Tag: children
Same beginning, one line, many different stories. Seventeen UK parent bloggers took the challenge to ‘tell the story’ their way. This is our gift to the children around the world: beautiful stories with illustrations from our own kids, making it a perfect bedtime storybook.
By creating this book called ‘Once upon a time’ we are fundraising for Save the Children. The profit of all book sales will be donated to the charity.
Thank you to all parent bloggers who took part in this story book for their time, creativity and empathy! Together we made it happen!
Now it’s onto you! We are raising money for those kids, born with the challenge to survive. Let’s help them write a better story of their life, one that will make them smile!
Besides, the book is funny and colourfil, making it the perfect Christmas gift for a child. You can view and purchase the book HERE.
‘Save the Children works in more than 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential.’
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December 4, 2011
For my daughter Christmas came earlier this year. She received a wonderful personalised book from Unique Editions. Such a surprise for her to grab the book in her little hands, and to see her image printed on the book cover! It was absolutely magical moment; she was wordless and just screaming out of joy, pointing out herself and getting more and more impatient to open the book and see what’s on the next page.
Her curiosity and excitement escalated even further when she realised the whole The Magical Journey (that’s the name of the book) was about her. Being nearly 4-year old she can easily find her name written in a text, so guessing that she is actually the hero in the story made her grab my hand and ask me to read it that very moment!
The original text in French is really a beautifully written poem. It’s written by Jorge Semprun, a very famous international author and film writer. My daughter sank herself into the magical journey, but I have to confess, I immersed myself into the story, too. The concept grabbed me – making books with beautiful stories where the children are in the centre to not only make them feel flattered, but to also encourage their imagination and self-confidence.
And here is the other story – that of Stephanie and Megan who founded the Unique Editions company. This is a story of two friends, Stephanie and Megan, one French and one South African, who met in Hamburg. When theirs kids turned 5, they decided to create the perfect book for them. Stories, personalised, with the photo, featuring not only the child, but the whole family or anyone close to the child. While Stephanie has all the good taste for beautiful French art, Megan brought all the ideas for the stories – which, from what I can see, are pretty dynamic and adventurous.
The idea behind our books isnot less powerful: to encourage children to enjoy reading. All their books focus on capturing young readers, by bringing them closer to the story. This we do in different ways relevant for the different age levels.
They’ve been selling books in France since 2007, and just hitting the UK market, which is just great if you’d like to make your child happy as mine (still enough time for Christmas).
Just ‘whisper’ the magic words GKXMAS2011 at checkout before the end of the year for your special 15% discount! Merry Christmas! Lot’s of different stroies for each age group, so I’m sure you’ll find what you are looking for.
And thank you, Stephanie and Megan elves for the lovely gift you made to my daughter, and to me – the opportunity to daydream!
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November 19, 2011
I am planning a fundraising campaign for Save the Children called ‘Tell it your way’. The plan is to publish a book with children’s bedtime stories written by creative parents that blog – in aid for the Save the Children charity.
So, we give participating bloggers same story line, which is ‘Once upon a time…’ (so we really give you the freedom to be as creative as you want) and we ask you to write a short story aimed at small kids as well as an image of a drawing you or your kids make, or simply a photo you take to support your story.
I will then collate all your unique creative stories and images, and I will be designing them into a children book (using the Blurb book-making and book-selling platform). Once the book is ready and goes life, I will share the link with you so you can buy it as a gift or for yourselves, share it, recommend it to friends, and generally spread-the-word for the campaign and the book, so we raise as much money for Save the Children, as possible. Hope you agree it’s all for a great cause, and hopefully the book will make a wonderful Christmas gift. 100% of all money raised will be sent on a monthly basis to Save the Children UK.
So, the benefit for you as a participating blogger? Apart from making good to kids born in poverty and challenged to survive, your story will also help you raise your profile and get great publicity! All bloggers will be introduced by a paragraph about the blog, your photo and link to the blog.
Here is the creative concept and how I came up with the children story book:
‘Once upon a time, I was born and challenged… challenged to survive.
I’ve got a story, which is different to yours. Although, it is similar to the million children around me, who were born with the same challenge. It’s not easy to keep on telling my story, to keep on living it.
Would you help writing a better one for me? A story of a better life.
A story with a different ending, despite having the same beginning.’
The deadline for all stories and images is 20th November, so we can make it happen in time for Christmas. However, please let me know if you are interested asap, so I can sign you in for the book.
To summarise, what I’d need from you is:
- Creative children (bedtime) story around 300-350 words (or 1,500 characters)
- Image to support your story, ideally something you make with your kids and take a photo of
- Your details: your name, blog name, blog link, your photo and a short description about your blog
Let’s collaborate in an effort to change the story of those kids, born with the challenge to survive, and help them write together a better story of their life, one that will make them smile. Now it’s onto you. Please email me asap, if interested.
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November 7, 2011
My little girl wouldn’t go anyware without her plush Makka Pakka. I was dropping her off to school the other day when one of the teachers told me something funny. It was about her sister who, apparently, still keeps her childhood teddy bear in her bedroom. Arm… in their family bedroom. Her husband has tried to convince her get rid of the teddy bear, clearly not having a bath for the last 35 years, but no, she wouldn’t do it. This made me thinking – her teddy bear has become an absolute fetish of her childhood…
They are strange beings, the teddy bears. Yes, they are so much soaked in our lives that somehow become like a human being. A teddy bear helps a child grow up. It’s like a crutch, supporting kids in small but steady steps build their confidence and understanding of the world.
A teddy bear is like a mirror; a mirror of life, projecting the adult way of behaving onto their ‘plush’ being – sometimes taking the strikes of a child’s anger, other times – their implicit love and kindness. And so often a teddy bear would count to ten or write letters for the first time with the kids, sitting on their laps. A teddy bear would eat the greens when children are fussy, would be sleeping next to them, becoming a comforter… and be an example of the way a child should play, act and socialise with others. – An almost breathing teddy bear, marking its lively and iridescent presence in a child’s dream. And in their whole life.
It’s even funnier how, suddenly, from being a rope which helps a child to climb the mountain and give him the learning how to fall down and get up again, this same teddy bear becomes a thread, a fibre, linking the grown-up kid with our childhood, reminding us of our youth, joy and play, and the feeling of being child once.
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May 16, 2011
Through play, children learn the skills and knowledge needed for life; imaginative play encourages the toddler to use their mind and creative potential. Children can be taught to have the skills and knowledge to deal with life’s challenges and to solve problems creatively through being encouraged to be active in play that involves creativity, learning, investigation and discovery. There’s a saying “Give a person a fish and they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.”
Imaginative Play
Play that is imaginative and creative will help the toddler to use their mind to find solutions to problems. One of the most important parts of imaginative play is for the child to pretend to be someone else or in different situations.
This type of play helps promote a toddler’s learning through using role play to develop their imagination. They will also be developing their emotional and social skills, sharing skills, manipulative skills, language and communication skills through this type of play. Not only this but it helps a child build on his or her self confidence and feelings of security.
Kids Play and Imagination
Through imaginative play, a child might run around, pretending he or she is a horse or a dog, an aeroplane or a train. At 3-4 years, they often do this on their own. At other times, an adult could encourage imaginative play so the child might explore new situations and fantasy worlds. This will help the child to explore their feelings and the world around them in a safe, supervised environment.
Children at this age are at Piaget’s preoperational stage. During the years from 2 to 6 Piaget saw the evidence of symbol use in many aspects of child’s behaviour. Children this age beginning to pretend in their play for example at age 2 or 3 or 4 a broom may become a horse, or a block may become a train.
Imaginative play, through building towers out of bocks, talking to and feeding their dolls, making tea with the tea set and dressing in grown-up clothes is important and should never be classed as trivial… Neither should soft toys or dolls be rejected as inappropriate for any age of either sex.
Examples of Imaginative Play Activities
Ask the children to make a pirate ship out of large cardboard boxes. They might make telescopes or binoculars out of kitchen tubes and a flag for their boat out of newspaper. Hats could be made and painted for them to wear while they’re at sea in their imaginary boat. How does this kind of play help in a child’s learning? As the children play with each other, they will be using their communication and language skills.
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July 24, 2010
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