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Scrapbooking - so many advantages....

Scrapping with Liz

Scrapping with Liz

Crafts for days.
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Dec 19, 2015
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Some of you may know that 2 of my children are deaf. Helping them acquire language is something we are constantly working on. We use a system called Cued Speech to help them learn English...to be able to communicate with their hearing peers and to learn to read and write English fluently.

I'm reading this 700 page resource book on cued speech an low and behold I come across this section:

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It was a section talking about different techniques to help children learn family names, places, events, traditions, etc... Making and looking at scrapbooks was one of the tips!

And guess what? I've already been doing that. I've been using my yearly scrapbooks to help Isaac learn everyone's names, what they are doing, places, etc.. (he's at the beginning stages of language learning) and then with Matthew I've been using them to have him tell me the things that are happening on the pages. He's more advanced and needs help with sentence structure. Both of my boys like to do this because they get to learn language through their own stories.

Another suggestions was to make Experience Books. These are basically picture books that tell about going to the grocery store, restaurant, the library, etc using actual pictures from your own town & things you do... I totally want to do this too!

Also, all of my children love looking at their scrapbooks. It has helped our 4 adopted kiddos tremendously. They love to read their story and how they came to be a part of our family. I think it helps them have that feeling of belonging.

With that said....do you have any positive scrapbook experiences?
 
How cool is that?! What a wonderful way to take memory-keeping and turn it into a learning resource! Plus, learning is always easier when it's fun, and I don't think anyone will argue that scrapbooks aren't fun to look at. :)
 
That's so cool! I adore that it helps with language!
When we lived on the opposite side of the country from family, I made a little scrapbook for my son with family photos. Each one had the person's photo, and their name. When we went to visit, he associated them as family, and was not afraid of all the "strangers".
 
How cool is that!! And since you've been doing this all along you know it works! The Experience Books sound fun, and you could make them as interactive as you want, like a mini album with pull out tags, and fold-outs for more photos or hidden items like groceries, money, letters...oh the possibilities are endless!
 
What a wonderful idea! My own scrapbooks helped me share my life with my birth mother (I am adopted) when I was finally reunited with her at age 45! My adoptive parents also kept wonderful scrapbooks for me when I was little and - just like you said - I loved to pore over them and see how excited my whole extended family was when I became part of the family.
 
This is awesome, Liz! No doubt that it has helped all of your children - much more than you realize. It's also a way to remember moments, feel inclusion, and a bonding moment. Heck, I even enjoy learning about your family and seeing how the kids are through your pages. :) I think that is a way that can connect us all!
 
I think it's absolutely brilliant that something you love doing anyway is helping your sons so much. I love the idea of the experience books - I think I'll make a few for my son when the time is right.

My grandmother was a scrapbooker circa 1920s style - pictures and ephemera glued into paper scrapbooks. They've been an absolutely treasure to our family once she passed away as they old pieces of her past we would never have really guessed it without them...such as the love letter from someone decidedly not my grandfather during the war. They've given me a real sense of her as a person and of her time in history (the war as well as simple things such as the price of a bottle of milk when my Dad was five).
 
Very cool. Once upon a time, I taught adoptive moms how to write Lifebooks, i.e. adopted child's story prior to their adoption. I created a preschool version for my daughter. I also wrote, but did not scrap a teenage version with all the details that I know. Since she is turning 16, I should give it to her.

I also wrote up our adoption story: the call to adopt, the struggles and set backs of the paperwork, the waiting, and waiting, and then The Call. I first posted it on a blog, but later did it as a digital scrapbook/story.

I think it is so important for our children to have a record of their life and what we were doing and thinking at the time.
 
I have a friend that is almost old enough to be my grandma. She often told me she considered me a daughter. When she turned 80, another friend had a big party for her. I took lots of pictures and tried to get one of each person that attended. I then made a little paper scrapbook for her.

Years later, after a move to a new house, etc. she still had my little book sitting out on a shelf and told me she looked at it frequently. She loved that I cared enough to create it for her. She often told me she did not think her own daughters cared that much for her.

When she died, the family brought the little book to her funeral for others to look at. It amazed me how important that book became to her. Sure, I created it out of love and that was reflected in the pages, but it still surprised me how much she treasured it.

One last comment, be sure to journal in any books you create for others. Pictures are nice, but words from the heart mean so much more.
 
I love reading about all of the ways you all have used your scrapbooks!

For us, my project life books have become our family's "encyclopedia". We are forever looking up things in them. My daughter turned 16 this week and my son was trying to remember what he got for his 16th birthday.... we just pulled out the appropriate PL book and looked it up! We do stuff like that all of the time.

BevG said:
One last comment, be sure to journal in any books you create for others. Pictures are nice, but words from the heart mean so much more.
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Bev's comment reminded me... yes! Definitely journal!! My parents had to empty out my grandmother's house last year when she moved to assisted living. Boxes upon boxes of loose photos and some nicely done scrapbooks that had little labeling/journaling. Sadly, those photos have become a burden vs. a joy to my parents. With a little organization and some journaling they would have been priceless treasures.
 
Wonderful story Liz. I has to make you feel good to know that what you have done for your family is actually something professionals suggest. Says a lot about mothers' instinct.

I got this comment on a page I did for another site and it reminds me why I really prefer to have a lot of journaling on a page vs the beautiful white backgrounds that I have grown to love.

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"Maureen this is perfection on a page. I was just talking to a fledgling digi scrapper the other day (oh okay she's a paper scrapper I'm trying to convert to the dark side, tee hee) and we were looking through each other's scrap pages. It's lovely to see the pictures, but as time goes on it's the journalling we want and crave to read, we want to know the where, why, how. I love that you've set the scene here. No one ever has to wonder the story behind the photo, the story behind the man he has become. ADORE this in so many ways." (bolding mine)
 
Oh, what smart people!!!

Scrapbooks are amazing. They really helped my mom when she fell into dementia. She would be totally lost, but after a few pages of looking at one she slowly "came back" to us. It was amazing to see.

When my kids were young they would continually pour over their own (paper) scrapbooks. Thank goodness for page protectors! They loved reading about themselves and the things we did. Now my DH tells me I take too many photos(!) and make too many scrapbooks(!!), but I'm not listening. I'll be making these things until the day I die!

I did love the year I made a P365 album. It was dreadfully difficult to remember to take a photo a day, but my DD loved looking back on it for all of the ordinary stuff that we did all year long. I just may try to make one of those again next year!
 
BevG said:
I created a preschool version for my daughter. I also wrote, but did not scrap a teenage version with all the details that I know.
Click to expand...
Tell me more.

My son is adopted, and I've been trying to figure out how to tell the 'before you were born' story. He's asked about "the woman who carried him in her tummy" (his words, not mine). I've made a few pages talking about it, but would love to put it into a more complete story for him.
 
@bestcee asked about Lifebooks for adopted kids. Here are few resources:
Lifebooks: Creating a Treasure For the Adopted Child
Website by Beth O'Malley, author of book listed above, some ideas to get you started.

This book has some ideas on writing a Lifebook too. Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox..

FYI - The idea of a Lifebook is for the parent to think about and form answers to the hard questions ahead of when the child might ask them. The parent can even present the information to the child before the child asks, i.e. Front-loading.
 
great ! I'm happy for you Liz. scrapbooks really help our children. I use them to for my second son, he has autism and the pictures help him to speak, to tell what happened. for him it's very very difficult to speak about the everyday life (in french we said "la pluie et le beau temps" rain and good weather not sure it's the same in english). but with the scrapbook pages he can explain what he was doing.
scrapbook is really a great therapy !!!!
 
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