You know that wonderful age that children get to when they start to talk and talk and talk and ...... ;-)

When DD was about 4 she was well and truly into this stage. One day- as we were out walking the dogs and she was babbling non-stop. I was smiling and nodding and making little uh huh and mmmmm and ah noises here and there without really listening properly. Then she noticed a load of green slime in a trough in a paddock and started into a spate of the usual questions- 'What, why, when, how...'
After we'd exhausted that....... she started telling a story and I actually started really listening.

It was the most delightful imaginative story and I started to really listen carefully- asking her to expand on parts as she went along.

At that point I had the idea and rushed her back home so i could get pen and paper. I scribbled down as much of the story as I could remember and asked her to tell me bits again- add details and embellish if she wanted.

After that I typed it up and printed it out- I explained it was her very own story- and she could make it into a book!!!!!

She drew pictures for the pages and then we placed each sheet in a plastic pocket and bound them together.

We didnt do this all the time but we did do whenever she had a good story to tell and we have quite a few of these special books.

When the boys were old enough they made some too.
Its a simple enough process - at kinder and early school age they cannot write fast enough or competantly enough to keep up with the rapid imaginative flow of idea- but they can 'write' brilliant tales if you 'ghost write' for them. Get them to tell the story and write it as they talk- or better still record it (in my experience its best if they DONT know they are being recorded) then transcribe it later)

You could also use photos- the kids can even take these themselves. if you have a digital camera it is then simple to put the pics and text on a page and print it out. Even with film you can fix the photos to the page- if th child is old enough they can write the words by hand if they want to.

My kids got (and still do get) a real thrill out of 'publishing' their own stories and still love to look through these creative keepsakes ( and hey - the stories are pretty entertaining!).

Enjoy! :-)