We are big fans of the I Spy books, starting with the board book versions I bought when Julian was a baby. We play “I Spy” with regular books, too, and now we’ve graduated into Where’s Waldo? territory.
When Julian was four, he and I did a little photo shoot with big plans — still unfulfilled as of this writing — to make our own I Spy book. We ended up with unbound printed photos. As a collaborative project, this is the perfect level of creative partnership for a parent and preschooler.
On my own, I would get fancier in an effort to make the search and find activity last longer. Plain old printed out photos on my own printer paper is something I’m likely to whip out quickly before a long car ride. I did this one with my kids’ Halloween candy.
To make a more advanced book, use scrapbook paper with a pattern and smaller items.
Pro tip: Don’t use items that your child isn’t familiar with. I went to the junk drawer to grab a bunch of small things and then realized we don’t have names for everything. Lesson learned.
Duplicate items are great. You can say, “Can you find three purple rubber bands?”
DIY I Spy Book
- Set up a solid colored background on the floor. We used a foam play mat in the first photos and I used a thin piece of fabric for the candy.
- Gather a laundry basket full of {insert nice word for “junk”}. Include favorite objects and personal items.
- Spread your items on the background as you like. Since there’s no wrong way to do this, let your preschooler help.
- Try to talk your preschooler out of being in the picture himself. I failed. See above.
- Photograph the scene from above.
- Arrange new items and repeat.
- Upload set of photos to your choice of photo book makers and order yourself a book. (Here’s one from our Shutterfly affiliate)
- Alternatively, cheap out and simply print the results on your own printer. Paper clip the photos together to make a set of I Spy cards for use in the car or on the plane.
Another version of this activity is to dump your purse and photograph the results or to do an homemade ISpy game on your phone (forget the printing!) to remember the toys your brought on a road trip.
This is part of our year-long series Makin’ It with The Rookie Moms.
I love it. I’ll need to collect some crap into one place and make an artful book from it. Who will clean up the art installation from my house? Oh nevermind.
The race is on. Who will publish this endeavor first? Ready. Set. Go.
Great idea, and lots of fun.
I’ve been meaning to do this too, but my girls have never really gotten into the I spy books (although we’ve got a lot of them that they’ve been given as gifts). I once saw some at a craft show that were custom made, instead of Waldo, you gave them a picture of your child and they incorporated it into the various pages. I was thinking of doing it with several family members.
We have the complete Where’s Waldo collection (all six books) and our 2-year-old LOVES searching for Waldo, Wenda, the Wizard, and “the bad guy.” She’s actually surprisingly good at finding them too…
I received a creative Christmas Card with this same theme. The family put all kinds of christmas items in the picture and also included pictures of themselves. The items they asked you to search for in the picture gave you clues as to what they had been up to that year. Ex. I spy a Big Apple (our trip to NYC), a first place ribbon (Jackson won state swim meet), a set of key’s (Ava turned 16) and faucet drippin (we finally renovated our bathroom).
Great tip! I’m definitely going to try it. But nobody gets to see the inside of my purse….
What a great idea. My kids love I Spy.
I was going to make a Flickr group where we could share the one’s we’ve made, but there’s already one there. I-Spy Flickr group
There’s not alot there, but could be a great place if people start populating it.
What is that little toys with a 7 on it surrounded by cherries??
Awesome idea! I am totally planning on doing this! Thanks. 🙂
@Amberella the cherries is from a LeapFrog Shopping Cart that’s discontinued. Great toy.
I love this! I can see all the Ponyville little ponies and their gear now. . . Birthday party detritus? Dress up clothes? I have banished Polly, her pockets, and everything associated to the garage recently, but this might earn her a one-day furlough. Did I mention the ponies?
Thanks for the idea!
what a fun idea
I love this idea. It’s been in the back of my mind for a while and now you’ve just brought it forward. I’m ready to get started!
Hot prints does free paperback photo books. I think it’s about $3.50 shipping and there’s an ad page in the center you can remove. You get 4 per month.
Great idea! I can’t wait until my little one is bigger and can enjoy/participate in activities like that.
Hey, would you suggest doing a little rhyme or list of things to find on each page (like in the books) or just play it like we play I Spy in the real world?
@Heather Depends how old the kid is. At four, we didn’t do that. Today, each member of my family set up their own shoot and Julian wrote accompanying text, dictated by the stylists. Mine had some tricky prompts like “a state that starts with ‘I'” for a puzzle piece of Illinois. Dad had some multiple items, such as “find three guitar picks”. Scarlett (four and a half) was more straightforward, as in, “some medals, a remote control, and a keychain.”