4 ideas for kids to document everyday life

My kids are getting older now and wanting to use cameras and their ipods to document life through their own eyes. It is changing how we go to events, what gets captured on special days and how independent they feel when we trust them with technology and equipment.

We already have an adventure journal they are in charge of, but I went looking for ways they could document our life themselves and thought I’d share what I found. Most of these ideas can be adapted based on kids age and abilities.

 

Family Fun and Adventure Journal

I have a post coming up on this in a couple of weeks detailing our journal in full. Basically after I wrote a post asking for fun ideas for our family and created the list of 101 ideas for fun and adventure I worked with my kids to create a journal where we could put together photos, details and any thoughts on our adventures. It it is nice to have something we can look back on together.

By giving the kids control of the camera on these outings we gain their perspective on the day and are also more fully able to participate since we are not hiding behind / busy with the camera.

Family Newspaper

I loved this post at Playful Learning on writing a family newspaper as it ties in with my aim to encourage the kids in writing. You can go high tech like the article and work in publisher or another program or you can simply use paper and pen and photos while following the style of a newspaper. The post included a handout  of two worksheets: “ On the first worksheet we recorded our newspaper observations. On the second worksheet we collected the basic information that all good reporters use to write a great story:  who, what, where, when, why and how! ”

This would be great over school holidays, summer or a year end wrap up for family and friends (in which case it could be an ongoing project).

Be a Photojournalist

Leaf journals have a great series going on with kids journal activities. One of the ideas is kids documenting “a day in the life” for their own daily activities and routines. They don’t need to document every minute of the day, but it is great to have a record of their meals, clothes, friends, hobbies, favourite ways to spend time, etc

I could see this being a great long term project to capture your child at each age – but done solely by them through photos.

 

Scrapbooking

Often thought of as an adult pursuit, scrapbooking is a great activity for kids, especially those that love both craft and photography. Both my kids have received scrapbook kits from friends in the last 2 years and that is a quick way to start. Otherwise you can find a simple scrapbook or art journal and let them create freely with stamps, stickers, papers, craft punches and pens along with selecting which photos they want to have printed.

If you don’t already have many of these arts and crafts supplies this can be a great gift to pull together and invest in some grown up supplies.

 

Have you tried any of these with your own kids? Do you think you will try one of these now? 

 

Find your simple,

Deb 

 

Image credit – photo used is by flickr user Mike Miley 

 

Tagged as: arts and crafts, intentional living