When the weather gets a bit drippy, head indoors and encourage your children to create their very own storybook. Many children will enjoy spending an afternoon writing and illustrating their very own storybook. The activity becomes even more exciting when your child knows that you will transform their artwork and narrative into a professionally bound book that they can read again and again when they are finished.

On the next rainy afternoon, begin by gathering your child's art supplies. Be sure to provide lots of fresh paper, crayons, colored pencils, paints, or any other craft supplies that your child enjoys creating with.

Sit down with your child and tell them that you will be creating your very own storybook together. The first thing they should do is think of the story they want to tell. If they are still getting comfortable writing on their own, have them narrate the story while you write it down for them. If they are having trouble thinking of an original story, you may want to create a new version of a classic fairytale.

After you have worked on the narrative with them, help them go through the different parts of the story and make a list of the illustrations that they will need for the finished book. Once you have identified the illustrations together, your child can start working on the drawings that will illustrate their story book.

When they finish with each picture, take a photo of the illustration or scan it and save it as a high resolution (300 dpi) .jpg image. Add the illustrations to a new book in Picaboo and use text boxes to type in the story that accompanies each picture.

You may want to have your child leave a little room at the bottom of the page so you can use the full bleed page layout that has a text box at the bottom of the page. Drop the illustration into the full page layout and add the story to the text box.

Show your child their book-in-process on your computer as they are working on their illustrations. This will help motivate them to keep going and finish the drawings for their storybook.

When the masterpiece is complete, send a free digital copy to friends and family members using Picaboo's Share function - grandparents are sure to get a kick out of your child's creation. Then, order a profssionally bound copy of the storybook that you can read together again and again. Your child will be very proud to see their story and illustrations in print and their book will also make a wonderful show-and-tell item at school.