How to Scrapbook With Kids

Scrapbooking is a great way to get kids involved with both family history and creative, hands-on activities. In addition to learning more about their pasts, your kids will also be practicing essential fine motor skills, such as holding writing materials, using scissors properly and pasting objects correctly. Furthermore, it provides them with reinforcement of safety rules in a fun environment.

Things You'll Need

• Scrapbooking supplies

Instructions

Scrapbook With Kids

1. Involve your kids by asking them to pick out background colors and mats for their scrapbook pages. You can offer suggestions for color combinations, but let the kids have full creative control over their pages.

2. Ask for assistance with picking out photographs. You may be surprised at how willing your kids are to pick out good pictures for scrapbooking. Most importantly, they'll pick photos which have personal meaning.

3. Organize all scrapbooking materials in a way that will not overwhelm your kids. It might be a good idea to introduce them to products one at a time to avoid temptation or confusion.

4. Take the time to explain to your kids what each tool and product does. In addition to teaching your kids how to properly handle and care for your scrabook materials, it may also inspire them when it comes time to create pages.

5. Let your kids have free rein on at least one page. They need to have something entirely their own. You can help with other pages, but encourage them to make at least one by themselves.

6. Ask your kids to write text to go along with each photo. You can offer help, especially to younger children, but try to have text that comes entirely from them.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose interesting projects, like an age time line, where even young children can do more than just cut out shapes and paste them on a piece of paper. Projects like age time lines encourage kids to voice their likes and dislikes at each age in their lives, making it a fun social and creative activity.

• Look at theme kits. Most theme kits contain everything needed for a few scrapbook pages, including cut-outs, pages and acid-free papers to use for mats. Using a kit may help younger children stay focused and organized and may help them enjoy scrapbooking more.

• Keep a close eye on your kids when they're using scrapbooking supplies. The fun shapes and bright colors of scrapbooking supplies can often hide their potentially dangerous nature. Scrabooking tools often have sharp corners, knives or chemicals which could seriously harm children when used improperly.