Early FAMILY FUN FRIDAY
I tried so hard to have this up yesterday. Just didn't happen. Better late than never.
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Our daughter just started first grade and is in a French Immersion Program. Half of her school day is only in French (including Math). No English will be spoken by the teacher. She already came home after the first day, spitting out French phrases and introductions. Little minds are amazing.
I can't get over how fast our lives are changing and our kids are growing. I am sure I just got married. Actually, I still feel like I am 19. But I am not. 10 years of marriage and 4 kids later, life is flying by and sometimes I don't feel like I am making time to document the growth and changes. So I am changing that.
Here is a great little family activity, perfect for the start of a new school year. It will help you keep track of your children's growth, without taking a lot of time or resources. And your kids will love it. Don't worry if school has already started. There is plenty of time and your kids will still be very willing.
SCHOOL YEAR TIME CAPSULES
The idea is to document the small things about your child that will change over the next school year. Things like height, weight, likes and dislikes, even handwriting.
You don't need much.
A container
Rope or string or ribbon
Paper
Pens/Pencils
Camera
First...decide what you want each child to keep their capsule in. Our daughter is going to use a Mason jar, our son chose an old shoe box, our youngest is going to use a #10 can. (Even though she is not in school, she doesn't want to be left out. :)
HEIGHT
Have your child stand up against a wall and lightly mark how tall they are. THEN...take your rope/string/ribbon and stretch it the length of your measurement. Cut the string to the right height length, and put it in your time capsule. They will love getting it out at the end of the school year and seeing how tall they have grown.
WEIGHT
Write down how much your child weights. If you don't know, don't worry, skip this one.
LIKES/DISLIKES
On a piece of paper, have your child write down the following...
favorite color
favorite meal
favorite fruit
favorite vegetable
favorite activity
least favorite food
favorite tv show
favorite movie
favorite book
favorite subject in school
favorite friend
favorite snack
favorite shirt/pants/shoes
favorite toy
You get the point. Add your own to the list.
(I need to learn to make printable pdf's for you and then you could print off a template. I will put it on my to-do list)
GOALS
Have your child write down 3 goals they have for this school year. At the end of the year you can see if they accomplished those goals.
HANDWRITING
Have your child write their name. For even more fun. Have them write it on a piece of paper/chalkboard/whiteboard and then take of picture of them holding the piece of paper up. This way you will have a picture of them and see what their writing was like. It will be fun to see how their writing has changed at the end of the school year.
TRACE HANDS/FEET
Trace your children's hands. Include the tracing in the capsule. Your kids will love to see how their hands have grown. We like to include feet also.
PICTURE
If you took a picture of your child holding up their name, then you can use that as your picture. If not, you probably took a picture the first day of school. Add a picture to the time capsule and you are set.
Once you have everything filled out and gathered, put it in your container of choice and seal it up. We have thought about burying ours in the backyard, but that is still up for debate. just tuck them away until the end of school.
It will be so fun to have a special START OF SUMMER PARTY next year when we open them up and see how the kids have grown and changed.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL
We have decided that we are going to do this every year until they graduate from high school. I will keep every year in a special box and when they graduate, we will have a nice little history. Our own way of keeping a journal. And each child's can be stored in a very small container because there is nothing bulky or big about what we are storing.
Simple, fun, and memorable. It doesn't get better than that.
How do you keep your memories?
How do you ring in the new school year?
love it!! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletesuch a great idea!! i've been wanting to start a school tradition, now that our first is starting kindergarten. thanks!
ReplyDeletewe do something similar for each birthday and have everyone in the family write what we like about them as well. I have 7 kids the oldest is off to college so even though they complain as they get older they enjoy looking back at the past!
ReplyDeletewhat a terrific idea! How wonderful it will be when they're graduating, to have memories like that to share with them! Great idea mom!!
ReplyDeleteFrench Immersion?
ReplyDeleteI did French Immersion when I was in school. I always thought my children would too, but then I fell in love with an American and said goodbye to that childhood dream. Fortunately for me, we live in a city that offers several language immersion programs and I have a second-grader learning Italian!
I hope you and your family love the French Immersion program as much as I did.
Wow, French??? I'm jealous!!! :)
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