Last year, David and I read a book a week. This year, we plan to continue reading but in a different style (more on this later this month) and I decided I wanted to add another project for some David and Mommy time.
One of the things David loves to do is go through my scrapbooks and look at his past memories. He loves reliving the moments, remembering the good things and feeling the happiness all over again.
So we bought a Moleskine Sketchbook for him and started collecting some of the items that have good memories associated with them.
So his project is similar to The Savor Project I’m doing with a few differences:
- He’s not tied to a calendar timeframe. If he finds something from two years ago that makes him happy, he gets to put it in his book. The pages are not in any time-order. Just a collection of things that make him happy.
- We don’t prep pages ahead of time and mostly use the sketchbook page as a background.
- He can put several unrelated memories per page if he likes.
- The only thing he has to do on every page is write a few words on why that item/photo is special to him.
And here’s the next page. On the left is a photo of a card he made for Jake’s birthday two years ago and a photo of Jake, David, and Jake’s mom opening presents on Jake’s birthday. Below that is a pocket that holds a lego card he likes and a few words on why he likes it. On the right side is a photo I took during the Polar Express train ride we took last year. Since the photo was really large, we put it sideways and created a pocket on the right side which is where he put the card that has his words on it.
And there you go.
We use a lot of the scraps I have accumulated and anything that makes him happy. As you can see, the pages are simple and putting two together takes us about an hour or so each week.
Our goal is to do 1-2 spreads a week and fill the book up throughout the year. I will be posting photos from his page every other week. (I have a project with Nathaniel this year, too, and he will get the alternate weeks.)
I LOVE LOVE this idea and so glad your finding a way for the boys to share their memories at a young age. This is great and will be so fun to see it grow this year. I miss my kids scrapping with me, they aren’t interested anymore but hope they will again one day.
Tell him I like the page he did and makes me happy!!
This is just the sweetest idea!!! And… there will be a ton of great memories for him to look back on!
Emie
Wonderful! I did something similar (but much simpler 🙂 for my 3rd son when he was around 4-5 and got very anxious waiting to go to sleep at night. I called it his “Happy Book” and it was just a collection of nearly-full-page photos, with a short caption at the bottom. Each one was about something he loved or that made him happy: swinging, grandparents, a karate birthday party he went to, camping trip, etc. He really liked it, and I added two more Happy Books as he got older. Now he’s mostly moved on from them (he’s 11 now :D), but they’re fun scrapbooks to look back at.
And now his younger brother has moved into being anxious going to sleep, so I’m just about to put together a Happy Book for him. In the meantime, he’s borrowed his older brothers Happy Books to look through, and they really help.
oh how lovely is that! thank you for sharing this with me. 🙂
[…] then I use them for another project I am working on for 2012. This one is called “David’s Book of Good Memories.” My older son, David, is almost seven. He and I are putting a book together of all of his […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. January 29, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. February 12, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
What a great idea! Can’t wait to try it when my son is older.
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. February 26, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. March 11, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. March 25, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. April 8, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. June 17, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. July 1, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. July 15, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]
[…] Book of Good Memories is a bi-weekly project for 2012 with my seven-year-old son David. You can read more about it here. August 12, 2012 | David, David's Book of Good Memories, […]