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Friday, April 20, 2007

Books are great scrapbooks

Children's books make great way to journal and document your life or your kids. this year at the White House Easter Egg Roll, each child got a bag with items from President Bush, telling them how much he loves them. They each got a hardbound book, "Guess How Much I Love You?" they also got a book mark with his photo which says,
"I encourage you to make the right choices, to help others and to follow your dreams"

I cut up the book mark and laminated it in the front of the book, then I took the cut up the tickets to the event
and laminated those in the back.
Chances are good I will not lose the book as easy as I will the book mark and the tickets. Then I wrote in each girls book about the day and when I get a few of the photos back from being printed I will put those in the book on the back blank pages.i gave this to Sally Jane this year

Each Christmas I buy a book for the kids and write in the book their Christmas wish list. I usually buy the Caldecott books for them to start a good collection. It doubles as a Christmas gift and a journal for them. Since Sally Jane is really too young to have list I wrote what things she did this Christmas and what she was doing as a almost 2 year old.

If you are bringing a new sibling in the family, moving, death in the family, visiting a historical site or traveling there is a children's book on the subject. You can buy the book write about the experience in the front, date it, glue photos of that visit, tickets, brochures etc and it makes a great scrapbook. What is wonderful is each time you read the book you can remember so much about that time in your life.

New Baby How to be a baby by Me the Big Sister.


Talking to Children about dying
Butterfly for Brittany


Moving

Big Ernie's new home


Travel


Polk Street kids. visit all different cities

If you have any other great children's books that would make great memory books, add them on!


22 comments:

lisa h. said...

great idea! especially the books for Christmas.

Kristine said...

What a fantastic idea!
While I've inscribed books before, I've never actually thought about using it as a scrapbook.
We have such an abundance of books, but this would really personalize them.

Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the good mail...I haven't opened it yet...but I'll document it as soon as I do.
It was a fun thing to discover in the mailbox after an errand filled morning.

carlo said...

very great ideas. we do the christmas book each year but i usually just inscribe something and the year. duh! why i never thought to write about the year or about the christmas list, i am not sure but i am very glad you thought of it and shared with us!

very cool.

Anonymous said...

Great ideas about the books -- wish I had done that when ours were young. I still don't inscribe books that I give away!! Shame on me.......... I have always loved the Caldecott books as well. You are providing great memories for your precious girls.

Andy said...

You have totally inspired me. We really want to drive down for the Easter Egg hunt next year.

Elizabeth said...

This is a great idea. I love finding books that I wrote in the front of as a child.

Anna said...

Great idea. These are some of my favorite books for special occassions:
Having a new sibling: Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes
Adoption: Little Miss Spider, by David Kirk
Taking away a blankie: Owen, by Kevin Henkes
Family Gathering: The Family Reunion, by Tricia Tusa
Going to school for the 1st time: Little Miss Spider at Sunny Patch School, by David Kirk
Dating: Fanny's Dream, by Caralyn Buehner

Nikole said...

You don't know me, but I have been reading your blog after a link from Ashly Carter. I had to comment because I ADORE children's books. I don't have a child yet, but I probably have at least 75 books in my collection already. I love the idea of using the books as a scrapbook. Have you read the book "Fancy Nancy" by Jane O'Conner? It's a new favorite and a must have!

everything pink! said...

nikole. that fancy nancy is awesome!

Anna, thanks for the tips. the owen one about the blankie is the best!

andy, you must drive down! and our cousin is going to your neck of the woods.

amy gretchen said...

awesome idea. thanks for sharing.

Mandy said...

I really liked these ideas, especially the christmas book with the Christmas list. Great, great idea!

Barb said...

O.K. that is a great idea. I have a great veterans day book that I'm going to scrapbook the inside covers with our pictures from our recent trip to the Museum of the Regiments. You have so many good ideas, but this may be the top.

Amanda :-) said...

That must've taken some time to compile that list of books, Kristi, thanks.

If I was a children's author, I'd be only too pleased to see my book scrawled on and covered in memorabilia of special times. A well-loved book needs to look like a well-loved teddy bear! Crumples and all!

I will keep hold of all Erin's and Isla's loved books. I made the mistake of decluttering the books I grew up with years ago, and now I'm often trying to find copies on eBay, but to no avail. Even if I DID find copies, they still wouldn't be 'my copies', if you see what I mean. *sob*

Jill said...

I love these ideas. The only thing kind of like this that I do is every Father's Day we give Randy a kids book about their dad and I write "Father's Day 2007" or whatever in it. We have 8 of them so far.

andrea said...

Kristi, such great ideas. I see that someone mentioned the book Owen which is one of our favorites since Lily is so attached to her blankie. I will never take it away from her becuase it is so special and so symbolic to her. We brought it to her when we adopted her in China. Her blankie is literally falling apart. I think I should cut off a scrap and put it in the book. Thanks again for the great idea!!

Anonymous said...

Oh Wow! I LOVE this idea. Another book is Heggedy Peg (a beautifully illustrated and well-written picture book) by Don and Audrey Wood. It’s one of our family favorites; we read it over and over and over when the kids were little. In the story a wicked witch comes to a family’s home while the mother is away at the market. Before the mother went shopping she asked each child what they would like her to buy and each gave his wish. While the mother is away, the witch steals the children and takes them to her hut deep in the woods and turns them into food for her supper. When the children’s mother comes home, a little bird informs her of the tragedy awaiting her children. The mother goes deep into the forest and finds the witch who tells her she must guess which food is what child. With the pressure on, the mother identifies each child by the item they requested for her to pick up at the market. The child that asked for butter must be the bread, the child that asked for a knife must be the pie, the child that asked for honey must be the porridge, etc. The mother correctly identifies each child and they return to their darling little selves and chase Heggedy Peg far away into a whirlpool where she is never heard from again.

We adopted a family tradition because of this book. Whenever I go “big” grocery shopping (once every few months), I “heggedy peg” and pick out a treat for each family member. When I get home, I lay the treats out on the table and each family member must guess who I was thinking of when I bought the treat. It’s a fun tradition for a fun book. I'm going to get one for each and write the tradition in the front along with a picture of a treat.

Brilliant idea Kristi. Thanks.

everything pink! said...

Jane, thanks for the summary. i will look up that book at the library right now!

Michelle Alley said...

Kristi - I'd never thought about writing their christmas list in a book or using other books to record a special event. Great idea! We bought the girl's Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree - my favorite christmas book - I'll think I'll add some comments in it now.

melanie said...

Kristi, how awesome for your girls down the road. I have nothing like that from my childhood but I would love it. You are a wonderful mother and really I think you think of everything!

Chanel Palmer said...

You have a gift for finding just the right book.

We still have the book Annie Bannane that you gave us when you moved away. Haley always remembers that her friend from NOLA gave that to her.

Stephanie Ford said...

I think it would be cute to give each of your kids a book about pretending every few years and record in it their favorite things to pretend that year. A good one that came out this year is Not A Box by Antoinette Portis

Kristy said...

I love children's books and think this is so fun. I have bought a few children's books and have written in the front of them why I bought it and where. For example I visited the Dr. Seuss museum with my mom, sisters and nephews and couldn't help but by a Dr. Seuss book and glue the ticket in the front. I think it will be really fun once I get a nice collection.