Every scrapbooker dreams of the day that their children are old enough to scrapbook with them. Well maybe not. But it is fun to get your children involved in scrapbooking as soon as they are ready to partake in our creative hobby.
Not every child wants to jump right in however. Some easily get frustrated if they cannot make the pages look as good as others. Still some get frustrated by the pictures they have to use. So how do you fix the problem and get your children interested and involved?
Hand Them A Camera
Handing a camera over to a child, even at age five, is a terrific way to get them involved. At first you might need to direct them a little as to what to photograph, and how to hold the camera, etc. And no, you will not have great shots either. So be prepared. What we did, was to allow my youngest daughter to experiment with one of our old digital camera’s. She could take all the photos she wanted while she practiced, with the understanding that we were not going to be printing all those pictures out. She has gotten really good at maneuvering a camera and getting some great shots, but it took a bit to get here. So either purchase some disposables or allow your child to dabble at the digital a little. You’d be surprised!
Let Them Pick The Prints
Allowing your children to pick the pictures they want printed to scrapbook with, is a wonderful way to get them interested. If they get to choose the photos it means that the photograph meant something to them. This will help build the creativity when it comes time to sit down and scrapbook. We have five kids, and four of them love to scrapbook. What we do is look for the free digital prints places on line, and each child gets a chance to order so many prints for themselves. It has made a world of difference when they get to choose themselves.
Buy Them Supplies
Don’t expect your child to enjoy using every leftover you have. Don’t get me wrong, most children enjoy having the leftovers and will be creative with what they have. But you also need to keep in mind that your child might also enjoy picking out some papers or stickers at the store that are exclusively related to a set of photographs they’d like to scrapbook. Perfect example. My boyfriends oldest daughter loves Japanese things. So she wanted to do a layout. I’m pretty sure she would not have been inspired by the leftover sticker sheets of bugs and playground equipment, or the die cuts of flowers and hearts. I took her to the store and she actually found beautiful Japanese like papers and embellishments and I am confident her layout will be one of her best!
Getting children involved is not nearly as tricky as some might think. Have faith that they will want to do it and encourage their creativity. You’ll have an artist on your hand in no time.
What do you do to get your children involved in scrapbooking?