Naming and defining the 'scrap book'
Bev Jeffery has just posted this comment which raises a very valid point.
"Just wondering what a scrapbook is? When my children were in primary school this was a book with blank paper inside for drawing or putting
work sheets in. I don't think this is what you are after."
I agree with her, but as explained we have never come up with a satisfactory name or description for this all important item. There is no prescriptive way either to make the scrap books. Perhaps this is a good place to discuss this too.
Let's start at the beginning. The idea was born out of the fact that the small creches we distribute blankets too, have no aids of any sort, almost no books, posters etc. It was suggested that we could cut and paste images from magazines into scrap books and send them if there was spare room in the packages with the squares.
Soon after this we met and interviewed a child hood development specialist, who explained that damage to young brains from various deprivations (such as not having parents) was pretty much a given. On the hopeful side he maintained that activities, such as visual stimulation, would greatly assist.
Subsequent to our very recent visit to South Africa, we further realised the impact these 'scrap books' would have on a child (and their carers, who do such an amazing job with virtually nothing). The children sing and dance a lot which is wonderful.
Initially the discussion was any form of visual stimulation, such as pictures of where you live, but since then, members like Helen Flagg's church group have been making 'ABC and 123' scrap books.
This is also an activity that we have included in the KasKids School Program, which is in development. Great thing for children to do for other children, don't you agree.
Anyway, thanks Bev, for raising this valuable discussion. Look forward to everyone's comments.
PS. If any of you have any photos of your version of a scrap book, please post them here. Thanks.
"Just wondering what a scrapbook is? When my children were in primary school this was a book with blank paper inside for drawing or putting
work sheets in. I don't think this is what you are after."
I agree with her, but as explained we have never come up with a satisfactory name or description for this all important item. There is no prescriptive way either to make the scrap books. Perhaps this is a good place to discuss this too.
Let's start at the beginning. The idea was born out of the fact that the small creches we distribute blankets too, have no aids of any sort, almost no books, posters etc. It was suggested that we could cut and paste images from magazines into scrap books and send them if there was spare room in the packages with the squares.
Soon after this we met and interviewed a child hood development specialist, who explained that damage to young brains from various deprivations (such as not having parents) was pretty much a given. On the hopeful side he maintained that activities, such as visual stimulation, would greatly assist.
Subsequent to our very recent visit to South Africa, we further realised the impact these 'scrap books' would have on a child (and their carers, who do such an amazing job with virtually nothing). The children sing and dance a lot which is wonderful.
Initially the discussion was any form of visual stimulation, such as pictures of where you live, but since then, members like Helen Flagg's church group have been making 'ABC and 123' scrap books.
This is also an activity that we have included in the KasKids School Program, which is in development. Great thing for children to do for other children, don't you agree.
Anyway, thanks Bev, for raising this valuable discussion. Look forward to everyone's comments.
PS. If any of you have any photos of your version of a scrap book, please post them here. Thanks.
Tags: AIDS, Africa, African, children, creches, in, need, of, orphan, orphans
Views: 51
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on -
Well - I just think of these as "picture books". The photos below show some of the early ones I made and sent.
I have just found out that the craft director for the Vacation Bible School at our church will be devoting one day to having our campers make some of these books. We are expecting about 240 kids this year.
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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The following was posted in the IDEAS category several months ago when the idea of picture books first came up. I have cut and pasted it here
Picture books that could be tucked in with our squares are cheap and easy to make, definitely have no commercial value....... and even our kids can join in - making these if they are too young to knit.
Since a lot of the children who are receiving blankets have virtually nothing to call their own, Ronda might be able to hand these out wherever she sees the need.
I have posted a photo of my first attempts... and along the way, I learned a couple of things I’ll pass on here.
I made most of the books from construction paper, folded in half. The best way I found to assemble them (after trying staples, tying with wool etc.) is this: Fold the construction paper in half, mark the two spots where you want to punch holes, reinforce with a small piece of clear tape and punch the hole right on the fold. When the book is done, insert length of wool through the two holes and tie. The other versions I tried do not open as well as they do using this method..
My Dollar Store has an 18 page pack of card stock in funky colours and kids’ patterns for only $1:00. (Found this in the scrap-booking section). Cut to size, it makes lovely sturdy covers for the books.
I used rubber cement for gluing, but a good quality glue stick would work equally well. White glue tends to produce a 'crinkly' effect.
Old kindergarten - grade 2 ‘workbooks’ that were headed for the thrift shop are full of neat pictures, cheap dollar store books are another source of fun pictures and stickers work well too.
These are not meant to last forever, so I have not worried about laminating..... Just having fun putting them together. -
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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Classroom borders found in my dollar store for $1.00 make great alphabet and number books
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Permalink Reply by Sandy McDonald on -
That is awesome Anne about the Vacation Bible School. Perhaps the craft director would let us know how it goes and we could use that to inspire other similar vacation schools.
And indeed picture books are as vitally stimulating as numbers and letters. I love the number stickers book below. What this picture shows is that their are a wide variety of ways to do the books, although from an education point of view the numbers and ABC's may prove to be more valuable.
What input from any primary school teachers do we have?
Also as we have lots of pencils arriving, it may be a good thing to include a few blank pages in the back in which children could draw. Some of the older children in the creches may even be able to practice their alphabets. -
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Permalink Reply by jen phillips on -
Anne, your books are lovely. I wish I had half your imagination - lol. Once I am taught a skill I can usually manage reasonably well but I am not very good at coming up with new ways of doing things or new ideas.
I wonder if the books shown on Bev Qualheim's blog (bevq.blogspot.com quiet books) could give Kascreatives some ideas. Some of the pictures shown have super ideas for tactile experiences: a bunny with a ribbon round its neck that can be tie and untied, ribbons with beads that can be played with, a shoe with a lace to teach kids how to tie laces - these are just some of the ideas I spotted. She also gives links to other books that maybe useful.
Large alphabet letters and numbers with a rough surface, marked with directional arrows would be good for finger tacing, another tactile experience.
For left to right eye movement (pre-reading exercise) a dog, on the left, has to follow the line to his bone on the right - a bee on the left, to a flower on the right - a rabbit to his carrot, etc, etc. The lines don't have to be as straight as a die as long as they go from left to right.
Now I'll have to go and pick the brains of friend in our village who once started a pre-primary for African children, in town. -
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Permalink Reply by Dawne Smith-Sliming on -
Scrapbooks have been much on my mind lately. I see them as informal curricula; teaching aids for caregivers who can't run out to the local education resource center.
I spoke with a friend of mine who is a brilliant mathematician and she had some good suggestions for very young children and pre-math skill development. Laminated mazes and connect the dots with special crayons that wipe off was one of her ideas. Another is anything that encourages patterning.
Laminated sheets would be very useful too for practicing writing. Just laminate writing paper (one can do a quick google for various sizes of writing paper) and send along the special crayons or marker.
My thinking has been to create something that more than one child can use. Good quality sheet protectors might work as a cheaper substitute for laminating. We'd have to experiment to see if it is dry erase or wet erase markers that would work with sheet protectors.
I love all the scrapbooks that have been made. I think the colour and the topics are wonderful. Children can sit with a book and look at it or a creche caregiver can use it as a teaching aid. Given the number of languages spoken in S. Africa I favour books with lots of visuals/pictures that the caregivers can use as needed. And, of course, the emphasis on learning English means that whatever we send with English language development would be useful as well.
I don't think we can go wrong in the area of scrapbooks. I think even sending a few now and again with blank insides would be welcomed and useful.
In my mind the scrapbooks fall into 2 categories; a single book to be enjoyed or owned individually and group resources in support of the caregivers. -
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Permalink Reply by Paulette Pronk on
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What wonderful input Anne...much more to think about for scrap-booking for the children..plan to get the grandchildren involved this summer with this. I did not realize laminated sheets could be written on with special crayons or markers...what I look for I am guessing will say that they will wipe off??? dry erase...this has me thinking of how is it best to connect pages???? I just glanced threw the wonderful input and will retrack to see if I missed anythings...They may beable to tell me how to assemble laminated pages at the business store..hope???....THANKS...I am all for learning..education is an open door for children.
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Permalink Reply by Dawne Smith-Sliming on
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Dry erase makers work very nicely on sheet protectors and wipe clean with a dry tissue or napkin.
Sheet protectors have many advantages over laminated pages:
cheaper
no machine needed
twine or yarn through the holes on the side will make a book
caregivers can change what is in the sheet if they have access to some materials; especially anything written in a language other than English
I do not know if dry erase crayons would work on the sheet protectors or not. I don't have any in the house to test out. Crayola and other brand names have dry erase crayons now. I think people are moving away from the markers because if left uncapped they can dry up so quickly. My Staples, here in Canada, has 8 Crayola dry erase crayons for $4.49 which is not a bad price b/c the crayons will last a long time. Office Depot may have them as well.
I am going from memory when my children were younger so I could be wrong but I think that laminated objects work well with wet erase markers. -
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Permalink Reply by Anne Powell on
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Some more book ideas - these are posted by Dawn Blake
Word books and times tables - posted Mar 9/10
13 Books and bookmarks - posted Feb 5/10
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Permalink Reply by Dawne Smith-Sliming on
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These are wonderful! Exactly the sort of thing school teachers can get excited about making with their children in support of other children. Way to go Dawn!
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Permalink Reply by Sandy McDonald on
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Thanks so much Anne for re-pasting these pics and reminding us of all the work that had already been done. Everything has it's time and I so hope that what was busy percolating, will now take root as part of the KAS culture.
And so to a name and description. Any ideas? Clearly my loose term 'scrap books', doesn't do the job.
Agree with you Dawne, that there are two categories, individual books and creche-carer teaching AIDS. -
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Permalink Reply by Sue Gillman on -
We're going to have to break out the chocolate fish for the winner of the naming game. So I will wade right in and make a suggestion. What about Care books? I tried KAScare books but lol look at the spelling!Or KASKIN books?
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