Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

Brook shares great tips and inspiration for a School Album.

You might know the feeling . . . receiving your child’s yearbook (the one you paid a small fortune for) and anxiously flipping through it to find pictures of your precious kiddo. But aside from a few blurry appearances, and one of the top of his/her head in a group photo, the only good one you can find is the tiny 1×2 inch school portrait (the one you already bought for a small fortune). It’s disappointing, for sure. You might even be thinking you could do a better job. But wait . . . don’t sign up for the yearbook committee! You can make an your very own album of school-related memories for your child that will be a lasting treasure.

Here are a few reasons why you might want to think about making a school album:

1. You homeschool.
2. The school-issued yearbook honestly doesn’t represent your child’s year in school and you don’t plan on purchasing one this year.
3. You want to supplement the school yearbook by having all of your child’s extracurricular and personal school-related memories in a book of its own.

No matter what your reason, think about it: a school album they can flip through and EVERY page is about them & their school year. *sigh* I’m getting scrapbooking-induced warm fuzzy feelings. Are you feelin’ it? 🙂

My son started his first year of kindergarten last year, and as a homeschooler, I was a little sad he wouldn’t be getting a traditional yearbook. So I set out to make him one, and although I haven’t printed it yet (hey, no one’s perfect), I am thrilled with it. Here are a few pages from his 2012-2013 album:

Here are a few page ideas for your school album:

• Photos of your child’s friends
• First day of school pictures
• A picture of your child and their favorite teacher
• Photos of special field trips (either taken by them, you, or another parent)
• Questionnaires & lists (such as facts about your child, their favorites, facts about the school, etc.)
• A photo of the school facade
• That ‘classic’ yearly school portait picture
• Scanned in samples of your child’s handwriting, worsksheets, drawings, or art
• What’s for lunch (take pictures of what you’re packing for them, or list their cafeteria menu)
• School costs (how much do supplies cost? fundraisers? uniforms?)
• A run-down of your weekly schedule
• Photos of what he/she is wearing & mention current fashion trends (do a comparison from previous years)
• Pictures of doing homework
• Extra-curricular hobbies, sports, clubs, teams, or groups

As you can see, there is so much you can say about their school days that the standard school yearbook can’t. Here are a few more examples of some fantastic page ideas you could add to your school album:

So, have I convinced you? If so, you might be wondering . . . How to begin? Start by choosing what size album you’d like to make. I am planning on an 8×8 hardcover album for our 2013-2014 school year, somewhere around 20–25 pages. I roughly sketch out my plan on scrap paper (see image below) to make sure I have room for everything I want to cover before starting. Then I pick my templates, kits, fonts, and I organize them in a separate folder. I like to work on the album a little bit at a time as the year goes on so that I don’t forget anything. Project Life templates work great for the yearbook format because they are flexibile and allow for lots of photos.

It’s not too late to begin! The school year has just started. Now is a great time to plan out a special school scrapbook album for your little smarty pants. 🙂 It will be so fun to look back on those cherished school memories all in one book!

Hope you’ve found this post inspiring!

Happy Scrapping,

Brook