From Zoo Visit to Children’s Series: A Family Project
Thank you Aurthors’ Lounge for asking me to write an article for you in regard to our new book, Kaili’s Hippopotamus Adventure.
I came up with the idea of a children’s series after a visit to the Dallas Zoo with my sister and niece. At first, I thought maybe this was something that my sister and I could do to earn a little bit of extra money because it would allow me to use my writing skills and let my sister use her art skills for the coloring and activity pages. Although I still hope that these books bring in revenue, it has been fun working on them, and the kids love them.
My sister Samantha Dewars has a couple degrees in fine art and graphic designing. My first degree was in entrepreneurship and the current one I am working on is for writing. We both grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota and dreamed of living someplace warmer. She ended up on the beaches of California and I am in Texas.
She has kids and I am working with kids. I would say I may be a bigger animal lover than my sister because I spent most of my life working with animals, but the kids love them, so this was the perfect collaboration for us to do something together while living so far apart to keep us all connected.
Enhancing Creativity and Engagement with Interactive Coloring Pages
As an artistic and intelligent family, I wanted to implement coloring pages and activities for the kids to promote creativity and problem-solving skills. In doing so, these books let the kids switch between different parts of their brain throughout the book to help activate and increase the power of different areas.
It also helps to keep them engaged and not get bored too easily because the coloring and activities are sprinkled throughout the book. As soon as we finished Kaili’s book, my other niece had to have her own, too. We are almost finished with Leilani’s Leaping Lemurs.
Here is my Amazon Affiliate Earning Link for Kaili’s book. You can stay up to date with our new book releases on our Facebook page.
Books for All Ages: Catering to Different Developmental Stages
I can’t really say there is a particular age group for these books because while working with children ages three months to twelve years, I have found that they all grow at their own pace, physically and mentally. The hope is that parents or older siblings will help read to the ones that can’t and help with activities that may be more advanced to encourage working together and spending time with each other. I wanted to make sure there are coloring pages that are easy and some that are more difficult.
The same goes for the activities. Some are as easy as a maze or counting, while others involve word puzzles. By having a range of levels, the kids can do what they are comfortable with, but also work towards the more advanced ones. Being given the opportunity and encouragement to learn, win, and fail has been one of the most important parts of a child’s development that I have learned while studying psychology and sociology.
Sharing Book Recommendations for Wellness and Kids’ Education
Because I love reading books that help me with my own mental and physical well-being, I have found a lot of the information comes back down to childhood. So, some of the books that I read I also recommend on my personal blog page and let my guests know if it could be helpful for them or both, themselves and their kids here: https://www.crystalsvoicewritingandediting.com and here: https://www.facebook.com/crystalsvoice
My hope is that the Imagination Education Sister Series becomes a kid favorite and, as time goes on, perhaps we dabble in other educational material.
