I’d love to hear from the parents, grandparents and carers in this community: do you generally spend more money on children’s books or toys? 🤔 When deciding what to buy, what influences you most? - Educational value - Entertainment and enjoyment - How long the child will use it - The child’s age and interests - Price and value for money - Whether it encourages creativity, imagination or family time Do you see books as an essential investment in a child’s development, or do interactive toys tend to offer better value because children may play with them repeatedly? Are you more likely to buy books regularly but spend larger amounts on toys for birthdays and Christmas? If you’re happy to share, please include the child’s age and whether you usually buy physical books, activity books, colouring books, audiobooks or digital books. I’m curious to understand not only which category receives more of your budget, but also why. 😊

Whether you’re taking a staycation or having a wild adventure, it’s always helpful to learn about where you’re visiting. My first career was in the hospitality industry and we always had to know what local events were happening. Why not use today’s story prompt to create your own travel guide for your neighborhood or an imaginary one. You can always revisit the Story Lab in the Classroom for more ideas or to get some ideas for different aged kids click the link #Welcome, Traveler! Someone new has just arrived in your imaginary world, and they have absolutely no idea how things work. Create a travel guide that helps them explore, stay out of trouble, and discover something they might otherwise miss. Gather Your Gear * Paper or cardstock * Pencil, crayons, or markers * Optional: folded paper to make a brochure * Optional: magazines or scrap paper for collage * Optional: map from Day 2 or another imaginary world you’ve created * Optional: props for pretending to be a traveler or local guide Steps 1. Choose your destination. Return to a world you’ve already created or invent somewhere completely new. 2. Give travelers the basics. What is this place called? What might visitors notice first? Who or what lives there? 3. Choose three must-see places. They could be beautiful, exciting, strange, funny, or even slightly dangerous. Draw, describe, or act them out. 4. Share some local knowledge. What do people here eat? How do they travel? How do they greet each other? What do they do for fun? Add details that make this place feel different from home. 5. Issue a travel warning. Every visitor should know at least one thing to avoid. Maybe you never whistle near the Whispering Woods or feed a cloud after midnight. 6. Reveal a local secret. Add something only an experienced traveler or local resident would know: a shortcut, hidden place, unusual custom, secret menu, mysterious creature, or surprising fact. 7. Welcome your traveler. One person becomes the visitor while someone else becomes a local guide. Take the traveler on a tour using your guide, drawings, map, props, or imagination.

I’d love to hear from the parents, grandparents and teachers in this community: what types of stories can the children in your lives simply not get enough of? Are they obsessed with magical adventures, funny animals, mysteries, superheroes, friendship stories, fairy tales, spooky-but-cute characters — or something completely different? Please share their ages too, as I’d love to understand how children’s interests vary across different age groups. Your insights would be incredibly valuable to me as a children’s author! 😊 👉 I'm listening. 😉

Have you ever worked with miniatures? M mom and dad worked on a dollhouse project for years and now it's my daughters. Finding the perfect tiny lamp or couch is such an adventure and of course, you could make the items yourself. Today, our activity explores world building which works great for storytelling and also for adventure games such as the ones @Cam Parkes runs. He'll be doing a session on those during the Unplug & Play summit next month, too. So, let's ask ourselves and the children in our lives, "What if an entire world could fit on your kitchen table?" Can you build a miniature place from things you already have, then discover the stories hiding inside it. Gather Your Gear: Use whatever you have available. Possibilities include: - Cardboard or a box lid for a base - Building blocks - Paper and cardboard scraps - Cups, containers, or small boxes - Toy figures or animals - Fabric or yarn - Natural materials such as sticks, stones, or leaves - Tape - Scissors - Crayons or markers No special supplies are necessary. The challenge is to reimagine what you already have. Steps: 1. Choose your world. Decide what kind of place you're building. It might be underground, underwater, high in the clouds, inside a giant tree, on another planet, or somewhere completely your own. 2. Create the landscape. Establish the basic shape of your world. A towel might become an ocean. Cups could become towers. A cardboard tube might become a tunnel. 3. Make a place to live. Who or what lives here? Build at least one place that meets their needs. 4. Add something important. Create a place or object the inhabitants value. Maybe it's their only water source, a mysterious monument, the best gathering place, or something completely ridiculous. 5. Add a problem. Something about this world makes life interesting or difficult. A bridge has collapsed. The river keeps moving. Something lives beneath the town. Nobody knows what is inside the enormous box. 6. Enter the world. Use figures, objects, fingers, or your imagination to move through your creation. What happens when someone encounters the places and problems you've built? 7. Keep rebuilding. Move, remove, or add pieces as your play changes the world. Your creation doesn't need to stay the way it started.

I’d love to hear from the parents, grandparents, teachers and children’s authors in this community: what types of activity books do the children in your life enjoy most? 🤔 Do they prefer colouring, puzzles, mazes, word searches, spot-the-difference challenges, drawing prompts, stickers, quizzes, educational games or story-based activities? I’m especially interested in understanding why certain activities hold their attention. Is it the sense of achievement, the opportunity to be creative, the challenge, the characters or simply that the activities are fun? Please share the child’s age as well, as preferences can vary considerably between age groups. Your real-life experiences would be incredibly helpful to me as I develop future children’s activity books. 😊