Time is going by too fast! My youngest baby is almost two and the “big” boys are getting bigger each day. I’ve talked about this before but last month I decided to quit complaining about it and actually make myself create a manageable plan to start documenting family memories.
I know I’m not the only parent to worry about my failure to document important milestones. In case you’re in the same boat, I’ll fill you in on what I’m doing. So far, it seems like it actually might work. At least it’s been working for a month, so that’s something.
I’d like a memory keeping system that fits somewhere between the perfectly cropped and embellished scrapbook, and the notes about baby teeth and first steps scrawled on a scrap of trash from the bottom of my purse. I’ve tried both versions, and neither is working out for me for various reasons. I want something that captures our real life. The good the bad and the messy. I want the final product to look nice. I want to involve my whole family in the process, partially because it’s a meaningful family project, and partially because if they’re involved, my kids will nag me to keep up with it. Hence, the Family Journal.
This isn’t a revolutionary idea, but here’s how to do our version of the Family Journal:
- Get a journal, or set up a blog. We’re doing a private blog because I type faster than I write, and it’s easy to insert pictures, videos and sound clips. Oh, and when we’ve collected a bunch of posts, we can have the nice people at Blurb “slurp” the whole thing into a pretty hardbound book.
- Write one or more quick entries each week. See below for ideas.
- Involve the kids and the hubby in the writing. It’s funny to read a dictated description of the day from a four year old. My six year old thinks it’s fun to practice his typing skills. And my husband is way more likely to type a few lines about a funny comment from one of our kids, than he is to create a scrapbook layout or write his deep thoughts in a traditional journal.
- Write a reminder on the calendar if needed. Now that everyone is involved, the kids remind me as well.
- Add a few pictures each week. I’m going for random shots of real life. Slap them in the journal with short captions. No cropping or embellishing necessary. If you forget to take pictures, just take a few shots of the messy living room, the kids’ toys, etc. Something to capture a bit of life as we know it.
- That’s it. We’re recording the little and big milestones, and I no longer feel as worried about forgetting important details, because even if we forget some, we’re writing often enough that we’re bound to capture quite a few.
Ideas for Journal Entries:
- Pick a topic and interview the kids. These entries make nice little “snapshots” of what the kids are thinking about in this moment in time. I’m getting my interview questions from these two books: My Listography: My Amazing Life In Lists
and Could You? Would You?
Another great source for interview topics are these questions I posted about last time.
- Pick a day and have the kids describe what we did. Type their descriptions exactly. It’s sometimes funny to hear which details of the day were the most memorable for them.
- Thoughts, observations, milestones…
- Notes to each other
- Favorite songs or meaningful quotes
- Weekly highlights: Ours are usually in the form of a quick bulleted list.
- Random what-nots
Besides the family journal, I did manage to make a scrapbook for each baby. (Well, technically that third one still needs to get finished. I’m working on it.)
We also keep track of birthday and school milestones in these books. School Years: A Family Keepsake of School Memories
So that’s my plan. How do you keep track of this stuff? Do you have a system you like?