ABC Book – If you want to use digital photos only
- The Lily Pad – Type “ABC” in the search field for ABC-themed products
- Shutterfly Photo Book – Print a hard or softcover digital ABC book
- Artscow – Another resource for digital books
