Create a Microsoft PowerPoint Story with Your Child

If you have a computer that has the Microsoft program PowerPoint on it, you're in for a pleasant surprise. PowerPoint is an easy to use program that allows you to create slide shows of whatever you or your child's heart desires. Add a digital camera to the mix and together you can create your very own storybooks. Before you let your child in on the project, take the time to learn a bit about PowerPoint. There are a myriad of Microsoft PowerPoint tutorials online. Let your favorite search engine do the search finding several for you to choose from.

PowerPoint is an application that businesses use to make streaming multi-media presentations. Its user-friendly functions make it fun to use for home projects, too. Creating a simple alphabet "book" for your toddler or something even more complex using photographs from your digital camera to create a story for an older child will bring the two of you together. Once you acquaint yourself, if you're not all ready, to how PowerPoint works, brainstorm with your child. For this tutorial we're going to create a simple book of ABC's that a toddler would love.

You and your child can browse through lots of free online photographs to find pictures that correspond with the appropriate letter, for example A for Apple. Place all the photographs you find in a separate file. Once you have 26 pictures from A-Z you're ready to begin the PowerPoint fun.

1.Open PowerPoint. A box will appear that says "Create a new presentation using…" click on Blank Presentation and then OK. A new box may popup and you'll need to click on blank and the OK, again.

2.The first thing we're going to do is give our story a name and title page so we can save it. We've all experienced the heartache of losing something we've worked on for hours. Let's not let that happen to the story for your child. Go to File, Save, a box will popup and you decide in what file you'd like to save the story. Click OK and you're saved. Now we can begin the title page.