Using blank books and puzzles to create meaningful moments
This post is written in collaboration with and sponsored by Bare Books. All opinions are my own. Thank you for reading and supporting companies I love!
Whether it’s at home, working in a hospital or child life private practice, I am always looking for great products that support children’s creativity, development and coping. One company that remains a favorite of mine and go-to is located in my Milwaukee hometown. I first learned of Bare Books while working as a Certified Child Life Specialist at Children’s Wisconsin. Bare Books of Treetop Publishing sells a number of different styles of blank books, puzzles, game boards and other accessory items to encourage creativity. I am excited to share a handful of ideas of how you can use two of their popular products, blank books and blank puzzles, to support families in and out of the hospital. I’d love for you to share your ideas in the comments!
Blank puzzles help families in the hospital feel connected to others
At the hospital, we provided families with their blank puzzles to design as they wanted to be given to those family members back at home. The caregiver can choose to send the puzzle home to their other child/children all at once or even one piece one day at a time if the other spouse/individual is able to bring it home to them. One piece of puzzle for a peace of mind in that it offers a sense of feeling remembered and connected with their caregiver who is needed at the bedside.
A parent could also choose to write a message and outlines for their child at home to color in. Regardless of it being done together or apart, this activity is meant to help family feel connected.
Bare Books 12 piece and 45 piece blank puzzles
Not only is it a means for families to still feel connected and included, but it is a creative, relaxing outlet for parents and caregivers in those quieter long hours of their stay. While it’s true some hospital stays are very eventful for families, there are also many who experience a lot of painful waiting: waiting for their child to get out of another surgery, waiting for their unwell fatigued child to wake, waiting for answers and waiting for next steps of the treatment plan. This is an easy activity that provides a relaxing outlet. The design can be detailed or simple. What matters to the child is that it comes from their special parent/caregiver.
Blank books prepare and teach kids about the hospital and medical items helping their sibling
The Nesting Tree Photography
The Nesting Tree Photography
Blank books are another favorite product and special resource used by the entire child life team to support families during the most trying times of their lives. Certified Child Life Specialists provide medical education to children to prepare them for the hospital environment and reinforce their understanding of what and how care is being provided. In this way, the circumstances may be perceived as less scary. The intervention typically includes healthy ways to cope when facing fear, anxiety, sadness or anger. The cover and each blank page can be filled with artwork and pictures that specifically show medical items that are helping that individual ill or injured child and allows it to be personalized. Kids seem to feel pleased with the feeling that they get an actual book tailored just for him or her!
In one excellent example of child life in action, blank books were used as preparation story books for a child visiting their new baby sibling in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). You can read all about one family’s experience in this popular post “How Child Life Services Helped our NICU Experience.”
The Nesting Tree Photography
To summarize this previous post, Emily Jasinowski shared the feelings of worry and overwhelm when faced with how to best support their first son when their second child was in the NICU. Under normal situations, Emily prides herself with being creative and fun. This was not their normal. This unexpected journey came with heavy stress as they faced many unknowns. A Certified Child Life Specialist’s support became invaluable to them during their experience in the NICU. A blank book that turned into a special individualized book for big brother Mason to read and read was an important tool then and now memory book for their whole family highlighting Arlo’s (and I’d add family’s) perseverance.
Blank board books help older siblings feel included and give them a big sibling job to do!
Many preschool and school-age children love feeling included and take their big sibling roles very serious. If their baby sister or brother is hospitalized, they feel all sorts of emotions (normal!) and often times tasks and activities to feel included help them cope. They don’t have to know how to write or spell to create this easy board book! You can tell them to pick items for each page that have a different texture/feel to them and/or a different color. Tell them that Mommy or Daddy really needs a new book to read to the baby and if the baby is able to sit up and reach - that their baby sibling may like to touch to learn and play. Don’t forget to emphasize the baby will be told that big brother/big sister made it special just for him or her.
New post coming soon: a peek inside this D.I.Y. medical board book and how to make one!
These stickers are also available on Barebooks.com. They are great for creating personalized board books because they are very sturdy and stick well.
If their new baby sibling is healthy and growing at home with them, this activity of making a D.I.Y. sensory board book is just as meaningful for older siblings and doesn’t have to incorporate medical items. With their mother being a Certified Child Life Specialist, creating a book using medical items for their healthy baby sister wasn’t the least bit strange for my kids! We do A LOT of medical play and they love it. My four-year-old loves opportunities to have some one-on-one bonding time with me, which ultimately happened rather quickly during this activity because of a sleeping baby and busy toddler.
Blank puzzles incentivize kids to get through challenging medical procedures or the recovery process
In many instances, helping a child face their fears and get through a challenging medical procedure takes creativity and doses of incentive along the way. Along with other strategies parents, Certified Child Life Specialists, and other medical professionals are known to employ, the idea of receiving a small reward of a puzzle piece at each step of the procedure could be a huge motivator for a child to push through. This can also be used for children who also need encouragement to complete daily rehabilitative goals, such as sitting up in chair 3x/day after surgery or taking walks around the unit. At home this method could help with taking medicine or completing bandage dressing changes after an injury. Preschool and younger school-aged children benefit greatly from this type of motivation. The gift at the end is the satisfaction and ability to tell others how they completed the challenging steps prior that led them to the puzzle activity.
Blank books used for mementos
When a child dies, Certified Child Life Specialists employed in hospitals, hospice centers and private practice are there to help create mementos with or for families. As a Certified Child Life Specialist who worked on a (trauma) pediatric intensive care unit and with chronically ill children, I used Bare Books blank books to create mementos for families after the unimaginable happened. Most often we made ink prints of the child’s hand or feet and included their siblings and parents when they wanted to participate. The siblings each get a special book of their hand prints together to be used as a journal, memory scrapbook, or anything of their choosing. Some families choose to bring the larger blank book with hand prints to the funeral and then home to be filled with memories of their child and personal messages to the family.
Products made for imagination and creativity
Ultimately, you can do so many different creative things with blank books and blank puzzles made by Bare Books! They can be used in homes, schools, hospitals, and more. As you can tell, I am a big fan of products by Bare Books and I hope you do too! I plan to use blank books and blank puzzles from Bare Books in my child life private practice in Savannah, Georgia. I’d love to hear how you have used them or how you plan to use them after you make your next purchase!
Your Dose of Play
Do you know of a child and family in Savannah, Georgia that would benefit from child life services outside of the hospital? As a Certified Child Life Specialist, I provide private in-home child life services to reduce anxiety and promote positive coping for children facing illness, injury and death. Whether its support to help make checkups and procedures less scary or more serious medical encounters more manageable, I can provide child life services in the comfort of a child’s own home.