School starts this week!!
One thing I’ve learned is it goes by fast. My kids are now seniors in high school. I can remember their first day of school in Nursery School like it was yesterday. Consistently, on every 1st day of school, I have taken a picture of them holding a sign that says the year and the first day and I put it all in an album as I went. Of course that when they were in preschool and kindergarten and even elementary school I was allowed to take pictures. Now, if I get pictures, it’s usually some kind of goofy face for hand gesture or they’re covering their face… Let alone forget about trying to get my twins together in the same room without doing something goofy to each other.
We have one friend of my daughters who I have been in school together since Nursery School. We have a picture of one on each side of a tree and we’ve taken that picture since that day every year even when they were living in other states cause they’re military family. The mom would take a picture of her daughter on one side of the tree and I would take a picture of my daughter on the other side of a tree, and we pushed pictures together using our photo technology and looked like they were together. Now they’re together in their senior year and we have pictures from every year.
Do you think it’s not worth the time? Trust me, as a mom of 12th graders. It is the single best decision I made when it came to doing a tradition. They don’t fight me on it they know, and they love going back and looking at the picture side-by-side throughout the years. It ages me makes me a little sad… But I’m so glad I did it. Everyone needs to start new traditions and if your kid is just starting out in pre-K or Nursery School or even their first day of daycare ever grab a piece of paper and write on the sign the year and what they’re doing and save it or post on Facebook, but save it away in the deer pictures of them throughout the years sorted by date and you will have one every year and then you can put together for their senior year a little slideshow of every year they’ve been in school and how they progressed and grown. If you’re really motivated, you can do one at the end of every year too. You can find your kids long enough to have them take a picture… I know it gets harder as soon as I get high school. I’m a witness to that.
The one easy thing is now my kids are driving, so I get to sit in the backseat and they drive me around now for a change, something you guys have to look forward to when your kids get older. Start saving now for a car or do what we are doing: We promised to match whatever funds they save for a car. Whatever they save, we, the parents, will match it. My son is getting up there. I’m in trouble. He’s a good saver; thank God he worked all summer full-time at a job.
