The age-old craft of maintaining a scrapbook can help your child through the growing up years in many wonderful ways.
Family bonding
Each child's social skills are nurtured in their family. Help your child make a scrapbook on individual members of the family.
For example, a scrapbook on dad can take your dad-daughter duo on a
trip down the memory lane. She will learn about her father's childhood
- his school, friends, etc. Similarly, a scrapbook on grandparents can
be quite a learning experience
for your child. This becomes all the more important when she has just
loss a grandparent. Scrapbooking can be very healing and help your
child cope with tragic events.
Cultural discovery
Use this craft to tear away your child from his cartoon channel and GameBoy
and help him start on his road to discovering his roots. Scrapbooks on festivals, marriage customs and religious rites are some interesting topics to begin with.
Morals and values
Your child is growing up
in a stressful competitive age. If he is in tune with his soul, he will
make better conscious decisions in life. Help him identify various
morals and values through scrapbooks
on them. Ask him to paste a picture that show someone touching an
elderly person's feet or one that shows relief material being given out
in times of disasters. Kindness, humility and respect… scrapbooks will be make him a better human being.
Family tree
A family
tree scrapbook can be a whole lot of fun. It also holds a lot of
historical significance. There might be a great grandfather who has
struggled through painful years of Pre-Independence era or an aunt who
was among the first few women doctors in Independent India. This
scrapbook can be an emotional journey of sorts.
Coping with change
Your baby is going to see many firsts in life: her first
school, her first friend, her first picnic, etc. A cut 'n paste project
will double her enjoyment in such cases. Other new things like a parent
being transferred can be quite scary for her. A scrapbook on
post-transfer days like her first day at the new school or discovering
the new neighborhood will help her tide through these times.
How to make a scrapbook
Although there can be no guidelines for a scrapbook, here are certain basic ways to go about it:
Make a list of all your child needs for a scrapbook. A scrapbook on
friends might require an interview with them, their likes and dislikes
and their photos. If a friend likes flowers, one can use real flowers
to paste. Help your child assemble all such things besides photos,
glitter, colors, etc.
Get creative with pages and photos. Your daughter does not
necessarily need a square scrapbook. She can use circular pages where
the photos can be cropped in shapes like heart and star.
Ask her to write whatever she feels about a photo. This is called journaling. It will help her express her feelings.
Let her put stickers, ribbons to her heart's content.
