Keepsakes

[Abigail]

Does anyone do keepsakes just for fun to send with the parent once their child no longer attends daycare? I was thinking about having a measuring chart for each child. I would have the date, the measured height, and add the weight right next to the line. I would do this every so often, maybe monthly or every three months?

[Rachel]

My son's dcp does t-shirts at the end of the year. She decorates the front with their name & symbol, and the kids do the back. Cheap and the kids love them. I plan on doing something similar next year when I open.

[kendallina]

Throughout the time that they're here I do a portfolio (kind of like a scrapbook) for the families. It has pictures the child has drawn/painted and also photographs that I've taken. It's a HUGE hit with the families and children. I put them all in sheet protectors and in a binder so that it stays really nice and I keep them in our classroom so that the children can look through them throughout the year.

[melizaheins]

Hello Abigail, that's one of the nicest things to be done to keep the memories of your kid as a child back then.

[gkids09]

I take pictures of the kids from day 1 in my care, & make them a dvd slideshow with music and a little note at the end. I give it to them on their last day in care. I have never had a parent who didn't thank me for it (and we all know how hard thank you's are to come by sometimes!) I find them fun to make too!

[Abigail]

Hello Abigail, that's one of the nicest things to be done to keep the memories of your kid as a child back then.

Thank you!

I take pictures of the kids from day 1 in my care, & make them a dvd slideshow with music and a little note at the end. I give it to them on their last day in care. I have never had a parent who didn't thank me for it (and we all know how hard thank you's are to come by sometimes!) I find them fun to make too!

What if they are with you from 12 months to K? Do you keep all those years together or do you do it yearly?

[melizaheins]

You are welcome!

[Rachel]

I take pictures of the kids from day 1 in my care, & make them a dvd slideshow with music and a little note at the end. I give it to them on their last day in care. I have never had a parent who didn't thank me for it (and we all know how hard thank you's are to come by sometimes!) I find them fun to make too!

What program do you use to do that?

I was also thinking about making a scrapbook for the year for each child. We do things by the school year here (I just opened today), so I was thinking of it today as my little 14 month old drew his first pictures (here at least :-) )

[MsMe]

What program do you use to do that?

I was also thinking about making a scrapbook for the year for each child. We do things by the school year here (I just opened today), so I was thinking of it today as my little 14 month old drew his first pictures (here at least :-) )

I make a slide show every year @ Christmas. I use Movie Maker. It is a free download and works wonderfull!!

[gkids09]

What if they are with you from 12 months to K? Do you keep all those years together or do you do it yearly?

I keep all the years together and then when they leave for Kindergarten or move or whatever, I make the DVD. It COULD be done yearly, if you are wanting them to have a keepsake every year, but I just finished one for a kid who has been here since he was 2, and went to kindergarten, and his was about 20 minutes long. If you do it yearly, you probably won't have a very long DVD.
For yearly keepsakes, I do calendars with one picture of the kid doing something they enjoy (or just a cute picture) on every month from the previous year. (2012 calendar would have a picture of the kid on every month from 2011.) Does that make sense?

What program do you use to do that?

I was also thinking about making a scrapbook for the year for each child. We do things by the school year here (I just opened today), so I was thinking of it today as my little 14 month old drew his first pictures (here at least :-) )

I use Windows Live Movie Maker! It is very simple to use, and FREE!
I have tried to do scrapbooks before of their artwork.. I keep all of their artwork until Friday anyway, so at the end of the week I would pick their best one and save it so they'd have one per week for their scrapbook, or 52 pages. I didn't stay with it long, just because I was in school, planning a wedding, buying a house, getting ready to move out, etc and it was too time consuming to do it all. It is a GREAT idea though, if you have the time to do it!

[Rachel]

I keep all the years together and then when they leave for Kindergarten or move or whatever, I make the DVD. It COULD be done yearly, if you are wanting them to have a keepsake every year, but I just finished one for a kid who has been here since he was 2, and went to kindergarten, and his was about 20 minutes long. If you do it yearly, you probably won't have a very long DVD.
For yearly keepsakes, I do calendars with one picture of the kid doing something they enjoy (or just a cute picture) on every month from the previous year. (2012 calendar would have a picture of the kid on every month from 2011.) Does that make sense?



I use Windows Live Movie Maker! It is very simple to use, and FREE!
I have tried to do scrapbooks before of their artwork.. I keep all of their artwork until Friday anyway, so at the end of the week I would pick their best one and save it so they'd have one per week for their scrapbook, or 52 pages. I didn't stay with it long, just because I was in school, planning a wedding, buying a house, getting ready to move out, etc and it was too time consuming to do it all. It is a GREAT idea though, if you have the time to do it!

Yes, was thinking of just buying a binder and those plastic sleeves and shoving a picture in every so often. I know as a parent I would have so appreciated that. I get gobs home daily and it's overwhelming to sort / put away / throw it away. It is mostly shoved in a storeroom waiting for me to go through it "someday."