Sweet Preserves: 3 Traditional Ways to Save Childhood Memories

Aisling.OBrien — Sat, 07 Sep 2013 04:00:00 +0000

My childhood bedroom is preserved in its original state; the clay mask I made at art camp, the books I loved as a student, old journals, folders of drawings and paper dolls. Around the house on shelves, walls, mantelpieces, and furniture tops the cream of the photo crop is lovingly displayed. I have to thank my mother for her role as family archivist. Those artefacts create a powerful sense of self, place and most importantly, family. It’s all there in our family home, waiting to be pored over and shared with the next generation.

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways, and with the advent of the Internet, it’s become so much simpler to preserve all those sweet childhood memories. Let’s take a look at some old-fashioned and new-fangled ways to put childhood on record.

Measuring Wall
Portability and durability are important concerns for any childhood documents, but for the measuring wall they’re a must! The wall which displayed all of our growth spurts and plateaus unfortunately ceased to exist when our reception rooms were knocked together and remodelled. And of course most Beijing families are nomadic; Beijing today, Oman tomorrow. Modern global gypsies don’t always have the luxury of space and rootedness.
So rather than marking up your paintwork and losing it all when you move home, make a height measuring board or chart.
On birthdays, the first day of the school year, or just because you know they’ve notched up another inch, draw a new line for each child, noting the date and occasion.

Digital Refrigerator
Artwork, graded papers, and handmade valentines all compete for space on the family fridge. Galleries of your children’s creativity and achievements are ever changing, and the old must make way for the new. Boxing and keeping everything they create adds up to a storage nightmare. Keep the standouts in hard copy and scan, photograph and store the rest. Your kid’s digitized masterpieces can be uploaded to instagram, flickr or Facebook.

Photo Books and Scrapbooks
Many families have reams of beautiful family memories, all frozen in digital amber on their hard drives. Release your memories by making photo books and scrapbooks. You can make beautiful pieces to gift or cherish at Shutterfly, Snapfish, Scrapjazz, or Scrapbook.com.

Photo courtesy of archetypefotographie, flickr.com

Holiday Memory Masterpieces

After all the anticipation, holidays always seem to fly by. Time is a tricky thing and freezing it can take a little work. Luckily, the process of preserving memories is incredibly fun! This year, try making your own holiday scrapbook so you can return to those vacation memories whenever you feel like it.

The most important part of scrapbooking is documentation. Whenever you do something that you would really like to remember, keep a little piece of it. Take a camera along when you go out, keep ticket stubs, and information pamphlets. If you go to a park or another outdoor attraction, you can even pluck a bit of grass or foliage (just make sure the guards don’t see you)!

When you have all your material, all you need to do is assemble your memories in a way that speaks to you. This can be a really fun family activity. Sit down together with lots of craft supplies on a rainy day and create your memory masterpiece.

For craft supplies, head to Samantha Crafts, Gehua Baihua, or Paper Talk. Or check our Directory.

If you need some inspiration to get started, check out some of these websites on scrapbooking:

Happy scrapbooking!

Photo Courtesy of Lars Hammar via Flickr

scrapbook – Beijing Kids

Sweet Preserves: 3 Traditional Ways to Save Childhood Memories

Holiday Memory Masterpieces