Preserving School Memories

It’s almost back to school time! I can’t believe how fast our summer has flown by! My baby isn’t a baby anymore (sniff!) and will be entering kindergarten in just a few days! How I feel about THAT is another post entirely..

There are many great ways to preserve your child’s school experiences!  I am not a big scrapbooker (I know many moms do beautiful scrapbooks, but my version is periodically glueing ephemera  in a SmashBook ). I like easy ideas and Pinterest, of course, is an endless source of inspiration. Here are some ways we are planning to save our memorabilia.

I started using a School Memories book this year with her start of pre-k. I bought ours on amazon.com but you can also find them at Barnes and Noble (sometimes in the bargain section!). Each year has a page where the child can write their name (should be interesting to see how the handwriting evolves) and you can also record their memories. The questions change to reflect the child’s age. Each page also includes a pouch where you can store report cards and other memorabilia.

My daughter’s preschool kept a book for her throughout the year and presented it to the parents at the end of the year. They used a 3 ring binder and placed the craft projects and photos from the year inside in clear plastic sleeves. We love looking through this book! I may do this for her kindergarten projects also.

On the first day of school and last day of school each year, I am planning to take a photo of my daughter holding a little chalk board with the name of her teacher, grade and school written on it.

It will be fun to see not only how she changes over the course of a school year but also how she changes over the years. We will also do this in our front yard, which is sure to change as well.

A fun way to display school pictures is to use an 8 x 10 frame and simply place the new picture over last year’s. We have a magnetic frame on our fridge that might serve this purpose. I also really like the idea of using hanging file folders (one for each year) and keeping a file box of special school projects and crafts.

There you have it-some easy ways to keep some precious school keepsakes!

How do you preserve school memories? Let us know your creative ideas! Best of luck with back to school!