Toddlers and Book Exploration - How to make a zip lock baggie book.

My son loves books. He likes looking at them, turning the pages, and then tearing them apart. We only let him look at board books but now they are destroyed as well. My question is two-fold: How do you get your child from destroying books? What do you do with

the book? Piece it back together or throw it away?

That is great that your son loves books!  You've asked a great question too about getting young children to be more careful with books.  Understand first, that it is natural for you son to be rough with the books.  Being able to explore books in this manner is an important part of early literacy, so you want to encourage it.  Given this, I understand you don't want his books destroyed.   I'm guessing that you read to him frequently.  When you do, if you see him being rough with the books, remind him to use gentle or nice touches.  With time and experience, he will learn.  And there is nothing wrong with taping favorite books together.  They love them no matter what the condition!

For my kids, we had a "hands on" bin and a "only with mom or dad" bin that was up out of their reach.  The "hands on" bin had chunky board books many of which were purchased at garage sales or were freebies from the local library or other programs.  We didn't particularly care if these books were damaged, however, we continued to encourage our kids to be careful with them.  The "only with mom and dad" bin contained favorite books for bedtime and for quiet reading moments together.  Again, we allowed the kids to turn the pages and encouraged them to be gentle or use nice touches.

Another idea is to make a zip-lock baggie book.  I do this frequently with the little ones I work with.  Here's what you'll need:

• quart sized zip lock baggies (preferably the heavy duty freezer bags without writing on them)
• heavy cardstock paper
• magazines
• scissors
• glue stick
• stapler
• masking tape

Here's what you do:

• Cut a number of pieces of cardstock into squares sized to fit in the zip lock baggies.
• Cut pictures out of the magazines that you think would interest your child.
• Paste one picture on each side of the cardstock and insert in a baggie.
• Make about 4 to 5 pages.
• Combine the baggies pages together and staple along the side with the zip lock opening.
• Take the masking tape and form a binding around the end with the staples.

Ta da!  You have an inexpensive book that cost you pennies  if destroyed.  Of course, you'll want to keep an eye on your little one with these books especially if they have teeth and like to chew.  You don't want them shredding the plastic baggie.

Now I like to make books by theme, e.g., animals, transportation, food, household objects, facial features, etc.  This is a fantastic way to work on language.  If your child is not yet using a lot of words, make a book with pictures of things you want him to be able to say (such as milk, juice, banana, spoon, bed, etc.).  As their language increases, you can make a new book with new words.  There are a number of computer illustration programs available such as Picture This! that have hundreds of pictures. 

A variation of this would be to glue pictures on index cards and have them laminated at your nearby office supply store (this is really inexpensive).  Then punch a hole in the upper left hand corner and put the pictures on a key ring.   You can make "mini books" that are great for diaper changes, car rides or visits to the doctors office.

Hope these tips help.  Keep on reading and bravo to you for being so invested in helping your little one develop a love of books!

Copyright © 2006, Jill S. Urbane.  All rights in all media reserved.  The content of this article may be forwarded in full without special permission provided it is used for nonprofit purposes and full attribution and copyright notice are given. For other purposes, please contact Jill Urbane at www.thementormom.com.