For as long as I can remember, one of my favorite things to do when my whole family is together is to pull out all of our old photo albums and laugh for hours over the great times we’ve had together. In those pages is captured my childhood, early adulthood and now the childhood of my children.
Now that my kids are getting old enough that they too love to look through photo albums, I am always looking for new ways to create memory books that capture the special moments as well as the ordinary days that don’t always seem exciting now, but that I know I’ll be amazed by when I look back on them.
Recently, I’ve started getting my husband and children involved. Together we take photos, write stories and gather mementos to add to our family memory books. Whether it is for a special holiday or event or just a look at a day in the life of our family, these books are extra special because we all contribute to them.
Here are some ideas to help you create your own family memory book…
Set A Theme
Coming up with a theme is a fun activity that everyone can participate in. Have a brainstorming session and use everyone’s ideas to set some guidelines including the time span over which the photos and stories will be collected.
Some theme ideas are a special holiday or event, an ordinary day in the life of your family, your favorite things about one another, how important your extended family is to you. Get creative and choose themes that have a special meaning.
Take The Photos
The easiest way to allow everyone an opportunity to take the photos they want is to purchase disposable cameras. It also gives everyone the same limit and encourages thinking about each photo taken.
I guarantee you will be amazed at this glimpse in to how your children view their world and the people in it.
Put Together Your Memory Book
Using the photos and stories that were captured by each family member, create your book. There are lots of inexpensive scrapbooks available at your local craft store. Work on putting each page together as a family or do your own pages individually.
If your photos are digital, you can use an online service to arrange your family memory book and have it printed as a professional photo book.
I hope you have fun creating your own family memory book and that the experience of making it becomes a wonderful memory in itself.
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Jennifer Kirkpatrick is a mother of two and the owner of Pipsqueak Boutique, an online children’s store offering everything from clothing to gifts to essential baby items. To capture the memory of how small your kids once were they offer unique baby hand and footprint kits and other unique baby gifts as well as many fun things for children up to age six.
Great ideas and inspirational post! Check out Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/). It's a free site that lets you keep lots of stuff online and it is all accessible from anywhere (perfect for sharing). And as far as creativity, I think if you dig around a little, you can get as crazy as you want with it!
What a great post! I've been a little behind working on my son's Memory book, but maybe now I'll just wait till he is older and can join and help out himself 🙂
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