Sometime around the end of May I was eating lunch on the couch while watching "Studio 5" or "Good Things Utah" or some show like that and I saw a segment with an idea for a kid's summer memory book. I watch maybe 2 hours of TV a month so it's weird that I even saw it, but I thought it was a great idea so I changed my July goal so I could do it.
Here's what I did. Every day of the summer I took a picture of whatever fun thing we did that day, even if it was playing video games with a friend or jumping on the trampoline. OK, I didn't really take a picture every day. The 3 weeks before my oldest daughter's wedding I have maybe 8 pictures. But I did take a lot more pictures than I normally would have of our family doing everyday fun summer things. Then I bought some little notebooks like these:
I printed off the pictures (just on plain white paper on the color printer) (and often the same pic printed 4 times for all of the kids to use) every few days and had the kids write down a description or a journal entry about the photo.
 |
| Nathan (11) is a man of few words |
 |
| Melanie (14) apparently likes writing even less |
 |
| Shaylee (8) is willing to write a little more |
 |
| This camping trip must have been extra FUN! Maybe because of the rodent eating off her shoe? |
One Sunday afternoon, we taught the 2 youngest how to play Monopoly. It must have been
fun too. I forgot to take a picture, but a cut and paste gameboard was enough to jog the memory.
The downside was this. Usually in the summer I have the kids do a summer school bridge workbook or at least some worksheets I print out. Although I tried to sneak summer school writing in this way, they knew. None of my kiddos like to write...I think they get it from me. This format is fine, but I dread writing anything else. I digress. Because they knew they would have to write about any picture I took, they stopped being willing to be in pictures. I would point my phone at one of them and get something like "NOOOO! Don't take a picture! I don't want this to be in my journal" or "I don't want to have to write about this!" while they ran away from me. My oldest girls would sometimes make me wait while they put on makeup or did hair.
Still, I think the goal was overall a great success. These are by no means beautiful, expensive, perfectly laid out books with acid and lignin free glue. They are treasures though, and the kids love them almost as much as I do. :)
5 comments:
I think this is a great idea! I can see my 3-year-old eating this up, but maybe just with pictures. She loves pictures! And then maybe some scribbles next to it. Great idea!
I'm so glad you posted this idea, when you told me about it, I thought it was wonderful. I'm glad I got to see the hard copies. It's a great idea and a way to include kids of all ages.
I love this idea! What is it about kids complaining when their parents take pictures? My children are the same way. Have you ever heard an adult complain that his parents took too many pictures of his childhood?
I'm glad to know my kids are not the only ones who complain about my great ideas! And this is one I really like.
I love this idea! What a fun way to capture your summer.
Post a Comment