Along with welcoming autumn and beginning a new school year, September is the perfect time to create a simple scrapbook that will preserve your child's school memories. Scrapbooking allows you to keep your children's photos, awards and other memorabilia organized and preserved. It's easy to create a scrapbook — all you need to do is cut and glue!
"September always means 'back to school' to me. I have very vivid memories of this time of year," says Stacy Julian, an active scrapbooker and former editor in-chief of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine. She recalls riding her bike to the school daily to check classroom lists, shopping for new shoes and buying notebook paper. "I still love the smell of new crayons and the feel of cool fall days," says Julian.
She also believes that the school year provides a manageable, simple framework for commemorating a child's life. To create guilt-free scrapbooking for moms, Julian designed the "School of Life" scrapbooking concept. A "School of Life" scrapbook consists of five scrapbook pages for each school year. It includes two two-page spreads and one pocket page. Julian suggests moms might want to consider assembling these five pages for each school year, to create a scrapbook to give the child after he graduates from elementary school — or high school or college.
She explains that the first two-page spread of the "School of Life" scrapbook includes memories from school, such as award certificates, class photos and samples of school work. The second two-page spread summarizes events from life, such as sports awards, church recognitions, and family or birthday photos.
Following the two-page spreads, Julian suggests including a "pocket page" for each year. She explains that a "pocket page," is a scrapbook page with another piece of paper attached. You can create a "pocket" by gluing or taping the top piece of paper to the scrapbook page on three sides, thereby creating a "pocket." This page can include both "school" and "life" memorabilia that you don't want to glue inside the scrapbook. If there are items that have information on both sides, these also work well in pocket pages. The pocket page is perfect for additional schoolwork samples, photos of friends from that year, birthday cards, letters, Scouting and church recognitions and other mementoes.
She envisions that if a parent follows the "School of Life" idea and creates five scrapbook pages per year, when a child leaves home, he will be presented with three albums—his baby book, and two volumes of "school of life" books–one for the primary and one for the secondary years. Within the "School of Life" format, it takes just five pages per child to be "caught up." This allows moms to let go of "scrapbooker's anxiety" and replace it with a sense of creative freedom," says Julian.
Within an annual school of life scrapbook, she typically includes the following:
School spread:
1. A 5-inch-by-7-inch school photo
2. The child's handwritten name
3. Journaling that includes the name of his teacher and best friend, his favorite subjects and a statement that reflects his general attitude toward school that year.
The right side of the school spread has a collage of five or six photographs that seem to represent that particular school year. Julian says, "I try to capture the style of school clothing and include photos of a school program or field trip along with one or two other major activities or events. I might also include some journaling that lists the highlights of the year.
Life spread:
For the life spread, you may want to consider using several photos and captions from the following list:
1. A photo of your child's best friend.
2. One or more photos from major holidays such as Halloween, Christmas and his birthday that year
3. A photo depicting a talent or hobby, such as a team or individual sports photo.
4. One or two photos from major family events, such as new babies, wedding and reunions, etc.
5. One or two family relationship shots. "I love pictures that depict good times spent with siblings," says Julian.
6. One or two personality shots that seem to really capture the child's interests, attitudes or achievements.
With the rest of your photos, Julian suggests, "You can take all the additional photos and slide them into photo albums, or use them to tell a more detailed story of special times in another album."
Pocket page
Julian uses the pocket page as the final page each year. "I select a few items to place in the pocket, such as a report card, photos of friends, a spelling test or math worksheet and a classroom newsletter." She places the pocket page on the left side of the album and leaves the right side blank for a piece of patterned paper. "There is so much information on each page, the design can become very busy. A blank page helps delineate the division between each year. In addition, the child may enjoy going back in later years and adding his own memories to each section."
Julian explains that each scrapbook is as individual and unique as each child's school year. "Your child's scrapbook is his creation and it reflects his interests and experiences. There is no right way to create a "School of Life" book. Feel free to experiment with your own designs and ideas. Most of all, a scrapbook is a place to be yourself and have fun."