i have a small collection of school binders…

the 4 binders on the left are from each school year and were assembled by their teachers. there are a zillion things i love about our school, and this is definitely one of them. every school year the teachers collect items from each quarter and present them to you during parent-teacher conferences. at the end of the year, the binder is ours to keep.

and the inside? = so “osum”!

(stay tuned for why i spelled it that way.)

here is a small example of the inside – my son’s kindergarten binder…

they begin each section with a quarter divider…this section is august through october…

and they share things like a self-portrait drawn during the first week of school…

this is how he drew himself the last week of school…you can clearly see how his body shape has changed and he added color…

here is how he wrote his numbers the first week of kindergarten…

and how he wrote his numbers the last week of kindergarten…

what a difference/improvement!

there are cutting examples…

a photo of his teachers and a space to share why he likes them…

and much more! something i have also enjoyed is reading what he writes. of course, awesome sounds just like that = osum!

😉

our school does a great job sharing school work and progress in the areas (and more) that i shared above. but i wanted a binder of my own to track other memories that were important to me. while browsing through barnes and noble 3-4 years ago, i spotted this…

it’s called the school year chronicles…

and, as their tagline says, it’s a personal collection of your child’s school memories. that means you can gather the items that mean the most to you.

want a tour of the inside?

each grade has a starting page for adding your child’s school photo and other fun school details – like what time school starts and ends each day, what time your child has to get up each morning and go to bed each night, even what they like for breakfast. what i love about the binder is that there is a section for nursery school and pre-k too. other binders i researched only began in kindergarten…

the next couple pages in that grade section gives you space to fill in special memories, like a favorite field trip or class party, you can write about their favorite subjects, favorite classroom toys, etc….

and the last page of each section gives you a place to write down who was in their class, who their teacher was, what school they attended and who their BFF’s were…

i always follow up that page with a class group photo – and i put it inside a page protector for safe keeping…

behind that group photo, i add an extra page protector with special papers or rewards received during that school year.

one of my favorite features is the space where your child can draw a self-portrait. here is our 5 year old’s self-portrait from last year…

of course, i added the smiley face…but i love his drawing at this age! and this will definitely be something to laugh about together years down the road.

to give you a closer glimpse inside, here are a few more pages…

{my binder goes from nursery school through grade 5. however, when i checked their website, the binder is now available in a version through grade 8….as well as a high-school binder. looks like i’ll be adding some binders to my wish list!}

there are additional sections in the back of the binder, as well, if you enjoy keep those memories. like after-school activities…

birthday celebrations…

class holiday parties or other photos…

summer vacations…

a place for medical history info…

and there’s even a space for noting down the loss of teeth. this is so great! but you have already seen the way we preserve those memories…

the creator of this binder even added an extra binder cover….because if you’re like me, you may grow out of this binder and need more space. i am sure we are headed in that direction with all of the memories we add to this book…

and there is still plenty of room to add all of those fun printable’s we are finding online these days to denote the first day of school and more.

maybe you’re wondering why i am sharing this mid to late december – because this would have been a great org idea to share in august before school begins. ?? well, since my boys are home from school for the (very long) winter break, this was the perfect time to spend updating our binders for the current school year. in between making mini-gingerbread houses, baking cookies, wrapping gifts, addressing Christmas cards, and twiddling our thumbs/pacing until Santa arrives….this is something fun we can do together…

while we’re doing this special activity, mommy will be smiling (or tearing up) looking back on years past…even though some of those memories/photos were only 2-3 years ago….