How to make a memory book your child can hear

A guide · about fifteen minutes

A memory book is a handful of photos from one day or one season, in order, with a line or two about each. Small children love them because they're about them. What makes one they'll go back to on their own is hearing it told by someone they love. You choose the photos, tell each one out loud, and your child taps from page to page by themselves, even before they can read.

What you'll need

An iPhone or iPad with TapTales.
Between four and eighteen photos from one memory, already in your Photos library.
A quiet ten minutes to talk.

Photos on the tiles are part of TapTales Plus. Recording in your own voice is free for your first three stories.

1. Pick the memory, then the photos

Choose one thing that happened: the beach day, the first birthday, the week at Grandma's. Then pick one photo for each moment, in the order it happened. Fewer is better. Six to ten pages is about right for a two- or three-year-old. Favour photos where your child can see what's going on: their face, the cake, the dog, the wave.

2. Start a story, tile by tile

In TapTales, tap + on the shelf and choose Tile by tile. Set the number of tiles to the number of photos, and tap Start. Give the story a title at the top: "The day we went to the beach" works better than "Beach".

TapTales' New story sheet: All at once, or Tile by tile set to six tiles, with a Start button. — Tap +, then **Tile by tile**.

A new story called My story with six empty tiles, each with a placeholder picture, a microphone and the words “What happens on this page?” — One tile for each photo.

3. Put a photo on each tile

Tap a tile's picture, then Add a photo, and choose the photo for that page. Work from the first tile to the last so the order matches the day. To reorder later, press and hold a tile and drag it.

The Pick a picture panel over a tile, with Add a photo at the top and emoji below it: animals, then outdoor things. — Tap a tile's picture, then **Add a photo**.

The iPhone photo picker showing beach photos — a sunset, two ice creams, a crab, a pink shell, waves and a coast road — with more photos below. — Choose the photo for that page.

4. Tell each photo out loud

Tap the microphone on the first tile and talk about that photo, the way you would if your child were on your lap. Tap stop when you're done. The words fill themselves in as you speak, so there's nothing to type. Then do the next tile. If you tap another tile's microphone while you're recording, TapTales finishes the one you're on and starts that one.

A few things that make it land:

Talk to them, not about them. "Remember the big wave? You ran so fast!" rather than "Maya ran from the wave."
Use their name, and everyone else's. The dog, the cousin, the ice-cream man.
One or two sentences a page. Your child is waiting to tap the next one.
End on the way home, or bedtime. Memory books make good bedtime stories, so give it an ending that winds down.

Grandma's Garden in the editor, recording as Mom: the first tile, with a photo of sunflowers and its words, is listening, with a red stop button. — Recording a tile. Tap stop when you're done.

Maya's Day at the Sea in the editor: six tiles, each with a beach photo, its words, and buttons to record, play and delete. — Every page told, with its photo.

5. Hand it over

Close the editor and the story is on the shelf. Tap Read and give your child the phone. Only the next tile is lit, so there's nothing to get wrong. When they tap it, the photo grows to fill the screen while you tell that page, then settles back onto its tile. Pages they've already heard stay open to hear again.

Maya's Day at the Sea open for reading: six photo tiles, the first lit, the rest faded with a small lock. — Only the next tile is lit.

The pink shell photo grown to fill the screen while its page reads, over a blurred copy of the tiles. — The photo fills the screen while its page reads.

6. Let the rest of the family add their voice

If Grandpa was there too, he can tell the same pages in his voice, from his own phone. Add him to your family in Settings → Family sharing. Your child then picks who reads it tonight.

TapTales Settings, Family sharing: Add someone to your family, with a note that someone on All sees every story and someone on Limited sees only the stories you pick. — **Settings → Family sharing**.

7. Keep it

With Plus, press and hold the story on the shelf and choose Save as a video or book. You get a video of the photos in your voice, to send to family or keep with your other videos, or a picture book PDF to print.

The menu from pressing and holding a story on the shelf: Who sees this, Save as a video or book, Translate, Hide and Delete story. — Press and hold the story on the shelf.

The Keep this story screen for Maya's Day at the Sea: A video, or A picture book, a PDF ready to print. — A video, or a picture book to print.

Memory book ideas

Their first birthday, told to them when they're three.
A book all about them: their name, their favourite things, their people.
The summer trip: the car, the place, the best bit, the car home.
A new baby in the family: the bump, the hospital, the first time they held the baby.
A grandparent who lives far away: every photo from the last visit, told by that grandparent.
A pet who has died: gentle, and in a voice they trust.
The old house, before a move: their room, the garden, the view from the window.
Before you go away for work or a deployment: a week of your days together, to hear while you're gone.

Questions

Can I put a video on a page? Not yet. Each tile holds a photo. You can turn the finished book into a video, though: see step 7.

What does it cost? TapTales is free to download, and you can record three stories in your own voice for free. Photos on the tiles, unlimited recordings, and saving as a video or book are part of TapTales Plus, which is $9.99 a month after a free week. See pricing.

Where do my photos and recordings go? Into your own iCloud, so they're on your other devices too. We never receive them. See the privacy policy.

What if the subscription ends? Nothing is deleted. Photos stay on the tiles, and your first three recorded stories keep playing in your voice. See support.

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