If you want more ideas for your project, you can look through my library of quiet book patterns. You’ll also find instructions and free PDF patterns to help you make a quiet book. But before you do that, I’d like to give you some tips that will help you choose the best activities for your child. It’s easy to think of ideas for quiet books.
There are so many options, and the Internet has almost everything. But once you start digging, you have so many choices that you can’t decide what to do. There are only so many things you can do in a quiet book. If you have difficulty choosing which activity pages to do, you might never make this amazing toy.
If you think about your child’s age, interests, and needs and how nice and fun the activities look, it seems much easier to develop good ideas for quiet books. This chapter will discuss the main points of view that change depending on which activity pages you choose.
It will be easy to list quiet book ideas for activity pages you want to include in your quiet book. The most important thing you should take away from this chapter is that you should make a quiet book for your child that fits their age, needs, and interests. If you put these things together well, you can make your child the perfect quiet book.
Book Ideas for Your Child’s Age
Let’s see how a child’s age affects which ideas for quiet books are good for your book. People ask me, “What age are quiet books for?” We can make quiet books for kids as young as eight months and as old as twelve years.
It all relies on what kinds of movements we put in the quiet book. But children usually play with quiet books between 2 and 5. Most of the ideas for quiet books for kids this age can be found on the Internet. These books mostly have activities that help kids improve their fine motor skills.
First and foremost, you should believe in how safe a quiet book is for the child’s age. This is because young children tend to put everything in their mouths. Smaller pieces of a book that can be taken apart pose a risk of suffocation. Is your child older, and have they grown out of this? Then the quiet book may already have parts that can be taken out.
Quiet Book Ideas – Your Child’s Needs
We need to know how old a child is to help them reach important developmental milestones (motor skills, communication & language, social & emotional skills, cognitive skills). Check out the first chapter and write down the next steps you want your child to take. With this information, you can develop ideas for quiet books that help kids practise skills for a certain milestone.
Even though it’s helpful to know the general stages of child development, each child grows and changes differently. So, the most important thing you can do when choosing quiet book activity pages is to watch your child. Start coming up with ideas for quiet books by thinking about what the child likes and what they are interested in.
Ideas for quiet books – Your child’s interest
Observing your youngster for some time will make designing a book much simpler.
Think as you look at your child:
- What is it that she likes?
- What is she interested in?
- Which animal, food, or plant does she like the most?
- Does she enjoy vehicles?
- She likes going to a farm.
- Does she like to pitch in when you cook?
- Favorite color?
- Your favorite books, foods, and games?
Now, put these ideas together to make the best quiet book for your child. Based on what you’ve seen, please list things you’d like to help him improve. Think about what kinds of activities your child will benefit from the most in a year or two. We’ve got a list of silent book pattern activity kinds in our library and Chapter 1. You can make the perfect quiet book for your child by adding things they like and care about.
Getting the right ideas for quiet books
Here’s an example of how you could combine all three points of view to get the best ideas for your quiet book.
Age:
You want your kid to practise buttoning with a calm book now that s/he is old enough to learn how to do it.
Needs:
If they are learning how to button, you need to think about the size of the buttons. With bigger things, it’s easier to learn the basics. One big button is all you need to do an activity. Then, when they are ready, make a second one with smaller buttons.
Interests:
Try to think of ways to meet these needs while also meeting your child’s interests. Do they like cars and traveling? Then you can make buttons look like a car or tractor wheels. Do they like pets? Then you can use buttons to make the spots on the ladybug. Many of the ideas for quiet books found on different websites have many different activity pages.
In our library of quiet book patterns, you can also find designs that fit your child’s interests and needs. You can find patterns and detailed instructions for each activity page idea. I think you should save any pattern for an action that you think would be good for your quiet book as soon as you find it. Either on your computer or your Pinterest board if you have one.
You won’t have to perform the same work double when you need to find a page with guidelines you liked again. Make a list of your quiet book suggestions and activity pages: what will be on each page, and what challenges will it offer? For example, a ladybug page might have buttons, and a hippo page might have teeth-brushing, etc.
You’ll have a good thought of what your quiet book will be about and can start making it. If you can’t find a pattern in my library that fits your child’s age, needs, and interests, you can try making your own. If you think that doing this will slow you down, you don’t have to do it. Find something similar, a second choice. It’s ok. Your child will still be interested in what they are doing.
I should also say that quiet books can still be fun for older kids (6 and up) if the activities are made to fit their interests. For kids in grade school, ages 6 to 12, “quiet book activities” in soft mats, playscapes, or other things are sometimes better than a book. Also, think about other modes when actions need more space and are hard to fit into the pages of a quiet book.
Summing up
If you want to make the best quiet book for your child, you should think about how old they are, what they need, and what they like. You can find the trends in our Quiet book methods library, on other websites, or you can make your own. Quiet books can be good academic toys for kids of any age if you choose the right activities. If you’re having trouble coming up with good ideas for quiet books, feel free to ask me, and I’ll do my best to help. In the next chapter, you will study how to put your exercise pages together.