Myownstories Manual

My Own Stories ® On-line Manual My Own Stories Introduction Translating Imagination into Stories Children are natural storytellers. Through their vivid imaginations, they explore new and familiar worlds. Through pictures and stories, they bring their imaginations to others. The My Own Stories™ software program is a creative tool that transforms children’s imaginations into stories. Using My Own Stories is like entering a library rich with books written by great young authors—kids just like yours! Drawing from children’s every day world, My Own Stories features over 500 images and over 500 scenery combinations that kids can use in their stories. In addition, 16 colors, 41 sounds, 13 songs, 11 page borders, and 5 type styles bring stories to life. My Own Stories gives kids a perfect way to express their creativity. With My Own Stories, children create their own stories by weaving a tapestry of ideas, words, pictures, sounds, and music into their rich story fabric. With My Own Stories, children experience the pleasure of writing and illustrating the stories that interest them the most—their own—and the pride of sharing their stories with others. Encouraging Your Child’s Creativity What can you do to encourage the creativity of your budding young authors? Here are a few ideas. My Own Stories Talk with your children about their experiences. Authors write best from their own experiences. As your children participate in a variety of activities, talk with them about their experiences to give them ideas for their writing. Use books to spark ideas for writing. Literature provides a model as well as a springboard for children’s writing. Visit your local library with your children to select books that explore experiences from their everyday world. These books are sure to spark ideas for writing with My Own Stories. Help your children publish their own storybooks. Children feel a great sense of pride in their “published” work. Make book covers using cloth, wallpaper scraps, or construction paper to bind a finished story into a book. Make your children’s stories part of your reading time together. Plan to read aloud with your children the stories they have written with My Own Stories. Stories can be printed to create storybooks, and you can also share stories on the computer. Encourage children to share their stories with others. Have your children send printed storybooks to family and friends. A story from a child is a treasured keepsake. You can even send a disk with your child’s story to family and friends for them to read on the computer. My Own Stories Most of all, create a special shelf in your home library for the storybooks your child has written. After all, your child is a published author now! My Own Stories Us…