Welcome!  The most valuable gift you can give your child, grandchild, niece, nephew or other important child in your life, is quality time.  It’s not easy coming up with ideas for that special day or weekend.  In this website, I’ve tried to give you ideas of fun days and weekends that revolve around a great book.  We all know that children’s literature can come alive so I’ll try to show you ways to do just that!  I’ve included fun educational activities in science, math, language skills, art and cooking projects.  I’ve also included gift ideas that include books and related items that will lead to that fun day.  If you try some of the ideas, I’d love to hear from you.  Send me a photo of the special day you shared. The easiest way to view the different books I’ve written about is to click the “view all” link on the left.  There you can see each of the books I’ve written about.  Click on the one you’d like to read about.  I hope you find an idea that sounds like fun for you and your child!  If you’d like ideas on a specific topic, just ask!

Giving the kids in your life books for the holidays, isn’t always the most popular gift.  But, pick out the perfect book, combine it with a related gift and a coupon for a fun day/weekend of activities that bring that book to life and you’ve got the perfect gift!  Your relationship will grow closer as you both learn and have a wonderful time.  Each time they read their book, they’ll remember all the fun times you had!  Hopefully you can find a book and gifts below that sound like the child in your life!

During the next week, I’ll post great book selections for holiday gifts along with some ideas on gifts to accompany the book.  This post will include the materials you will need to gather for the gift.  I’ll follow up In December and January giving more detail about using the materials when the child in your  life is ready to redeem their fun day or weekend coupon,you’ll be a ready!

Watch for updates here as to holiday gifts ideas I have posted.  I’ll update this with each new funstruction.  I will start with the book and the materials you’ll need to gather to make an exciting gift and then I’ll come back and complete the funstruction with details for each project.  Don’t forget to include the coupon (fill in your name) for a funstruction weekend with each of your gifts.  Quality time spent together with the kids in your life is the most valuable gift you can give!  I hope funstructions gives you lots of ideas for how to plan that quality time.

This suggestion is for any kids who are learning their alphabet (ages 3-7).  
My kindergarten students loved this book and we read it over and over!  
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by, Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault.

Gifts that can go with this book include:
A pail full of sand, a cute beach towel and magnetic letters (they’ll love digging through the sand to pull out a letter!) These letters can be used later on the refrigerator to keep kids busy spelling words while meals are being prepared.  I would recommend lower case letters like these:
http://www.amazon.com/Megcos-Magnetic-Lowercase-Affordable-LMID-1097/dp/B0023ASUTI
A pair of cool sunglasses, flip flops and a lei from the party store help kids get in the mood for reading this fun alphabet story too.

Another fun gift is to give them a small photo album (7x5 inch works well but any album that will fit one photo per page and has at least 14 pages).  Buy a set of alphabet stickers (at least one inch letters, preferably both capitals and lower case letters).  Leave the first page for your title page.  Start with the letter Aa (it is best if you have both a capital and lower case letter) and place the stickers in one of the corners of the page, leaving space for your photo.  Then when you are ready for your project, you and your child will take pictures of him/her for each of the letters.  Thinking up the photos is half the fun.  Here’s a few ideas, I’ll include more in the complete Chicka Boom Funstruction:  ___ eating an apple, ___ hugging a bear, ___with a cute cat, ___ digging a hole, ___ eating eggs etc.  You see how fun it can be.  You can also go somewhere fun like a zoo or the park to take some of the photos.  This activity can last a weekend or several weekends as you add to this special ABC book.  Your child will love “reading” it over and over while learning his/her letters and sounds.  If you have pages left, add photos of family members with their names printed below the photos to help them learn each of their names.

Watch for lots more ideas in the Chicka Boom Funstruction coming soon!  This should get your gift giving season started.