Teens

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By the time your teen is in high school, you probably aren't
taking as many pictures of them as you used to. I have to keep
reminding myself that I only have a couple of years left and no
time to waste trying to capture fleeing teenage memories.

You might be thinking that I'm really organized to be already
working on scrapbooking my daughter's high school memories. To
be honest, I have a shoe box full of pictures of my daughter
waiting for me to get to someday.

But if I wait until "someday" to continue taking pictures because
I already have so many pictures I haven't done anything with,
then my daughter's teenage years will come and go while I try to
catch up.

I don't want to chronicle every detail of my daughter's life (nor
would she want me to!), but I was trying to think of some
memories that she might want to laugh about and maybe even
treasure someday. So how do you do that without ending up with
pages and pages of memories?

I decided to do two large (12x12) pages (facing each other in the
album) for each year of high school. I will challenge myself to
use this space creatively to tell the story of each year. When I
started thinking of all the the possibilities, it really inspired
me to start getting organized and collecting some great memories.
And don't limit yourself to just photographs, your scrapbook
pages can really be accentuated by other types of memories. Here
are some ideas to get you started:

Photograph Ideas:

High School Dances
First Date/Boyfriend
School Building
Church Events/Retreats
Braces (the day they're removed)
Hair Styles
Clothing Fads
Learning to Drive
First Job
First Car
Best Friends
School Plays/Concerts
Family Vacations
Favorite Family Pets
Babysitting
Sports/Band/Cheerleading
Musical Instrument Practice

Other:

CD Covers (scanned)
Favorite Song Lyrics
Drivers' Permit
First Pay Stub
Programs from Play/Concerts
College Brochures
School Newspapers
ASB Card
Awards/Certificates
Ticket Stubs (concert, movie, sporting events)
Report Cards

You can be creative when you're arranging your layouts. Don't be
afraid to cut pictures down or cut out portions of play programs
or school newspapers. Just cut out enough to accentuate the
other items on the page. You will create the overall effect from
the entire page, not necessarily from an individual item.

Have fun and don't worry if you don't get it done all at one
time. I figure if I can do one every summer for the previous
school year, by the time she finishes high school (she's a
freshman this year), all of her high school memories will be
recorded in the family archives.

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of
What's for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick
easy dinner ideas. For recipes, tips to organize your home, home
decorating, crafts, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at
http://www.creativehomemaking.com. To subscribe to their monthly
newsletter send a blank e-mail message to
[email protected].

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