I started Doman method of reading with my son, when he was 18 months and did it on and off, and even stopping for almost 2 months. We picked it up again and were consistent for 3 weeks. Then at age 25 months, he showed some early signs of him starting to recognize some words. I was so thrilled when he could read the names of the animals ( he loves them) such as cat, dog, lion, giraffe etc.
I am now on a mission to spice up his reading activities so he can enjoy his reading sessions. SOOO my questions is:
Has anyone tried to recreate any of the popular children’s books by making own with bigger fonts?
There are tons of excellent books, and my son loves them, mainly doe to the pictures, the words however are small. So i ws thinking of cutting out the pictures and putting them on one page, while having a bigger printed page of the words preceding it.
One thing I did for my little guy is I went to the library and checked out early readers. I then scanned all the pictures at home and typed the words up on a seperate page. The little readers already meet the criteria for 50 words or less and have the words listed in the back. This way I don’t have to spend money on books that I am planning on cutting up. The words listed in the back allow me to quickly make a powerpoint presentation for review.
Usually the first page requires a little editing as it always had the words on the picture, but that was easy. I just copied a piece of the picture that would blend well and pasted it over the words. Hardly noticeable at all. I laminated the books, of course, as little people are unintentionally destructive.
I used the title page as the book cover, because the book cover was usually covered in barcodes and stickers.
To respect the copyright laws… one can use another method:
I make my kid special books using themes he likes and images from coloring pages found on websites.
For instance, I made him “Wild Mammals in Romania”. The title is written with big letters, one word per page, and then we have the word of the wild mammal on one side of a page, and on the other I printed the animal from images found on the internet at coloring pages. Before showing the word, I put a page with the first letter of the word in Caps. It’s more complicated, but it worths. I teach him the alphabet and the words and so on. I colored myself each word and letter (I made them using WordArt in MSWord) and each animal. I have fun because in my childhood I wasn’t so much into coloring, but now I am! lol
Another example is that I use the books that http://www.kizclub.com shares at the reading section. But I modify them: I put the words on a page, and the images on the other, just like we learnt in Doman method. One can laminate them, if possible. I don’t. I use cardboard, as I bought planty of it when I tried using the traditional DM.
Or, because I like to make DM books about well known stories, I can use images that others sell as educational drawing boards. We can find those in black and white on the internet shared as plans for lessons (take for instance “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” or “The Napping House” - I’ve found some useful images on them), or colored at bookstores or publishers (we have some in Romania, sold by few publishers).
There are other ways to make books… but it’s not legal… so I don’t talk about it. :ph34r:
Haha! Thank you Annisis and Andreasro. My son loves animals, so I ordered the National geographic encylopedia of animals and few other baby animal books, I plan on cutting the picture and gluing it on a bigger page and typing up the same story line or make up my own script of words to describe the animal or ask a question with clues or stories. Since it’s a home made book, i can remove the pages and change it around making it from one word to couplets to a sentence etc. using same pictures. I love the idea of the library, and would only look into it for ideas.
Quick question, Would the copyright law still apply if I buy the book, but then use its drawings and story line to recreate a doman style book?
It is my understanding that “destroying” a book (pulling it apart and reassembling it to your needs) is not part of the copyright laws. I believe it only applies to COPYING or reproducing it - physically or electronically. So, if you own it, it’s yours to do with as you like - you just can’t distribute it for the use of anyone else - given freely or sold - it’s ONLY for you.
If you want to take apart books and reassemble them I know that our local second hand store has books super cheap! That might be an alternative. In fact, when my son was a baby I bought board books there for 25cents and recovered them with my own photos of him and things he was interested in.
Kizudo, I live in Bahrain, and I was online right now searching for places I can buy books for real cheap. Do they ship or is it only by going in and purchasing? I dont need them to ship it to bahrain, they can ship within US as well as long as they do.
I can’t imagine that they’d ship books. It’s really a gamble - sometimes there are good books, sometimes not. You’d have to look through their collection yourself. Waterdreamer always seems to have good luck there. I am a former teacher so I have books galore in my own collection so up until now I haven’t looked myself. Do you not have second hand stores in Bahrain? I have found a lot of learning tools in ours - for crafts, game pieces for patterning, counting, making words.
BTW, thanks for introducing me to a new country I hadn’t heard of your island (set of islands) before. You have some beautiful architecture there!
Oh your welcome, and thanks for the feedback. Im actually from NJ, and have been living in Bahrain for past 6.5 years. It’s a small island country, also known as Kingdom of Bahrain. It’s not bad, just small. Majority of books here would be from UK, and the American ones are expensive. I do keep a lookout for garage sales and what not to see if I can get lucky. Until, then, ebay and amazon are my go to places for books.
Hi you could also include photo’s of your child and then explain what he is doing .this is explained in Doman’s book.
example in one page u put the image and the next page the words : Alan is eating yellow banana.
u will realize your kid would love seeing his loved ones, his own photos; dad, mom ,grandpa, grandma, siblings, pets and friends. This is another method to introduce names of family members to kids easily.
i make lots of photos and daily words with her.My daughter loves flipping the pages looking at herseld n other family members.
Baba, so far, that is what I have been doing with him. Since he loves animals, I have made some stories about my son going ot the zoo and seeing his favorite animals and what they are doing. He LOVES it. But I made those on Keynote(Powerpoint). I wanted to make actual physical books, since he likes to read from other books.
Ann, I think you can start as soon as you have built up from single words, to couplets, to sentences. OR you can even make a book of single words, as long as its, one page big red/or black words and then following is picture. Like Baba suggested, initially having your family and child in the pictures will make the child want to read more and look through the book.
I like Dr. Seuss books, and intend on using some words from the book to use it in flashcards first. Then make a shorter version of his story on keynote, and then introduce his book, so then this way, my son, will know the words and get excited to be holding a book and reading somethign he is familiar with. Just another suggestion.
Oh and last bit, I got an idea from this book on Amazon. They are a series actually by Kingfisher and there are several baby animals in various different settings. Few of them include, Animal Babies Around the House, Animal Babies around the farm, etc. What I liked about them was, it is filled with very descriptive, bright and real pictures of the animals, it gives a clue by showing picture of baby animal, then it shoes the baby with mother and names both, i.e. pig/ piglet. That gave me an idea to make something similar for my son, and the pictures can be found easily online. =)
How old is your son? If he still likes to hold board books you can cover the pages with your photos and words and make it look like a “real” book. Mother of Faith has posted some examples in the free download area of this forum site on how to do it. It’s really quite easy and they look good - I made one and was quite pleased with it. Now my son is “too big” for board books - I’m sure he’d look at them, but, I’m afraid not enough to make it worth the effort of making it…for now duotang books are just fine
Kizudo, he is 25 months. I checked out the thread and even though I like the idea, don’t think it will work out for me. I plan on making lots of books, and having it shipped her will be expensive. I will stick to an idea suggested by someone about using magnetic album. I thought it was such a great idea, I had just put one huge album out in a box for giveaway… im pulling it out so I can use it’s pages with a smaller album… hehe…
Also, I liked your idea of the album flipbook. I tried to follow it, don’t know if it’s me (its almost 3 am here) or I need to see images to understand it better, but if you can show some pictures of it, would really appreciate it. Im thinking of using it for flashing words and couplets for him. Really excited to try these out. =)
What font do you use and how many words can you fit on a page? My baby won’t need books for a year but I’d like to get a head start on making them. Doman suggests that a 2 year old will probably still need 2 inch letters. The most I can fit on a page at 2 inches is about 6 words. None of the books I really like (like Dr Seuss) have that few words per page. I tried writing m own version of a fairy tale to fit the pages and I got bored reading it. Am I stuck with short sentances I find boring until she’s 3?
I hadn’t heard of your island (set of islands) before. You have some beautiful architecture there!
I will have to change my methods. Guess I will be buying some books then. :mellow: