Office Supplies: Method Playground

This week on the Playground we're raiding our desk drawers for embellishments.  The challenge is to use office supplies on your projects.

Making the page a first day of school LO was a no-brainer.  I started the process by gathering supplies: manilla folder, graph paper, stapler, paper clips, a mini binder clip, shipping tag, some sticky labels, metal rimmed tag, and an index card.  Then I pulled out some office-y scrapbooking supplies: alpha stickers, alpha ribbon and a second coordinating ribbon, and a library card stamp, and a spiral edge punch.  After choosing, editing, and resizing my photos (2- 2x2's, 2x3, 3x4, and 3 1/2x5), the page just built itself.  The hardest part was finding the darn notebook where I had jotted down the conversation I had with Camden when he came home from his first day of first grade.  It's written on the index card and reads:
me: Tell me about your day!? 
you: One thing.  I hated it. 
me: Why?? 
you: Because I miss you.  I think about you and I miss you.  It was such a long day and they worked my butt off!

Back to School

The beginning of a new school year is the perfect time to "take stock" of your children, so to speak. Here are some ideas of ways to document the first day of school to help you remember them at this very moment in time:

Journaling:

1. Record their first day: Have your child tell the story of their 1st day (who better to tell this story than them!). Use their words as the journaling for your page.


2. Record their favorites: food, friend, book, movie, tv show, musician, song, color, pastime, sport, etc. Older children can record these in their own handwriting.


3. Record their size: shoe size, clothing size, height weight, age


4. Write a letter to them.


5. Have them write about their hopes and dreams (for the year, or for their life)
   

Elements:

1. Trace their hand.


2. Have them write their name.

Photographs:

1. A full portrait of them standing in the same spot each year (we use our front door)


2. Their backpack


3. Their new school shoes


4. All of the school supplies


5. The front of their school (particularly if they are starting a new school)


6. A stack of the books they read over summer


7. Them with their siblings


8. Them with each of you, the parents


9. Standing at the bus stop


10. Them getting on the bus


11. The bus driving away

Do you have any back to school traditions you include on your pages? Please share them!