Now that two weeks worth of the school year are behind us, I can focus part of my efforts on creating Personal Yearbooks for Nyna's 4th grade class. Personal Yearbooks are the brainchild of the amazingly talented and creative Becky Higgins.
[nyna helping sort pages into piles for each classmate - June 2011]
But before I get moving on this year, I would like to share last year's memory books (as the children called them) and the process that I took to complete them. I took on this project with Nyna's class at the beginning of October 2010.
Why did I start in October?
Because I didn't think of it at the beginning of the school year and kind of blurted it out to the teacher at Back to School Night. When I left...I thought - What did I get myself into?!
MY PROCESS - I downloaded Becky's free monthly templates (the templates that I used were from a few years back) and tweaked the language a bit to fit the theme and topic for the month. I love Becky's current Personal Yearbook freebies that give the children more options and less printing and cutting for me.
Each month I printed pages, cut patterned paper/cardstock to size (horizontal or vertical), developed photos at Costco, and prepped materials into bags (used my old scrapbook kit bags).
At the end of the year each child received their own 1" avery binder from Costco. The photos below are a few pages of my daughter's memory book. I moved her pages into a We R Memory Keepers binder after the school year ended as I added more "stuff of life" throughout her 3rd grade year. I'll share the rest of her album soon.
**click images below to enlarge**
Opening Page
October Layout - Theme: Back to School
December Layout - Theme: Lunch
January Layout - Theme: Computer/Library
February Layout - Theme: PE
May Layout - Theme: Class Visitors
TWO THINGS I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY
1. Enlist the help from other class parents, friends, spouse, children, etc. This project can be really time consuming. With working 40 hours a week plus mom, wife, house, friends duties and all of the other life stuff that come up, I was starting to get burned out. Nyna's 3rd grade teacher was really great at taking photos of the kids activities. The class photo in the May layout was taken by the teacher when one of the student's father came to talk to the class. He had just returned from Iraq.
2. Prepare ahead of time. I was notorious for last minute prepping. This weekend, I'm gathering all of the supplies for this year's book, printing most of the kids pages, and prepping all of the individual bags.
Through all of the photo-taking, cutting, printing, last minute developing and documenting, I can honestly say that it was all worth it. Even when I was cursing myself the night before prepping all of the kids pages.
The outcome?
Twenty-four excited students at the end of the school year sharing their books with each other and their families.
What could be better?!
___________________________________________________________________
I would highly encourage you to take this on! It was one of the most satisfying projects that I've ever completed with a group of kids. Becky has provided the framework and all you have to do is follow it through. Be sure to read this post as she gives some really awesome advice.
A special Thank You to Becky for this wonderful and amazing keepsake. My daughter and I are forever grateful!
Questions? Leave them in the comment section and I'll get back to you.
