Creating something with your kids is a great opportunity for the two of you to talk and spend time together. It is also a great time to build your child’s self esteem through encouraging them and helping create something you are both proud of showing to others.
A couple of days ago I told my five-year-old daughter that we could work on a scrapbook page sometime. Of course, she didn’t forget about the offer and she asked several times the following day about when we were going to make a page. I decided to plan a time we could work together.
Here are a few things I learned about planning and having a scrapbook date with one of your kids.
1. Choose a time of day when your child is usually happy and excited. We choose to work after dinner.
2. Let your child choose the pictures that he or she wants to scrapbook. I like to file pictures right into the page protector where the scrapbook page will go once it is completed. This makes it easy to see what pictures I have and it was for Audrey to flip through her album and see which pictures she could chose from. She chose to scrapbook her First Day of Kindergarten.
3. Let your child choose the color of paper for the layout. Audrey wanted the layout to be purple. So I found some purple patterned paper and let her choose what she wanted to use. It probably would not have been what I would have chosen, but since it was her page, I just let her make the color choices.
4. Have your child attach everything to the page. Using the adhesives is really fun for them.
5. Let your child use the trimmer (with close supervision.) I lined the paper and photos up in the trimmer and then let her move the blade. She thought this was pretty cool.
6. Let your child do the journaling. I love that Audrey thought of all of the journaling for this page. I did draw guide lines with pencil so that we could maintain some neatness.
Enjoy this time with your child!