Thursday, October 4, 2012

First Day of School

It's been awhile since I've posted. I've been busy building a studio at my house, taking pictures for friends, tutoring my daughter, playing soccer, and various other life activities. This is why I haven't been creating the same quantity of pages that I had been in the past. Yet that's what happens when I create only when inspired. I never do pages because I feel like I should. I refuse to make it a chore or a project on my “to do” list. That means, of course, that some outings don't make it into the scrapbook albums. But it also means that many ordinary aspects of life that often get overlooked will be there.

But one event that I wanted to mark was my daughter's first day of school. I wanted to get a picture of her with her matching backpack and lunchbox, which she was barely able to wrap her arms around. School shopping was quite the adventure for us, too. We ran up and down the isles of Walmart to get all the stuff on the list. So I thought, why not include the receipt in the page?

The journaling reads:

It finally hit me that you will be going to school when I took you shopping. Your teacher gave me quite the list. I may have to bring along the double stroller on your first day just to drag all the stuff inside. She wrote the brand names in the list, so brand names it is. I would have bought the store brand and saved a few bucks, but I didn't want to give the impression that your mother is cheap. Your backpack looks huge on you. I can't wait to see if she fills it up with homework. I bet that you will have a great school experience, and I've tried to do my part to get you off on the right foot with your material needs, at least. And in case you were wondering, the chocolates were for me.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Capturing memorable conversations


Conversations with a 3 ½ year old can get pretty interesting, especially when everything I say is followed by a “why” from her. I see many people post conversions with their kids on Facebook, but we are very likely to forget about it later and the kids won't get to look back at the early exchanges with their parents.

Many people video record conversations, and parents would have had no recollection of the event were it not captured on video. But these are usually an interview-style format, where the parent asks a set of questions or tells the kids to perform some trick. But writing conversations down in the scrapbook is another option, especially if it is an impromptu exchange that didn't get recorded. After all, you can't predict when memorable moments are going to happen.

You should write it down within a few hours when all the details are still fresh. If you don't have the time right away, just type it into a word processor and make the page later (that's what I did). Then you can add pictures and your own comments later when you have the time. Here's how mine went:

Mommy, why are you rubbing your eyes?
Me: Because I'm tired.
Sophia: Why?
Me: Because it's night time.
Sophia: Why?
Me: Because the sun went down.
Sophia: Why?
Me: Well... it just looks like the sun went down... Actually (grabbing two balls), the earth is spinning in relation to the sun, like this. When we are facing the sun, it's daytime. Then, the earth spins around and it looks like the sun is going down from our perspective, then it disappears and it's night time. The earth is also going around the sun. When it's over there, it's winter time and its cold. When it come back over this way, it's summer and it's warm out. That's when we can go outside and have fun.
Sophia: Can we go to the zoo tomorrow?
Me: (Breathing a sigh of relief) Yes! Let's see the animals tomorrow.

It's amazing how a simple string of “WHY's” can lead into deep conversation, challenging my own intellect and understanding of the world around me. All kids go through this stage. And WHY do they go through the “WHY” stage? I suppose it's curiosity. Perhaps the more important question is WHY do they stop saying “WHY.” Some kids never stop asking WHY, and they go on to get their Ph.D.'s and talk about things that very few people understand. I certainly wouldn't want to inhibit my childrens' innate curiosity, so I try to avoid empty responses such as “just because.” I prefer to give the humbling but honest answer of “I don't know.” Though it may shatter their image of me as the all-knowing authoritative figure in their life, that's ok. They're not my creation and I have no right to hold them back. As for now, I answer to the best of my ability until I lose my little Socrates and she changes the subject.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

First final exam


My daughter finished her first sign language class last week. It took her a long time to really get into it. She didn't want to follow along with the other kids at first. I had to bribe her by taking her out to lunch afterward to get her to participate. But for the last two sessions, she did all the signs without me having to nudge her. She even started teaching her daddy and aunts some of the words.

Since she was having so much fun, I brought her down to the basement and took pictures of her signing to me. It also gave me an opportunity to use some new flash units I recently bought. I decided to arrange the photos “Brady Bunch” style to fit as many as I could on the page. She was excited and moved around a lot, so the photos are not all framed the same way. That's OK, though. It kind of adds to the dynamic quality of the page.

The teacher gave her a certificate of completion on the last class. I plan to put this layout on the opposing page from the certificate. I try to include photos with every event included in the scrapbooks, and this is the one that came to my head for her sign language class.