Book made out of one sheet of paper and scissors

I am a Member of the Weekly Kid's Co-op. I feel so fortunate to have found an incredible group of friendly, creative bloggers. If you have a fun kid friendly activity that you would like to link up to our Weekly Party, see below for details. Also be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see what other bloggers have come up with. The following is my blog post that I am linking up:

I think it is important to set up environments for our children which invite them to engage in creative play in a natural organic way. That being said, I do let my son watch TV and play video games, but only a very limited amount per week. He does plead for them at times, and it has reached a degree where my patience wears thin. Instead of being the bad guy all the time, saying "No, no, no!" I realize that it is my responsibility as a parent to offer him alternatives that will engage him.

Partly inspired by Screen-Free Week which happened a couple of weeks ago, and also my feelings surrounding my son's media obsession, I came up with the following idea: I set out on his drawing table all of his markers he enjoys drawing with. In addition I set out a large blank book for him to draw in. He loves drawing pictures and making up stories to go along with them. Often he has me write down words to accompany his pictures. However, in the past his pictures were on single sheets of paper, never in multiple sheets in book form! He would love this!

My hunch was right, when he saw the blank book and the markers he wanted to dive right in. And dove right in he did! He worked on the book in one sitting for about an hour, and that is huge! We also took it with us to places he otherwise might get bored and restless, so that the time would be enjoyable to him.  With each completed page, I was sure to write in my neatest handwriting in bold black ink the story he recited to me. I made sure that he signed his work, as any author or artist would be sure to do; and, of course, I had him give the book a title.

I was lucky because I scored gargantuan (I mean GARGANTUAN) sheets of quality paper from our local material exchange store called M.E.C.C.A. (check it out here) for a song. I'm talking $5 per inch of stack! That's a deal if I've ever seen one! Thanks M.E.C.C.A. The paper makes for a great book, but you can use any size rectangular sheet (I have even made itty bitty books with 8.5 X 11" sized paper!) Here are the directions:

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Have fun!