September

Did you get started on collecting those memories yet? Congratulations! If you haven’t made any progress, check back to our August newsletter to get motivated and review our ideas for how to organize and store your photos and memories.

Another way to get the project off the ground is to ask for some help from the people who know your Senior best. Why not enlist one or more of your child’s friends to secretly help you gather photos from “kid only” events? If your senior is a boy, it can be very helpful to connect with a girl, since we have found they take more photos at school, parties and dances. (NOTE: If the friend offers to send Facebook photos, be sure to ask if they can send you the original file. When photos are uploaded to Facebook they are resized for faster display on computers, which means they will not be very high quality if you hope to print them or include them in a memory book.)

Also, don’t forget to save some of your own memories of this time. A deck of 3” by 5” index cards will do. If an occasion or conversation provokes a feeling of wistfulness or joy at the thought of graduation, write a brief sentence or two on a card and drop it in the file folder for this month.

Focus on…All About Me:

This month’s focus is creating a mini time capsule including the day to day details of the Senior’s life. You can do this unobtrusively by taking some photos when they are not at home, or not paying attention, which let’s face it can be most of the time for some teens. Here are some photo ideas:

Around the house:

Outside of the house
Senior’s room in its natural state, whether messy or clean
The bathroom they use, also in its natural state
The car they drive – if you can manage it, a photo of their car in the school parking lot is a fun remembrance for them.
The wake they leave – Kristi always knew her son was home because his clothing, school supplies and shoes were strewn from the back door to the stairway leading up to his room. Maybe it’s aggravating, but you will kind of miss that reminder of their presence when it’s gone. So before you tidy it up or call them downstairs to do it, snap a quick photo.
A photo of your teen lounging in his or her favorite chair, talking on the phone, watching TV, playing video games, sleeping through the alarm,

Personal Information – take a few minutes to jot down some personal information :

Physical information, such as height, weight (if they’ll share it with you)
Scan their driver’s license or school ID card

Looking Back:

As you gather memories and photos of activities this month, think back to past years.

Was your Senior always involved in this sport? Do you have photos from past teams that would make a fun contrast to their grown up selves?
What other Fall activities has your teen participated in in past years?
Do you attend college or professional football games? Make sure to take some pictures there.

What’s Happening This Month?

A list of events that may be occurring in your senior’s life this month and ideas on how to capture the moments:

SAT/ACT Tests: Photo on test day, save the entry ticket and the official score report
College applications – List of schools with ranking in order of interest, write a memory about how you as parent feel about this step. Is the student taking control, resisting? Take a photo of the student completing applications, pressing “Submit” or dropping in the mailbox. Print and save the college essays. Save some of the mailings, or take a “collage” type photo of the brochures and catalogs spread out on a table.
Fall Sports – Photo of player in uniform, a roster, program and schedule. Newspaper clippings. Snapshot of field/court/course, scoreboard/scorecard, a photo of the coach alone or with your child.
Classes underway – Get a copy of their class schedule
Parent/Meet the Teacher Night – The LAST one. Jot down a memory of your feelings on this night. How did you like the teachers? Save the papers they give you.
Homecoming – Festivities, dance, dress
Lunch menu – What does your Senior eat for lunch? Pack? School Lunch? Do they have free time on which they can leave campus? If you don’t know, ask, and jot it down on a note card and put it in your file box.

Special of the Month: Two for One Scanning

Get a jump start on converting old photos, report cards or kid art to digital format with half price scanning. Get your materials to us by September 30 and get twice as many digitized.