We’ve been on a writing-kick lately, for homeschool.  Remember my A Fun Way to Encourage Handwriting post??  I’ve also raved about how great journals are for kids.  Yep, I’m still on one.  And, with Halloween coming up, my thoughts turned grim…well, gruesome.  My kids LOVE scary stories.  I think they’ve inherited my twisted mind.  So, I put all of our creepy thoughts to good use…we started a book.  Not the kind fancy kind of book that we want published, oh no.  Just the kind where we will pull it out, in a year from now, and crack up at our silly, scary stories.

I picked up a small notebook at Target, and gathered the kids in the craft room.  We decided that we would each write just one page, and then pass it to the next person.  We could only read just the page before ours, before we continued writing.  Not knowing the complete story was part of what made it so silly, in the end.  So, I went first, “Once upon a time, there was a girl who was asked to babysit three children, for a whole week.  The parents were going away on vacation…”  Then, I passed it on to Shane.  He wrote something about a stranger calling and being a total creep-face.

(There’s no Michael-Jackson-thing going on here…he’s just camera shy.)

DIY Family Spooky Stories Book

The book was then passed on to Caden.

Caden wrote a little something about the babysitter and kids being all scared, like a bunch of sissies.  Then, I wrote about how one of the kids randomly became possessed and had blood squirting out their eyes.  (I mean, really.  If we’re going to be scary, let’s do it right.)

Whoever wasn’t writing, was creating monsters with play dough.

There was terror in the street, attacks in the dark, and zombies taking over the world.  The book took giant leaps, it was hilarious.

They gave the story a name, and we left plenty of room in the notebook for additional stories.

They fashioned a book cover…

And, here it is!  A fun, spooky/silly book that we can add to and keep for memories…plus, it was another great way to practice handwriting and encourage creative thinking.  Fun for Halloween time, or really any time of the year.

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