If you are one of the millions of people who love to scrapbook or would like to give it a try, why not make it a part of your homeschooling?
Even if you are not artistically inclined, scrapbooking can be a fun way to add arts and crafts to your child’s lessons.
There is a never ending variety of ways to incorporate scrapbooking with your curriculum.
You may even find you’ve found a new hobby for yourself. (I warn you, it is addictive!).
If you are like me, you save photos and memomentos from all the important (and even some not as important) events in your families lives.
Photos, award ribbons, certificates, drawings, letters all kept in nice little boxes waiting to be looked at.
Why not take out that cherished painting your child made and place it with the photo you took of him trying to clean up his paint covered body afterwards?
Add a few lines to keep the “I made it just for you” fresh in your mind for always.
Homeschooling provides us with extra opportunities to make and keep memories. You can even use it as part of your curriculum folder.
After seeing me have all the fun, my 10 year old son decided he wanted to scrapbook too. But instead of doing family photos, we decided to make it part of his lessons.
Every time we study a culture or a topic in history, we create a page in our Passport Scrapbook. The first pages are all about him. His photo, finger prints, birth date and so on. The next pages are saved as the index so you can quickly find what you are looking for. Then, each topic has a few images or a drawing plus some background info on the topic. We use stickers and stamps, colored papers, homemade papers and anything else we can think of. But that is only one way to use scrapbooking.
Here are some other ideas:
*album of art work
*collections of pressed flowers & leaves
*make your own story
*field trip memories
*project and experiment records and pictures (craft catalog)
*use as a nature journal ~ (tracking the progress of a garden over the months, watching birds lay and hatch eggs etc)
*historical timeline in pictures
*mini reports/reviews on authors, books, artists or even games
*calendars and day by day (or weekly/monthly) journals
*cook books
*friendship swap ~ (sending the album to one friend at a time to make a page)
*alphabet and/or counting book
*book of favorites
New scrapbooker wish list:
*Album (from a small memory book to huge albums are available)
*Properly sized acid and lignin free papers (to fit in your album if it does not come with paper)
*Decorative papers ~ or colored paper and stamps and stamp pads to make your own
*Acid free pens/markers
*Acid free adhesive for moutning photos, papers, etc
*Stickers
*Scissors
*Ruler ~ helpful but not necessary
*Photos
(All can be bought from local stores like Kmart, Wal-mart and Target.
If you decide you really love scrapbooking there are local shops and internet shops which cater to scrapbookers everywhere).
From quick and simple to wildly elaborate, there are as many styles as personalities.
For me, this was a motivational homeschooling tool. The reward at the end of a lesson.
For a younger child, this may be the entire lesson. The most important thing is to have fun.
Whether creating a fun new way to remember special times, or as a learning tool,
scrapbooking can become a wonderful bonding time for your family.
Copywrite June 2003 HomeSchool Blessings
