Every time my children received cards for occasions like birthdays or Christmas I’ve been snipping up the characters, trucks, numbers – basically anything appealing on the cards so they don’t go straight in the bin.
I didn’t quite know what to do with this box as my children would typically just open it and pour all the contents on the floor, so I was ready to attic it.
Then my breakthrough came over a week ago.
I started telling visual stories with it! using a ‘random selection’ method to progress the story. So my eldest held a cut out of Lightning McQueen and we just went nuts. He was at the shops and bumped into Father Christmas and they went on an adventure and met a purple alien who invited them round for tea.
To my delight my children love this!!
I need to now incorporate this creativity into writing. I’ll have to do all the writing but if I can keep each story I think it’ll encourage my children to be more creative and think like little writers.
Cards aren’t just a waste of money after all!
Tan M Butler 