Kids Making Books!

I'm normally about as comfortable around kids as a birthday pinata. Then my friend asked me to teach some of them a craft, as kids camp activity. Scary as that sounded, I agreed to build some character (mine) and teach them how to make books. Because that's what I know! What I didn't know is that these particular kids are extremely capable with scissors and fun to hang out with. Here's what tomfoolery occurred.

To be specific, we made made "chapbooks", which are small books with just one signature (one folded stack of pages). The pages and cover are held together with a really simple stitch. Anyway, after presenting the kids with a mess of offcuts and oddball-sized papers, I had them go to town decorating the book covers. We had quite an age range, from tots to preteens, but they all held their own, even the small ones! I only helped with stitching, really. And word spellings. The result was some neato books, some with their destiny already chosen; one kid announced that his book was for "jokes and feelings." Awesome.

Time flew by -- pretty much incident-free, no less! Many thanks to my husband, who was my designated helper. Without him being around to supervise I'm pretty sure somebody would have lost an eye/caught fire. Not really, but he did fetch extra supplies and make the kids laugh. Thanks baby!

I brought the stuff, but these guys brought the fun. Oh, but I did not bring snacks, as the little girl with the tiara pointed out. Oops, next time. Because I might actually do something like this again! Maybe.

Have you guys ever done a craft with kids? Any tips for smooth crafting?