Scrapbooking - A Hobby You Can Share With Your Child

[Elias May]

Would you like to spend more time with your child? Would you like to
be doing something special with that time? Have you ever thought about
scrapbooking with your child?
Scrapbooking is a wonderful hobby. It is a great way to secure and
document your memories through pictures, photographs, written
descriptions, etc. By sharing this hobby with your child, you are not
only sharing these special moments again, you are making new memories.
If you decide to share this hobby, first make sure that each of you
has his/her very own scrapbook. Then you will not have to worry about
your child messing up yours and it gives you both a chance to show
your own distinct creative ideas.
When picking out a scrapbook for your child, consider the child's age
and your child's interest in scrapbooking. If the child is young or if
the child isn't really into scrapbooking but just going along with it
to please you, buy the child a much smaller scrapbook than you buy for
yourself.
Next gather up some pictures, special news paper clippings,
photographs, etc. Together, sit down and sort these out into two
piles, one for you and one for your child. If you find some photos or
clippings are extra special, you may want to go and have these copied.
Then one of your scrapbooks will not be lacking.
Once you have the pictures, photographs and clippings, you and your
child may want to go to a hobby store and buy some supplies. Allow the
child some input in picking out the supplies. Yes, some of the
stickers and some of the markers may not be colors you prefer. But
remember he/she will be decorating his/her own scrapbook. Allow him/
her to do in his/her own style.
Some supplies you may want to consider buying is:
--Markers
--Stickers of all kinds
--Cute little dialogue balloon type stickers, some with prewritten
phrases, some blank.
--Tape
--Glue
--Special scissors for scrapbooking used for giving a cut out a custom
edge (jagged edges, curved edges, etc)
Once you buy all your scrapbooking materials, store them in a place,
you will remember until both of you has the time to start your
scrapbooking project.
When you start, you may want to begin by having the child place his/
her name on the inside cover of the scrapbook, along with the date, or
at least the year, along with his/her age. This will be something he/
she may treasure years from now and seeing his/her own name in his/her
own handwriting will surely be something endearing.
As for your scrapbook, you may want to give yours a title. You may
want to title it by a holiday name, a year, or something of the kind.
By giving it a title, later on, you will be able to recognize what is
inside the scrapbook without even opening it.
You now may want to organize the photographs, pictures and clippings
that you both plan on using. You can do this by date, by event or by
person. You may not even have a full organized method. You may just
want to do the scrapbook in a more freestyle mode, just picking and
choosing as you go, in no real order.
First, securely position the photograph, picture or clipping to the
scrapbook. You can do this with tape or glue. Now carefully label or
write a description. You may now want to jazz the page up with some
stickers or some art work. Let your imagination go wild and decorate
it in any way you choose.
If your child is young, you may want to offer some suggestions on how
to decorate the page. Plus, remember if you decide to use scissors,
even the scrapbooking kind with the numerous jagged edges, etc, for
edging projects, be sure to help the young children, to keep them from
cutting themselves.
Talk and share memories as you share these special scrapbooking
moments. You may even want to talk about such things you used to do as
a child your parents.
Continue these scrapbooking events until each scrapbook is finished.
Then if the child had a good time, go out and buy a new one.
Hopefully, you will start a new tradition and a scrapbooking hobby
that you can share with your child for years to come.