Paperclipping: The Video Podcast | Design Your Story

So Totally Ready For The Big Time

The journaling to Aiden reads: You wanted to go to the “big school” with Blake and Trinity last year but I told you you have to be 5. You talked about it all the time. And in March, on the day you turned 5, you were ecstatic because you thought you would go to kindergarten that day. I tried to explain it, but you asked me almost every day if it was time, from March 23 until your first day in Aug. And wow, were you ready! You had no problems adjusting to the full day, everyday, schedule.

And here you are…learning about your playground, learning where to put your backpack while you play, learning to get in line and stand in line when the bell rings. You also had a spy activity where you found all the places in your school.

You loved this spy activity! You found so many cool places and people and things in your school. And what a very, very cool school you go to! How many other schools have a tortoise habitat? You’re a lucky dude!

The Focal Point Photo Tells The Story

The picture I chose for the focal point on this layout is not a perfectly posed first-day photo. It’s an almost natural, caught-in-the-moment photo. Trinity looks like she’s just walked out the door, a few steps behind Aiden, her book bag pulling on her hair.

There is movement in the picture, as if Trinity and Aiden were just doing their thing, heading off to school, when Dad suddenly told them to smile. With Aiden closer to the camera than Trinity, and with the cocky little smirk on his face, I felt that this was the perfect photo to tell Aiden’s story about being so ready for the big time.

Size 5 Tag: A Great Story-telling Item

In the United States, no other number has as much significance with regard to school as the number, 5. 5 is when we start kindergarten. 5 is a big deal. So when I was pulling and tossing tags from Aiden’s new school clothes, it occurred to me to save this “size 5″ tag for Aiden’s back-to-school scrapbook page. Even though it isn’t a dominant part of the layout, it is one of my favorite parts.

Aiden’s Contribution And The Power Of Photos

There’s a funny story about how this layout came together. When I started working on it, I had placed the photos as you see them, using the magnets on the FRED. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to keep it this way or not, but Aiden made that decision for me. He climbed up on my chair, gazed at all the photos, including the color copies from his school “spy” activity, and finally exhaled, “Wow!” To him, this is an epic story.

I had no other paper or products in place at that point–just the pictures on the white background–and he began spouting his own ideas. “I want to draw a picture in that white spot! I’m going to go get my crayons and draw something there!”

At first I panicked. I didn’t want him touching my layout. But he was so excited about making a contribution to the story, I couldn’t disappoint him, either. I told him he could draw on a separate piece of paper that we would add to the page. Pretty soon he was adding paper scraps and insisted on drawing, not a school-related picture, but a drawing of himself with me at the movie theater.

Do you see all the seats? And the trash can? Pure five-year-old adorable randomness.

What stories are you discovering about yourself or your kids going back to school? Toni realized she had her own story to tell as she was commenting the previous blog post…

We homeschool and I did take pictures of the table and supplies for our first day. I also took some fun photos, like 6yo ds doing his Spanish lesson on the computer while 1yo watched with curiosity.

I have to put on a show on the first day to get them in the “switch gears” mode after having their house and mom back for the summer without school overtones. I do silly things like take roll call, point out who “ended up in the same class with whom”, etc. They giggle and think their mom is silly, but that’s the point. And now I’m thinking I have my story for journaling. ;D

As someone who doesn’t home school, Toni’s process of photographing school at home and helping her kids switch to a school mindset after the summer break fascinated me. We all have stories to tell. And they are interesting. We just have to recognize what they are.