What could be better than reading with your children? Writing stories with your children, of course! Both are excellent activities for reading development but writing stories develops organizational and thinking skills while learning use of language and vocabulary. Sound difficult? Here is a wonderful online tool that can help. Storybird provides all the elements to engage and inspire you and your children, alike.
Materials
Needed:
Go
to http://storybird.com/ Click Explore to read hundreds of stories
written by others just like you. Click Parents
for many ideas and ways to share stories. Interaction is big part of Storybird.
Making comments and suggestions engages writers and develops social skills at
the same time.
What
To Do:
Click
Create to sign up for your free
account. Start your story by viewing an extensive gallery of illustrations to
inspire you to “unlock” the stories inside you. You and your children
collaborate to develop story ideas that bloom through imagination. Type in your
text online and drag the pictures into scenery boards that become the pages of
your book. You can easily edit text and rearrange boards at any time. You work
is saved as you go along and remains unpublished until you submit your final
copy…but it can still be changed anytime after.
Your
stories are saved securely online account to share on Facebook, Pinterest or
Twitter. Snuggle up with them all on your iPad internet browser,
marking your favorites. All
this is free, but you can also purchase hard copies of your books. Print
stories on your own printer from downloadable pdf files or order published soft
or hard cover books…perfect for sending to friends and relatives for presents. Write
your own personal histories and save them in beautiful, professionally
illustrated books.
How
Does This Help My Children?
Read
and write with your children for
twice the learning! And because you are writing with online tools, you join a
global community of writers, readers, and artists of all ages.
For more great educational activities visit Grandparents Teach, Too web page and listen to WNMU Radio 90
Learning Through the Seasons podcasts.
Photos: Storybird website
