We love books. We did our first DIY personalised journal in English when B was 18 months and asking more about family, interests, activities and people. I even added a section about preschool before he started. But we never got around to doing a simpler one in Chinese because the thought of ME writing originally in Chinese? Yikes!
Until now. Having just completed Mandarin Tots at Bibinogs, we both learnt many new words that I wanted to reinforce and keep relevant for him. Also, while cleaning up the guest room (converted into playroom) and living room before the grandparents return, we found stacks of B’s art pieces, old spiral notebooks and magazines. So… Time to reduce, reuse and recycle again! And finally tackle our first Chinese scrapbook together.
Here’s how we made it: Browse through newspapers and magazines and cut out pictures for your chosen theme or alternately, based on vocabulary he’s learning at school. Print the characters out in large font if you don’t have enrichment class material such as flash cards. Invite him to read (or repeat) the words, match them to the right pictures, helping to cut where possible. If you have old artwork or cardstock, resize them for your notebook before gluing both pictures and words on it first. Finally stick them all on the (reinforced) spiral notebooks with double sided tape. If you don’t have used notebooks, punch a hole on the sides to bind the “book.”
In our case, we did lots of cutting and glue-ing to work on B’s fine motor skills. He’s also more keen to read Chinese when the books are interactive (flaps, pull out tabs, stickers) … and now, when he’s actually had a hand in making it!
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Cool! Chinese and scrapbooking sounds like a great combi! =) It’s good that you are trying to help revise the words in a very fun and creative way! Thanks much for sharing and for linking up with Creativity 521! =)
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Thanks! This was the easiest Chinese book craft I can think of given my standard of Chinese, haha
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Hello finallymama, thanks for your great sharing here! Whats your advice on the most child-friendly way of binding? Those small round hoops or some string or …. any suggestions? Hee Thank You!
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We’ve just tried that around our Christmas Advent project and months ago, when we created B’s first “personalised book”. What worked for his age (2-4 yrs) is hole punching and threading. You can help tie it, but otherwise, they can actually manage this on their own…. slowly or with two hands
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