First Day Of School Scrapbook Ideas and Tips!

Out of the many possible family scrapbook ideas, one of the special ones that your child will appreciate later on in life is the first day of school scrapbook. Quite often we capture birthdays, family vacations, and such, but we don't always think about scrapbooking our child's first big day of school. Here are some fun ideas for such a scrapbook.

Determine the time span of your first day of school scrapbook.

Actual first day vs. the first day each year

Are you thinking about creating a scrapbook of your child's first day of preschool or kindergarten, or your child's first day of each year of school?

If you're thinking about the first option, then you will want to use an album that contains a few layouts. If you want to capture your child's first day of school throughout his or her schooling, then invest in a bigger album. Divide the pages evenly so that you have the same number of layouts for each school year.

If you think the second option is too tedious, you may want to just make a scrapbook journal layout with an 'every back to school' event. Back to school from summer, back to school for the next year, back to school from a long holiday or break. Capturing the first day of school whether it's their first day in daycare, actual school, primary school, and so on, these moments are really great to put on paper... scrapbook paper, I mean.

Want to cherish these types of precious moments and turn them into a scrapbook page? Click here and check our Layout Ideas Books and have the perfect layout for your page!

Items to include in your first day of school scrapbook

There are so many fun first day of school scrapbook page ideas to consider! Here are several ideas, based on the school grade your child is in. Honestly, these moments are great for scrapbooking.

Preschool and elementary level scrapbooking

Whether you want to capture just your child's first day of preschool or kindergarten or his first day of each grade of elementary school, the following ideas can be used each year. It will be fun to compare the photos to see how much your child has changed each time they go back to school for another year.

Before the big first day of school, have your child make a handprint using finger paint. Write a poem to go along with the handprint. For example, you might write about how unique your child is or how such a little being is entering into the big world of school.

Once they're bigger and aren't too fond of these handprints, a fingerprint is fine. Besides, as they grow older, their handprints may outgrow those small pieces of paper stamped with their handprints.

Here are great back to school photos you'd love to add to your scrapbook project.

♥ Photo of your child dressed for the first day of school

♥ Journal how your child feels about going to school

♥ Photo of your child eating breakfast

♥ Photo of your child waiting for the bus or getting into the car. Include the child's backpack and anything else he is taking to school with him.

♥ Photo of your child waiving from the bus or car

♥ Photo of your child walking back to school

♥ Journal your thoughts about seeing your little one head off to school

♥ Photo of your child's school building

♥ Photo of the classroom and teacher

♥ Journal information about the teacher

♥ Photo of your child arriving home

♥ Journal your child's thoughts about his first day of school

Middle school level

Entering middle school or junior high is a big deal! Your child will no longer feel like a little kid but will be excited and even nervous about starting a new school.

He will probably agree to let you take some pictures when his friends aren't around, but certainly won't want you following him with a camera.

What to do? Give him a disposable camera he can bring back to school and let him choose the photos that he would like to have included in his first day of school scrapbook.

Still not cooperative? Don't worry, take a photo of your child dressed up or preparing for school. Get embellishments related to their school like a printed school badge, flag, or insignia. If they have a school uniform, take a photo of the uniform and cut it out as an additional decoration on your back to school paper page.

Along with his photos, here are some other scrapbook ideas to include:

♥ Try to get your child to agree to a handprint again, but let him use his imagination. He might want to trace his hand and color it in or write in words that describe how he feels about starting a new school year

♥ Photo of your child dressed for school, along with a backpack

♥ Photo of your child eating breakfast and/or packing a lunch

♥ Journal how you feel having a child in middle school

♥ Photo of the school building names of your child's teachers and the classes he will be taking. You might be able to go to the school's website and download photos of his teachers.

♥ Provide your child with cute journaling die-cuts and have him journal about the photos that he takes with the disposable camera

High school level

The years go quickly by and your child is now in high school! Going back to school every grade is different when your child is about to enter high school. He might not fully embrace the idea of having his picture taken for the first day of high school scrapbook, but several years from now, he will be appreciative that you kept the tradition going. Encourage your child to take photos with his cell phone or provide a disposable camera.

♥ Instead of a handprint, ask your child to do a thumbprint and journal about how he feels about starting a new year of school

♥ Photo of your child dressed for school

♥ Photo of your child leaving for school, especially if he gets to drive a car his senior year

♥ Journal your thoughts about having a child in high school

♥ Photo of the school building

♥ Your son's schedule and names of the teachers

♥ School color and mascot

♥ Ask your child to journal about the photos that he takes

Final Food for Thought

For many kids, they don't always recall what their first day of school was like. In fact, some children have very few memories of elementary school. By creating a first day of school scrapbook for each of your children, you will be preserving special memories that your family can look back on for many years to come.