Stepfamily Activity #2 - Make a Book to Illustrate

Being a step-parent is a daunting task, even when you get along with the kids. My stepdaughters live three hours away from me and visit every other weekend, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from being part of their lives! I sat down with them and we brainstormed 99 ways we could keep in touch. Here's Idea #2, "Make a book to illustrate."

It really doesn't matter how old your stepkid is, because most kids in general are illustrators. The hard task falls to you to make the characters and plot something your kid can draw about. Here again, you don't need to write a novel; you're just having some fun with your kid.

This idea works great via postal mail, so don't wait to physically be with your stepkid to get started.

Here's how to get your stepkid involved, "step by step."

1. Type or neatly hand write a simple story. Keep just a few words on the page and leave lots of white space for your kid to fill with drawings. Bind the pages together and get them in the mail with a note explaining what you're asking him to do.

2. Keep your kid's reading level in mind. Remember all those children's books you guys read together? Jump off those to find the right vocabulary and sentence structure.

3. Make the main characters easy to draw. Dogs and cats are good, but llamas probably not. If your main characters are people, make them familiar.

4. Throw in lots of fun concepts and silly adventures. The more improbable, the better. How about a chicken in a top hat? What if your main character shrank down to the size of a pin head, or grew as big as a whale?

5. Never be critical. Offer suggestions if your kid is stumped, but otherwise, just let him go.

This is one simple activity, a few moments with your heads together, but a priceless gift to your stepfamily relationship. Give it a try today, or try out one of the other 98 ideas our stepfamily would like to share with you.

Our stepfamily gathered all these ideas into one electronic book, so you don't have to get them one at a time--simply visit http://www.10000seeds.com/99things/99thingscb.html to purchase the wonderful eBook with all 99 ideas. In only moments, you can download these ideas and get started strengthening your stepfamily relationship.

What's a strong stepfamily worth to you? More respect from the kids, more support from your spouse, more lasting connections in those between-times when the kids aren't physically with you. Fewer arguments, fewer tantrums, fewer rejections.