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Give the Gift of Imagination!

I've said in other recent articles that learning to be frugal has sparked my imagination and creativity level. One reason I chose to home school my son, was that although I wanted him to have access to the wonderful world of computers, I also wanted him to learn to love to read and to learn to use his imagination. I'm not so sure our kids get that chance in today's world.

To teach my son to love reading and books, I began reading to him when he was just hours old. When he was old enough to crawl around, I wanted him to have access to books, but didn't have the money to buy durable ones. So, I made him his own special book. He's 16 now and has that book tucked away so that he can share it with his own children someday.

You can make a special, durable book for the children you love too!

Needed:
Photo album (an inexpensive one will do, but it
must be durable enough for a toddler)
Photos (of family, friends, pets)
Pictures (from magazines - airplanes, cars,
fruits & vegetables, anything colorful!)
Your time and love as you create a gift from the
heart!

The name of this first special gift was, "Derek's Special Book" and that was clearly printed on the cover. Each page of Derek's very own book displayed one of the photos or pictures with simple words and comments. On page one was an 8x10 picture of him as a baby. (This was free from one of the photo studios.) Underneath the picture were the words: Baby Derek. At age 18 months, he would look at that picture and laugh. He'd point to the picture and say, "Baby Derek."
Then he'd point to his tummy and say, "I big."
His book also included pictures of me, his father and his grandparents. Beneath each picture, I printed in large print the name he called each of us: Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, and Paw-Paw. One page held a rainbow, plus swatches of each individual color (free from the local paint store). Derek learned his colors from this page! Another page was titled just "Go".
It held pictures of an airplane, car, and boat, labeled, of course. This book was Derek's favorite book, one that he treasured then and took when we rode in the car, to the babysitter, and even to church. But, it also remains special to him, for he knows that his mom spent hours putting it together, and hours sharing it with him. And, yes, it did help him learn to read and enjoy the process.

The second gift that my 16-year old still treasures was one that we used as our bedtime story starter. Books were so important to us, but so was the art of telling a story and making up stories. This gift helped us play "let's pretend". This second special gift was labeled, "Bedtime Stories".

Needed:
Empty clear soda bottle (2 liter)
Sand (I used blue colored sand)
Tiny trinkets, rocks, sea shells, toys.

After the bottle was washed and dried, I placed the sand and trinkets into the bottle. There was enough sand to fill the bottle about 2/3 full and about 30 trinkets. I glued the bottle top on, so that we'd never have a horrible mess on our hands, and labeled the bottle "Bedtime Stories".

Bedtime was not a problem, as long as that story bottle was available! As my son lay in his bed, he would take the bottle in his hands and turn is on its side waiting to see which trinket would
show itself first. Our story began with that trinket, and we took turns making up some wonderful stories.

Give your child a special gift today, the gift of your time!