'Familiar' book (with activities)

As you know, we are moving this week from Uruguay to the USA.  My children (ages 7 and 4) are not the super relaxed types who don't really care about such things (neither are we so surprise, surprise) so, to help ease the transition, I made each of them these little 'familiar' books.

I had this stack of plastic envelopes (they are approx. 20cm x 16cm) that we had DVD's in.  The kids have 15 sleeves each that I have connected with small rings.  I think they might be curtain rings - they open with a hinge - I can't even remember where I got them.  I designed the front cover and printed out the pattern in the middle of the page (this neatly wrapped around a thick piece of cardboard for stability).

For the first half of the book I added photos (and simple words for reading practice for Lord A) of themselves, family members and familiar items like their beds, toys, etc.  All of the toys and items pictured are things they won't see for 2 months so they love to look at them and anticipate their return.  I did the page layout in Powerpoint.

For the last half of the book, I copied images of mazes and connect the dots off the internet.  In the second photo you can see a small face washer (face cloth, face towel - whatever you call them) inside the front cover.  I had these teeny little face washer's left over from when the kids were babies.  They are much smaller than normal but are the perfect size to use as an eraser with dry erase markers.  This way the kids can do the puzzles over and over if they want.  I have a little drawstring bag full of dry erase markers in different colours for each of the kids to have with their book.

The back cover is the same as the front without the title.  I used a really nice thick cardboard for the covers so they will be sturdy enough to hold and write on if they don't have a table handy.

I am really happy with how these turned out.  Sporty Girl has seen hers and has been carrying it around already but I am waiting to surprise Lord A for a moment when he really needs it (or when I really need him to be occupied! - hello, Customs lines anyone?).  Anyway, my quick break hiding away from the packers is over so I had better get back to it!