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Simple Children's Memory Notebooks
After accumulating boxes and boxes of children’s school papers, church papers, photos, etc., I finally
decided to do something with them. I’m not a scrapbooking queen, so I decided to make this a simple,
inexpensive, and painless process. It doesn’t require large blocks of time or money.

Step 1 – Gather Materials
For each child, you will need:
  • 1 or 2 - 3” notebooks. (The kind that have a clear pocket on the front)
  • 1 - 100ct. box of archival safe sheet protectors
  • Scissors
  • Staple remover
  • File folders, 1 for each year of life
  • Business file box
  • Small sticky notes
  • Pen and pencil
  • Paper grocery bag
  • Card table or other table (Not the kitchen table! A place you can come back to.)

Step 2 – Pre-Sort
  • Put all materials near the card table, and tell family members they cannot touch this area.
  • Write each school year on a folder, such as “Jacob, 1st Grade, Sept. 1997 – June 1998.”
  • Write this same information on a sticky note and attach it to the top of one sheet protector per
    year. Put the sheet protectors in the notebook in date order as temporary dividers.
  • Then, go through your collected memory items and organize them into the year on the folders. Don’
    t get caught up in sub-organizing each file. Just hurry and put items in the folders.
  • Stack filled file folders into the business file box with the earliest year on the bottom, most recent
    on the top.

Storage Tips
  • I keep a dishpan in the laundry room for each child, and throughout the year save memorabilia.
  • If there isn’t a date on a paper, I add one and the grade.
  • In the summer, I put the pile of items into a labeled file folder, and then in the memory box. This
    has saved lots of sort time.
  • I store the memory box on a shelf in each child’s closet, and mark it “Memories – Jacob.”

Step 3 – Sorting
  • Start working with the most recent file folder by putting items into sheet protectors, and then file in
    the notebook under the corresponding year. Then work your way back over the years.
  • Take out staples, and take off report covers.
  • If you have a two-page paper that was once stapled, just slip the pages into a sheet protector
    back to back.
  • Look at each item carefully and decide if it means something to you, or your child. I sometimes ask
    my kids for an opinion; however, I tend to save more than they would.
  • Yes, you can throw some items away. That’s what the paper garbage bag is for. But you are not
    allowed to retrieve anything from the garbage!
  • I tend to sort items under each year chronologically; however, this is not always possible since all
    items don’t have dates. It doesn’t really matter. I typically put items in this order: school class
    picture, artwork, stories, research papers, and then awards and grade reports.
  • Oversized artwork can be cut down to size if you use an 8-1/2 x 11 piece of stiff paper as a
    template. Hold the template over the artwork, centering the most important aspect of the picture,
    trace with a pencil and trim with scissors. Or just hold the template and trim like I do!
  • Bulky, oversized items can be kept in the memory box in the corresponding file folder.
  • Research papers look best if you insert them so the entire paper can be flipped through. This may
    take several sheet protectors, but that’s okay since sheet protectors are cheap, and most people
    won’t take the time to look at it any other way.

Step 4 – Finishing
  • When you are done, you will want to make grade pages. Just type the grade and year dates on a
    piece of colored paper with your computer.
  • Then insert this page into a sheet protector, and throw out the sticky note.
  • Also, make a cover for the notebook with the child’s name and grades. Some kids may have a
    notebook with two grades, and others with five. It just depends on what was saved, and
    sometimes how artistic your child is.
  • I haven’t mentioned much about photos. You may choose to add photo scrapbook pages into the
    memory notebooks.
  • I find that my children love to look at their memory books.
  • If you must keep items for yourself, you will need to create a separate notebook.

Happy memories!

Valerie Albrechtsen
ORGANIZEDLDSFamily.com