Do you journal your kid's life? Too busy to keep a journal? I want to suggest that you are too busy NOT to journal. Life goes by in such a whirl, our memories just can't keep up. All those neat things that happened just last week have quickly become your past, lost in all that white noise of our fast-paced, harried lifestyles. Keep a journal and sometime way out there in your kid's future, your grown child will be able to pull a diary down from a dusty shelf and relive an experience, even see connections and patterns to his adulthood and feel your presence.
Here's one incident I'll relive many years down the road: I was chaperoning my son's 5th grade field trip and at snack time, I saw him trade up the snack I packed him, fruit leather, for a bag of Doritos. I found out that he had been trading the snacks I give him for fancier stuff for a while.
Tips for journaling your kid's life:
You don't need to have perfect handwriting. Look at mine, and that was on a good day. I've scribbled worse in a hurry. If it's legible, it's good enough.
Write about the child, not the event. I could write about the 5th Grade field trip - where we went, where we had lunch, how many kids were there, but isn't it more interesting to write about my discovery of this young trader?
Keep it short and sustainable. Better to write frequently, than to write one long journal entry once a year. Look for the Big thing in the little things. Journaling actually helps you be a better observer, you see things with your heart. Write a paragraph, write a sentence, don't feel pressured to write detailed, complete entries or it will become yet another 'chore' in your busy day.
Here's another reason to make a home video of your child. One day, when this budding, talented child of yours attain great heights, you can watch the old home videos and get insights into her greatness. For they say, a child's personality is made up by the time he or she turns 7.
Video Disclosure: This is a blog about Memory-Keeping for busy families. The video below serves simply to illustrate in a comical way the value of creating home videos. It does not in any way reflect the political inclinations of the author.
Home videos is a fun component of a family memories collection. If you've not made a home movie before, you may think the process and camcorder gear is still complicated, expensive, time consuming. Not so. There are many options today, like the extremely popular Flip Video camcorder where you shoot a video, then flip a USB port and plug it into your computer.
In our birthday traditions book, one of the tradition ideas is to write a letter to your child on each birthday. Then 21 days before her 21st birthday, start mailing the letters, one everyday.
Writing letters can feel intimidating in today's world of quick emails and instant messaging. But for the same reason the printed books will not be extinct, letters written from people we love will have a special place in our hearts. If you've never written a letter to your child, here are some tips and ideas to get you started. Read more
Every birthday, recital and special event, I end up with miles of footage but no video." ~ Esther Waworuntu, Parent (Framingham,MA)
The problem with videotaping is that there are just so many memories to capture : birthdays, graduations, recitals, sports event, holidays. By the time you try to video tape every highlight from the first day of Kindergarten to the Little League baseball game, you've got too much raw video footage and too little time to do anything with it.
To maintain a sustainable effort building your family video collection, try following the 1-2-3-Showcase! Plan.
What is the 1-2-3-Showcase! plan?
It's about planning with the end result in mind. Since you can't shoot everything, let alone edit everything you shoot, decide what you want to end up with at the end of the year. The 1-2-3-Showcase! Plan suggests that in one year , you will have created:
1 video story (3 minutes, 5 max)
2 video vignettes (1 to 2 minutes)
3 photoshows (set to music)
What’s in a Video Story?
A video story is a 3-minute video that covers a significant event in your Read more
"I'm not computer savvy at all. I wouldn't have dared start my photobook project if I didn't know I had these step-by-step videos to guide me. It turned out to be so easy." ~ Ruth T.
" I never knew you could do so many things with photos. I'm going to tell all my friends about your site, especially my friends who take tons and tons of pictures." ~ Elaine Ding, Singapore
"I run a home day-care and I created a photo calendar using photos of of the children. The parents said it was the best holiday gift they received from their childcare provider." ~ Esther Waworuntu, Framingham, MA.
