Hellobee

My eldest son Alec just started kindergarten(!). At a parent meeting this week, Alec’s teachers talked about what they will be working on this year, stressing that kindergarten (in Sweden) is not about learning to learn or write, but about sparking an interest in language and communication through words. The teachers also stressed the advantages that children from “reading homes” have in the development of their vocabularies, love for reading and general communication skills. There won’t be any homework for Alec this year, but they want us to read a ton with the kids, and for them to also see us read for pleasure.

I thought a fun way to explore communicating through written words would be for Alec and me to try out journaling together. He can draw and play around with letters and words, and I can help him to write what he wants to say. To make it more enticing, I made him a little journal to get started with. This is an easy little beginner bookbinding project that you can do in well under 30 minutes and using stuff that you probably already have at home. You could use these notebooks for a million different things. And there are a million different ways to make them – you can bind books of any size, using any paper and any number of string options.

All you need is:

• Cover paper – for this notebook I used a paper bag. You can use any type of heavier paper – card stock, wallpaper, craft paper. You could even cover card stock in a fabric you like or contact paper.
• Printer paper – for the inside. Any colour you like.
• String – I used cotton twine but you could use any string or ribbon you like.
• A needle (optional)
• A pin or something else to punch small holes with.
• Scissors or a paper cutter.
• A ruler (optional)
• Paint or stamps or stickers or whatever else you want to use to decorate the cover.

Take six sheets of printer paper, make a tidy pile and fold it in half. You could use more or less paper, and you could cut it in half if you want to make smaller booklets. Place the folded pile on your cover paper, trace around the printer paper, and cut out the cover. If you want you can let the cover be a little big bigger than the filler paper. Tuck the printer paper into the cover.

Open your booklet, and, using a pin, make five evenly spaced holes through the spine of the printer paper. I’m a lazy crafter so I eyeballed the holes a little. If you are going to sew your booklet with a needle and thread, a teeny hole is enough. I just used twine, so I made my holes a little bit bigger with the help of a nail and the point of my scissors. You can also bind your book using just three holes, or seven. Just make sure you have an uneven number.

Now sew. Start from the inside of your booklet. Save several inches of string and go from the inside to the outside of the middle hole. Thread your string back through from the outside to the inside, one hole up from the middle. Then thread from the inside to the outside through the top hole. Continue downwards going from the outside to the inside of the second hole down. Then from the inside to the outside of the middle hole. Then from the outside to the inside through the second hole from the bottom. And finally from the inside to the outside through the bottom hole and from outside to inside in the second hole from the bottom.

Tighten everything up and tie of the loose ends. Your notebook is done and ready to decorate!