DIY story cubes

When we were at Barnes and Noble the other night , my boys and I saw something called “story cubes” in the educational games section of the store.   The game, which was selling for $7.95, was just a few plastic dice with simple little pictures in place of the numbers.  

I seriously contemplated making the purchase.  Those silly little cubes stirred up unending ideas from the writer in me and excited the home educator inside as well.  What interesting ideas could come from those pictures!   What endless combinations could come together to spark new stories- both from my children and myself.  I stood there in the store thinking about it and wanting those cubes.  Then I tried to convince my sons to convince me to buy the silly overpriced activity.  The boys were not nearly as intrigued as I was and wanted a different game, equally overpriced and trivial.

Eventually my practical self took over and we left the store without the story cubes (or the game the boys wanted).  But, even though I could not bring myself to spend eight dollars on a few plastic dice, I still loved the idea of taking random pictures and putting them together in creative ways.  I thought about all the new stories and journal entries that might come from such a game. 

So, I decided we'd make our own story cubes.  I took a few pieces of card stock and cut them into dice shapes, then I invited my children to draw pictures on each side and together we created a free homemade version of what I had seen in the store.  

The kids drew clouds and animals and buildings.  I helped a little and drew a turtle, a castle, an angel, etc….  Today I was treated to two fun stories written by my 7 year old and my 9 year old --both very unique and fun and inspired by the story cubes they helped to make. :)