I am a horrible scrapbooker! I LOVE scrapbooks and browsing through them, but unfortunately I just don’t have that talent. I have no patience for it because I tend to be pretty OCD and want the pages to come out PERFECT. So I tend to spend way too long on ONE PAGE and then tend to find things that bug me about it…so I just don’t do it.
So, I wanted to be able to still keep some sort of record of my kids milestones and the fun things they do and say. So before each child was born, I bought them a journal. In their journal I recorded fun things about my pregnancy with them, doctor’s appointments and their eventual birth. Then I record all the little things I wanted to remember about them as they were growing up.
I did really great for a while and was diligent about writing in their journals. But the last year or so, I haven’t been that great at remembering. So, when I was doing some spring cleaning, I came across them again when dusting my bookshelves and pulled them out. I have moved them into a spot where I see them more often and have made an effort to write in them again on Sunday evenings.
It is also a lot of fun to read through them with my kids. They get a kick out of some of the things they said and did when they were little. I am also surprised at just how much I have forgotten!
What about you? Is there anything special you do to record your kids milestones and their “kidisms”? I would love to hear about what you do and maybe you can inspire someone else to find a way to capture their kids memories.
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
Would you like more Recipes, DIY, Printables and Organization Ideas?
Subscribing to the newsletter will enable us to periodically send you creative content exclusively for Idea Room subscribers.
*View our Privacy Policy here.
Julie Harward says
I did this too..I wrote down all kinds of cute things they said…like…Once I was sprinkling baby powder on the baby and her 2 year old sister said; "Mommie, can I have some pee pee sugar on me too?"
Priceless! Come say hi :D
One of my friends is an avid blogger, and when her son was born she started a blog that she now updates a few times a week with all of the funny things he does. It works, because tying takes a lot less time than writing!
I was the oldest and my baby book was full. My sister's was only partially recorded, and my brother had an almost empty baby book. I remember how much I enjoyed reading through mine (still do!) so I made that a priority for each of my four children. Today their baby books are complete. As teenagers they still get a kick out of reading them, and I'm so glad I did it!
I'm trying to find the perfect thing to do for my babies so keep the ideas coming……I want a cross between a journal and a scrapbook!
I do the same thing only mine are on small note pads and then when I fill one up it goes in their baby books. That way the pad of paper is always right there when I need to write something simple down quickly or even a little note to go back and expand on. My mom did it for me and I love going back and reading it. I also scrapbook the memories.
I DO this and sometimes it might be a month in between but I love it and think they will cherish and appreciate it when they are older! Wish my parents would have done tha for me
I keep a family blog. At the end of the year I copy all the entries and make a book online. It has become our family journal. We enjoy going through it because of everything we have forgotten.
Wow! I am only 20 and won't be having kids for a while but I am hoping I can remember this idea! Its so great to be able to have those kinds of memories to share with them when they get older! :)
I do Calendar Scrapbooks. One side calendar to record all the little milestones, cool things they do on the day they did them and then the other side info about height, weight, what they eat, etc and plus a favorite picture from the month. http://myscrappygifts.blogspot.com/2010/04/8th-scrappy-saturdays.html
http://myscrappygifts-products.blogspot.com/search/label/Baby%20Scrapbooks
I am a HUGE journal writer and advocate for writing. I also have a journal for each of my kids and wrote before they were born and as babies. Its become more sporadic as well. As they get older, we ask them to contribute and when they can write, they write in it as well. I have to prompt them to write specific things, but we both contribute. I also keep up our family blog pretty regularly as our family journal. Plans to print, just haven't yet.
My friend Rebecca just did a post about this kind of thing a little bit ago. I think she has a great idea!
http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/2010/04/little-bit-about-scrapbooking.html
Hi Amy! I'm in the middle of a fascination with a 10-year journal where each page contains 10 years of each date. Of course there isn't too much room to write, but I think it would be cool to see the progression – especially on 10 years of special holidays (like birthdays) and not-so-special ones (like random days in summer). The kids would be teens when you finished! Wow! Imagine how a summer day's activities would change through the years!
(I saw one at http://www.squidoo.com/10-year-journal – I'm sure there are other ones out there, too.)
Besides blogging and making annual books, I carry a small notebook in purse and write down any memorable moments from kids all there. Its not as individual as your lovely journals, but it is realistic for my life right now.
I wish I wrote stuff down when my kids were younger, because I've forgotten a lot of the stuff already. :(
such a good idea. I have one book where i write this down,but I should have seperate ones. Its true about with each child you write less!! My poor fourth child doesnt have a book.
I am with ya on the scrapbooking thing!! plus i think they take up an awful lot of room.. I know a lady who does beautful stuff but her sons first 6 months was a FAT album.. i have four kids, and I feel like I could never catch up now.. too late.
I've been keeping a prayer journal for each of my children since I was pregnant with each of them. Of course, our daughter is adopted from China, so I considered our wait for her my pregnancy…and it was the longest one coming in at 2 years and 1 day exactly. :) I love recording their milestones and all the things they are presently doing….their strengths and their weaknesses….and a prayer for them at the end of that entry. I'm sure it'll be great for them one day to understand more about themselves.
Throughout the year I make small notes to remember the things my daughter did and then on New Year's Eve I write her a long letter detailing the things she did and what major things happened. My plan is to compile them into a book for when she turns 18.
I keep a blog for just our family and then since I am a consultant for Heritage Makers I use there program to make a book of my blog once a year. I love it and it's like my picture/blog/journal/scrapbook for the family!
I make photo books on Shutterfly. I am like you and don't have time or patience for scrapbooking, SO this is a good alternative for ME! It works great and I make each book to cover one full year, milestones, trips, etc.
I do digital scrapbooking, but am way behind. My favorite thing write now is our family blog. I record anything that I would want to remember down the road. I plan on printing our blog, but I also use the posts to journal on my pages. That way everything is recorded when it was fresh.
I saw a suggestion somewhere for busy parents that made perfect sense to me:
~Purchase a Rubbermaid or Tupperware tub that allows for hanging files. (like this one:
http://www.shoplet.com/Rubbermaid-SimpliFILE-Tote/RUB85827/spdv)
~Get 20 or so hanging files and label them: birth to one year, one year old, two years old, three years old, four years old, kindergarten, first grade, etc (or in whatever format you think makes sense)
~Now you have a folder for each year/school year of your child's life. You can simply drop photos, awards, notes, etc. in to the appropriate folder!
Another idea I use is to keep your calendar at the end of year. You can easily look back at it for specifics on events and timelines!
I do the same journal thing, and every once in awhile I have Grandma or Grandpa, Aunts and Uncle's etc, write on one of the pages. Then on special occasions like blessing and baptism, I ask those attending to write something in the journal as well.
Keep writing in them. One day when your kids get older they will read them and be so thankful that you took the time to record special things about their lives. My husband has done this and my grown kids love to read them. Kuddos to my hubbie who has written in a journal for 35 years!!!!
I do the same thing! On Sundays after the kids are in bed, my husband and I take an hour to ourselves to study or do whatever we want that is spiritual. I've been writing in my children's journals and it is so nice to get caught up in those again. I realized that it had been 8 months since I had written in my son's. Poor middle child. My kids LOVE having me read about when they were "little" (my oldest is only 6, so it wasn't that long ago!)
I'm trying to do it all, and failing. :-P I have scrapbooks that I've started for both my kids, and they both have journals that I write in periodically. I also have Baby Books that I was really good about filling out for each of them, so that's nice.
Now, I tend to keep most of the funny unusual things my kids do in blog posts. Most of my family reads my blog, so this, for me, is a good way to share and create memories. I figure worst case senario I can always print off my blog pages and throw them in the journals. :-P
I used to scrapbook but have given it up in favor of blogging. Throughout the week as I'm getting ready for bed, I write anything special from that day that I want to remember on my bathroom mirror with dry erase marker. And every Sunday I transfer that stuff from my mirror to my blog with pictures, etc and I print off my blog book every year.
I've found that I can record so much more of our daily life together and capture memories in real time. I don't feel behind and I know these books are going to be so wonderful for our family to have in the future.
I love Journals!!! I love to embellish them. I started with my writing book when in school….Love to write everything down and take pictures….I love blogging because of that but i love to touch a journal :)
Have a great day!
XOXO
Frenchy
I use the same method as you–I have a small journal for each child, but I am hopelessly behind. I have 3 kids and I also scrapbook (or I should say past tense!!!) but I am even further behind on those. I have thought time and again about blogging it but worried that it would not be permanant…wondering if those who turn their blogs into books might come back and share a pic (link) or more details on how they convert???
On my blog, I have a weekly post called Silly Boys, which highlights some of the silly/funny things my boys have done during the week. These posts are a reader favorite. I miss a bunch so I need to keep a notebook with me at all times to jot everything down.
They also have their own blog on which they write stories and journal their day, when they feel like it.
We try to journal each day. I scan any paperwork they bring home, have them choose one piece and we write their journal entry on the back.
My mother-in-law introduced me to this idea before my first child was born. She kept a journal for her children as they grew up. It has been a delight to read about my husband as a baby and my children LOVE it when I read to them from their journals!
Well, each year I buy the same calendar(medium size with the pages being for each day).
I write various things about each day on them.
At the end of the year, I type a month (as the header) and list all the things that happened that month. It is so neat to see what what went on for each month.
Then I laminate each page-putting them into a binder.
Each New Year's Eve, our family sits and re-reads what we did. This helps with their reading skills, a lot!
I have a journal for my daughter, but it's been put up since we moved into the new house. Almost a year! I definitely need to get it out so that I think about writing in it more.
When my 16 yr. old was little, we didn't blog (wow, I sound ancient!) I would jot down our activities on the calendar and then write out more detail on index cards. If I forgot a day or remembered something I wanted to add, I could simply file it in its proper order. I kept it in my kitchen where it was easy and quick to get to.
I am much too lazy to do any scrapbooking or even fill in baby books. BUT I do spend a certain amount of my day in front of a computer, so I have been keeping my "kidisms" in an online document for years now. At first it was a Microsoft Word document that I kept adding to, then later it was an unpublished blog entry that I kept adding to (nice because that way I could add to it from any computer, as it was stored online). Now I use Google Docs. I have accumulated 77 single-spaced pages so far for 5-year-old Jake, and 46 pages for 3-year-old Chase. They're filled with funny things the kids have said, adorable ways they have mangled the English language, and fun things we've done together. I would absolutely have forgotten 99% of these things if I hadn't written them down, so I love them almost as much as my kids probably will one day.
My oldest just turned two and I have a six week old so for now I'm just trying to make sure I have the cute things/memorable moments recorded. Later I will put them in a cute format. But for now since I usually don't have a paper and pen on me I text myself things I want to remember. I then lock the text so it won't get erased before I have a chance to transfer it to journal format. I use ldsjournal.com which is free and awesome. I write all the memories in my journal and then I figure at some later date I can transfer them to individual kid journals.
I didn't know you did this too. My kids love reading in theirs also. I have been really bad about it for the last couple of years. I write on the calendar things that happened or they said that day then when I am motivated to write in them I get the stack of calendars and pull out each childs info and write it in their book with the date.
I do this also! I love looking back at them. I record all kinds of things..milestones, hard ships, thigs about their personality, joys, tears, all of it! I can't wait to give it to them when they were older and I know thy will love it. My mom left me letters when she died and it was the neatest thing.
This is a great idea. I need this just to jot down things so that I can put it in the blog later. I just blog about everything. I had my blog turned into a bog 253 page book, hard cover this past christmas. It has everything having to do with my daughters first 2 years of life!
I am doing a journal too and I love it. My mom did the same thing for us and I love to read it.
I am also doing a folder to keep in track with my kids work , take a look if you have a chance.
http://funplayroom.blogspot.com/2010/05/development-of-drawing-binder-project.html
What a fantastic idea! I don't have any children as of yet, but I keep a journal and scrapbook ( although I'm WAY behind) for myself. So one day when my children are older they can see how I grew up and the things in life that I experienced.
I do this too! I also have a questionnaire that I help my kids fill out every year on their birthdays. It's the same questions every year so it's fun to see how their likes/dislikes change through out the years.
For example: Favorite color, favorite food, what have you learned this year, what do you want to be when you grow up, what do you want to tell yourself when you are a grown up etc.
When I asked my little 4 year old what she wanted to tell herself when she grew up she said, "I want to tell my kids that they like me and that they have a dad." :) (i would hope so!)
That way the pad of paper is always right
post free classifieds
It takes me FOREVER to write my journal out. So, I have a private blog where I am the only one who has access and I type little tid bits about the kids through out the week (usually at the end of the day, after I have put them to bed and before they get out again). Sometimes I take the html from the family blog post and paste it into my private blog (because I don't post EVERYTHING on the family blog). Eventually, I will put it into a book, but that will have to wait until my hubby is done with school!
I blog, but also have calendars and put it in a convenient spot to jot down milestones.
I also have a family blog, which I record all important and cute little things in and print for us as a family journal. But I also copy the individual things my kids do and paste them into Microsoft Word and then print them for each child. I then put them in page protectors in a type-written journal for each kid, with only things that pertain to them in their personal journal. I also add little drawings they've made or momentos in the page protectors and put them in the same journal.