a peek inside the fishbowl

I think that one of our jobs as parents is to help our kids achieve the things that they want to achieve. This is why we do things like drive them to their various lessons/activities/sports camps, sit in the rain/bleachers/boiling sun while they pursue said activity… help them with their homework, and generally just Give Them a Leg Up when we can.

What if your child has creative and artistic inclinations? Well, we take them to concerts and museums, watch great films together, let them doodle and paint and track glitter all over the house, and then some. So when Blurb contacted me with an idea that furthers our goal of fostering the creative spirit at home, well, I had to share it here.*

Some of you already know that you can print your own photo books with Blurb. We’ve been making one every Christmas for my inlaws since the girls were small. Each one is a compendium of that year’s best photo moments, and after all these years it’s turned out to be a really neat way of tracking our family history. But there’s so much more potential when it comes to self-publishing, and not just in the area of photo books. Children’s books are apparently one of the fastest-growing categories of self-publishing, but have you ever thought of handing the reign over to your kids and seeing what THEY can create? Kids can be authors and illustrators too, and who knows, once they see their name in print it might inspire them to become writers, designers, or photographers.

Blurb gave us a promo code to try their service, which we haven’t cashed in yet, but we will. We gifted it to our youngest, who spent most of March Break writing and revising a novella. (I am not even kidding.) She has learned so much during this process: character development, settings, present v. past tense, not to mention hard-core spelling and grammar practice … but the biggest lesson of all has been that it’s a lot of work to write and illustrate her book. She’s still not done – BUT – there is a cover:

After it’s been edited we’ll lay it out together using Blurb’s templates. Which I think will be fun.

Here are a few ideas off the top of my head if you’d like to get your kids involved in a self-publishing project.

• Do you have a favourite family bedtime story, one that’s special to your family? Write it down and get your child to illustrate it.
• Younger kids might enjoy helping write and illustrate a counting or ABC book. If your child is a bit older, they can write their own story, or maybe a collection of short stories, or poems, or favourite family memories.
• Compile a bunch of photos from a recent family holiday and have your child write the text to go with each photo.
• Jot down your favourite recipes, take photos, and use them to create your own family cookbook.  This may be a good opportunity to immortalize grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe!
• Does your child crank out a lot of artwork at preschool? Take high-res photos of a few favourites (HA. Just TRY and narrow it down to 40-50) and have your child explain the meaning behind each one.

This is only scratching the surface. I’m sure there are a million other great kid-friendly publishing ideas out there!

Would you like to try Blurb out for yourself? If so, read on:

• This giveaway is for a $40 promo code to redeem for a printed book at Blurb.
• In order for your entry to qualify, please leave a comment below telling me what you’d make if you won.
• For a second entry, leave a comment on this Facebook post. (But don’t forget to let me know that you did that in a second, separate comment below.)
• This giveaway open to Canadian residents but is void where prohibited by law.
• If you can’t post your comment for whatever reason you can email it to me for posting at andrea at quietfish dot com. Please note, I cannot be responsible if your entry is misdirected or gets stuck in my Spam folder!
• I will draw one name using Random.org at noon EST on March 25.

*Transparency alert! Although Blurb gave us a promo code in order to make a book, these opinions are my own. As always.  

We decided to check out a new trail this weekend, another one in the Stony Swamp network of trails near Bell’s Corners. I’m glad we went, because this trail is another keeper. See how happy it made us?

It’s a short trail. If I had to guess I’d say it clocks in at around 2.5 km, which makes it a nice length for young families and new skiers, and for people like me who just like to dart out and have a shorter ski experience every now and again.

It weaves smoothly through the forest – alternating between deciduous trees with stands of cedar – with little bumps here and there to keep the spirits up. It’s very pretty.

Want to check it out before the season ends? Check the NCC map here. Park at P4 (it’s off Timm Road) and find the start of the trail. It’s to the left of the parking lot. You’ll ski for about two minutes before you need to take your skis off to cross the road. OR, you can go right from the parking lot and try trail 22 from the parking lot (which I noticed is also marked 21 on the map). We haven’t tried that route but it’s next on our list.