My oldest child is attending high school this year. She came home excited that picture day was coming up this week. She and her friend are buying hair accessories that match so show some personality in their uniforms and for the fun of being BFFs. She was also happy to report she gets an opportunity to get pictures taken in an outfit of her choice. Picking an outfit to forever immortalize your freshman year in high school is apparently a big task. So it seems is everything for this girl who hadn’t stepped inside a classroom until she was 14 years old. All the excitement of pictures and projects got me thinking that I need to add something special to homeschooling other than the occasional pajama day or board game afternoon.
Perhaps many of you already take purposefully take pictures of your children on the first day of school. I noticed many homeschooling moms showing off the first day if school pictures on Facebook. I did not show off pictures because I did not take any. I normally take pictures during the year of art projects, science projects, field trips, or some special occasion. I somehow have neglected to take official “school” pictures of the kids. Yes, I know, I am slow. But I promise you, I have more pictures than my iPhone can hold by the time the year ends.
As we began a new year, I decided to document the year in pictures. I am keeping digital albums of each of my kids. The first image is a solo picture that I added text to that said what grade they were in. As a homeschooler, I have no hard and fast rules on grade level but that is what I decided to do. Following that image are images of field trips, projects, and special days. Each image has text describing the significance of the picture. Once the year ends, I am going to put the images into one collage and have it printed as an 8×10. Now, if I can actually keep this up, my preschooler will have quite a homeschooling scrapbook.