Using Nature: Leaves, Twigs, Rocks, Imagination
As a homeschooling family, we enjoy a lot of time in nature. When we read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, we were inspired to create our own leaf photos and story. If you have never read this book to your children, you are missing out. Put it on your list right now. I’ll wait. 😊
First, I want the kids to set the stage with either quick sketches of their story or a quick written summary or main points of interest for their stories. You can download my basic templates for that (HERE).
Next, we head out to gather leaves, twigs, nuts, berries, rocks, etc. depending on the season, and begin to lay out various scenes we want for the book. Sometimes we use all of the scenes we made in our final projects, other times, we only use a few. Just allow them to get creative.
We sit on the deck to do this in order to keep the kitchen floor less of a mess. Just a word of warning: the slightest breeze may destroy a “masterpiece” and discouragement will most likely follow if you are making your pictures outside. If you have a breezy day, take caution or bring your nature items indoors. Ask me how I know.
Once each scene is set up on a piece of white paper or posterboard, I snapped a photo from the top looking directly at it. Then, the board was cleared and a new scene was made and a photo taken.
This process can take a couple of hours or you can spread it out over a few days or a week. You may find this part a gateway to various rabbit trails. “Mom, what kind of leaf is this?” “Why is this rock so smooth?” “The bark on this tree pulls off easily, and kind of looks like paper. Can I draw a picture on this?”
Words That Paint a Picture
After our scenes are made and photos are taken, it’s time to create the story in its entirety. I print out small versions of their photos and they lay them out /glue them into a mockup story book. The kids begin to write a rough draft to their stories. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or punctuation at this point. We want them to get the story from their mind to the paper. This may take them a few days.
Into a Book
Once the story is written, editing can now take place. Sit with your child and read their story aloud or have them read it to you. This step alone will help them make corrections in grammar and punctuation.
Now, you are at a crossroads. You will need to decide whether you are going to type their story for them or have them type it. I suppose it really depends on the age here. Here is where spelling and punctuation will be corrected automatically, for the most part.
Using Canva to format the pages, I then uploaded our leaf photos, added their story, poem or other text, arranged the page order and downloaded the PDF.
From here, we upload that PDF of the book to our Amazon KDP account and use this print on demand service to print our books (and sell them) for free. If you were looking to make a buck on your books, this is not the site to instruct you. The goal for our family is making stories together that become a legacy project to pass down to their children and my grandchildren (Lord willing) one day. 🙂
I have no doubt we could create some really awesome books, but I don’t want to chase a dollar. I want to enjoy our journey together, mistakes, imperfection and just have fun. Each book is a time capsule in our homeschool and our family life. It’s fun to look back.
