PRIME TIME WITH KIDS Bookmark it!: Design elaborate bookmarks to keep track of your kids’ reading progress

Donna Erickson

Kids love to read about things that capture their interests: baseball, rainforests, dinosaurs. There are all kinds of online links to these subjects, plus multiple stacks of books for all reading levels available free to check out from your kids’ school and local library. Fiction and nonfiction.

But relishing a triceratops doesn’t have to stop with the book itself. Designing big, elaborate bookmarks to keep track of your kids’ reading progress and enhance hot topics can bring creative hours of fun and become real page-turners.

For an inspiring “after library” activity, here’s how to make some clever bookmarks to get kids rarin’ to plunge right in to book reading. These themed bookmarks are fun to handle, and a personalized way for your kids to keep track of their favorite books and subjects.

1. Cut strips of poster board about 4 inches by 12 inches.

2. Have your kids draw pictures that reflect the themes of the books they’ve chosen, and then cut them out. They also might want to flip through some magazines and cut out photos, or choose images from their sticker collection.

3. Arrange and affix the images and stickers on one side of the bookmarks. Add some decorative designs and borders with markers or watercolors.

4. Draw rows of lines on the backside for writing down the titles of the books they’re reading on that bookmark’s theme.

Parenting tip: If your youngest says, “But I can’t read yet!” while an older sibling is making his bookmarks, say: “No problem. What’s your book about?” She may look at the book’s pictures and say, “Puppies!” Hand her some paper and crayons, and encourage her to draw some puppies — any kind of puppies. And when you’re reading to her later that evening, stop at some point in the book and say: “Time to stop. Where’s that marker so we can finish this tomorrow night?” She’ll leap at a chance to use her creation.

Extra gift idea: Bookmarks make lovely, literate gifts. Collect colorful small flowers or colorful leaves, press them, and when they’re dry, glue the petals on both sides of a poster board strip, and cover with clear adhesive-backed plastic. Don’t forget about adding back-to-school class pictures. Grandparents would love to keep track of their grandchildren and the page number of the book they are reading at the same time.

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Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www.donnasday.com and link to the NEW Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.”

© 2017 Donna Erickson

Distributed by King Features Syndicate

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