Over the past decade, scrapbooking for adults has exploded on the hobby scene and become one of the most popular pastime activities. Scrapbooking is a wonderful way to capture, protect, and display family events and memories. Remember too, that your children have memories that are also important to them and what better way to share an activity with your children than by introducing them to this hobby for a lifetime.

Scrapbooking can begin whenever your child has the manual dexterity to use a pair of safety scissors and glue sticks (starting around 6 years of age). First projects can be pictures of their friends, birthday parties, vacations, and pets—anything that they enjoy. Consider buying a small album for your child each year where he or she can scrapbook memories of school and events throughout the year. You can keep expenses to a minimum by letting them use some of your leftover paper, cardstock, and stickers to embellish their album. Simple supplies are fine for beginners. Supply them with safety-tip scissors, glue sticks, and pages to fit their album.

Journaling (writing details and dates to accompany pictures) is an important part of the scrapbooking process (just remember all of those pictures in your family album with strange faces you can’t quite place or vacations to what are now lands of mystery). Templates are available that aid kids in drawing straight lines for their journaling. One additional hint—cut long border stickers in half to make them more manageable for smaller hands.

As children get older and their proficiency (and hopefully interest) in scrapbooking increases, you can move them into more advanced materials and page designs. Photo templates can be used to trace shapes onto photographs, which are then cut out and add another level of creativity to scrapbook pages. Once your kids reach their teenage years, they are ready for the same scrapbooking instruments you use. If your child is an avid scrapbooker, you may have to assist with a budgetary allowance for new supplies. At this point, scrapbooks take on an even greater level of personal character and you’ll be able to see more and more of your child’s individual style come through in their pages.

When your child reaches 25 and sits down with scrapbooks from each year of elementary and high school, your planning for the future will all seem worthwhile. Thank you for helping preserve those simple days.

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