When my son was almost two, we took a weekend trip to St. Louis. After the trip, we co-created a book about the experience. We looked through pictures and talked about what we did. Then I wrote the words he said and formed them into complete sentences. He illustrated the pages with crayons. This is one form of a Co-Created Experience Book.

There are many benefits of a Co-Created Experience Book and certainly a variety of finished products. Doing it together will help your child describe the place using multiple senses and seeing the same events from multiple points of view. This type of creative storytelling can also activate bonding with your child through mirror neurons.

Benefits:

1. Identifying key moments of the trip by filtering what would be included or not in the book.
2. Being able to re-read the book means that neural pathways will be strengthened and trip moments will be remembered.
3. Development of a voice in narrating their own views of an experience.
4. Storytelling activates bonding with your child through mirror neurons.

Types of Finished Products:

1. Use blank paper or a small notebook to write a sequenced story about the trip together.
   • Tip: As additional support, look through pictures or ask questions like “What happened next?”
2. Pretend that your child is a fictional character and write a story about the trip from their point of view. (Miles the Moose is the main character in many of our adventure stories.)
3. Use a template like the one below to write and illustrate the trip through a trip review or journal style.