Step one is going through photos. Children love to look at pictures. Young children love to tell you who the person in the picture is. Older children love to tell the story of the photo or ask you to tell the story of the photo. Both of my kids always love to look at the photos my mom has, many are in black and white. They love to see the differences between life back then, and life today. Of course my mom enjoys sharing with my kids about life back then.



Again, depending on the age of your kids, they can help you choose the color of the paper used, the stickers you use, any lettering you use and can help design the overall layout of the page. When you open a scrapbook there is a page on the left and a page on the right. Often, my kids will each design one side. If you have all of the supplies organized, it's very reasonable to be able to create several pages in one evening.

The adhesives I use are all zots, or precut small squares that are double sided. These adhesives are very simple to use. Even young kids can attach one side to the photo and then when ready peel off the other side and then press into the album. I am not an artist by any means. I also can not cut a straight line. One of the things my own children most love about the albums I've given to them is that every album has crooked pictures. We truly laugh until tears roll down our faces about how I can not even attach a photo straight onto a page. So, even if your young children do attach a photo a bit crooked, seeing the album, knowing you and child made it together will bring you great joy.

If your children are old enough to write, have them do some of the journaling. Help them write their story about the pictures they are putting into the album.

Scrapbook pages all should be in sheet protectors, so even small fingers can't smudge photos. It really is a joy to watch young children take out the scrapbook album they helped to create and watch them tell their dolls or imaginary friends all of the stories behind the various photos.

Scrapbooking is multi generational, allowing young children and even great grandparents to participate in an activity together. One thing that always makes my own children giggle are the bathing suits my grandparents wore in one photo we have. My grandparents were both born in the late 1800's and so the bathing suits were quite different from what we see today.

I was born in New York and so we have photos of me in a baby carriage in the snow. Living in California today, these photos are all of a different place and different time to my own children. They have so enjoyed my own mother telling them about life in New York. Since both of my children are older (driving age) and since we live in California, neither has ever driven in snow. Asking my mom about driving in the snow has provided conversation that would not have taken place if we didn't have the photos and scrapbooks to talk about.

Scrapbooking and photos truly are a way to provide conversation, to bridge the gap between generations and to provide a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with your children.