All of our family and friends live over an hour away, in different states and even different countries. I designed a little book for my daughter so she could see her family anytime she wants and quickly learn names and faces of relatives.
This is an idea I wanted to share if you also have family members who your children don’t see very often. It’s a great way to familiarize your baby or toddler with relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc. even if you’re separated by far distances.
I titled it “Brielle’s Book of Family” and it has photos of her with every family member. Each person got their own page and a picture that I took of them and my daughter.
Now with FaceTime it is easy to see family members who are at far distances, but often we get too busy to call every day or even every week. This is a great tool for your kids to look at in between family visits and phone calls.
Snapfish is a great service that makes beautiful books and is always offering amazing deals. This is an 8×8 book and it’s the perfect size.
My daughter absolutely loves looking through the pages, pointing at each person and saying their name, and also seeing all the photos of herself too.
This book is a great tool to help them learn new words. They’ll start to practice saying and recognizing names like mama, pop pop, nana, etc.
It will encourage them to learn how to point. Pointing and using their index finger is a developmental skill that arises around their 1st birthday. Using a book of pictures or items that they are familiar with will help improve that skill. Just point to a photo and have them mimic your pointing. If they don’t do it on their own, fold their other 4 fingers back and with your hand over their hand, have them point out the photo of the person you’re talking about.
They can get familiar with body parts. Since these are photos of real people instead of drawings or cartoons, you can help teach them body parts on others through out the book. Point out the eyes, nose, mouth, etc.
They will practice turning pages in a book. My daughter loves her board books, but this is one of her only books that has regular paper pages. She’s now able to turn these thin pages which requires more precise fine motor skills.
It will help them to recognize relatives that they don’t see as often. Your child may not have that stranger/separation anxiety when they see an unfamiliar relative because they’ll recall their faces from the photos. It’s even helpful for family that they do see often. My daughter loves to point at our pictures and yell out ‘mommy daddy’.
Make your own family book for your baby or toddler and watch how amazed they are to see a book with photos of themselves and those they love!
