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.
- Bind it up to preserve it.
