One of the things that I bought a lot of when my daughter was young was picture books. I got many as gifts, but I bought some on my own as well. Though I know children love stories, my little girl was more interested in the pictures most of the time. She often wanted to look through the ones that had pictures rather than hear stories anyway, and I think that might have been true for any baby her age. When she turned three, things changes, but for the first three years, the picture books were what she preferred.
Her favorites were ones that had pictures of babies, and now that she is five, she is still fascinated by any baby. Perhaps children are drawn to faces that are much like their own, but I don’t know. Her other favorite picture books were ones that were full of animals. She just liked to look at them at first, but after a while she would ask questions about each different animal she saw in picture books, and talking about them became better than reading what someone else might have added to the book.
Children can benefit from making their own picture books. They don’t have to be complicated, but they can be if you want them to be. You could use paper joined together or a sturdy scrapbook from a craft store. The pictures can be anything the child is interest in. This could be pictures of friends and family, and it can also be things they find in magazines. I often saved a stack of magazines just for this purpose. If they aren’t old enough to cut things out on their own, a parent can do it for them.
Though not all picture books made by children will last forever, some might just make it. If the book is big enough they could add more to it each year. It might not seem like a big deal, but they will get a kick out of it when they get older. They can look back through the picture books to see what they liked when they were younger and how that changed through the years. The picture books can also be great keepsakes for mom and dad as well. They could be put away along with the baby book and the photo albums to help remember the early years of life.
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