I wanted to share a fun project I’ve done for the last several years with my children for the first day of school (even if your kiddos have already headed back, you can still do this!).
We create our very own First Day of School Time Capsule.
Although we were homeschooling when I first came up with this, I think this idea would work for anyone — whether your kids go to private school, public school or do school at home.
To start with, I made up an All About Me Survey for my children with questions like:
You can download a free copy of my All About Me Back to School Survey HERE – and of course feel free to switch up the questions to match your children’s interests.
They each worked hard on writing out their answers — and yes, I did encourage them to use their best handwriting!
Once they finished up their answers, we moved on to decorating their “time capsule”. I was going to bury them in the backyard, but I was a bit worried that the paper would get destroyed underground without a better container than a recycled glass pickle jar (which is what we were going to use).
So instead, they illustrated manilla envelopes and we’ll store them away in our bank safety deposit box.
It’s so fun to look at last year’s version after we finish the one for the new school year. They change so much in just a few short months!
Do you have any special Back to School traditions? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below.
On the first day of school, I take a picture of my children with their favorite toy (now it is their phones or computers) and their book bags in front of my refrigerator. It is fun to see the growth, both physically and emotionally through the years. When they reach 12th grade, I will put them together in a timeline to show them their maturing process.
I do a similar survey at the beginning and end of the year. The kids like to look at how their answers have changed. We also take a picture of all the kids on the front porch, each holding a sign saying “First Day of ** Grade.” I treasure those pictures! (We homeschool, too!)