Hi, Gwenny! You asked about our binders that we put together at the end of the year. Let me say first that I am NOT a crafty person AT ALL and I don't scrapbook or anything like that. This is all that I do as a memory maker for the kids and it's important to us to have it - even if it's a chore for me!
I buy a 3" binder for each of the kids. I get the kind with a clear plastic cover and slide in a paper with a picture of that child printed on it with the year and the grade they were in school. At the beginning of each school year, my husband and I write a letter to each of the kids that goes in the front of their History binder. So, we take that letter and put it first in the year-end binder. Next, I make a picture collage online (usually 3 pages or so) at Wal-Mart which has pictures of that child throughout the year of things and memories we want to remember. (Remember, I don't scrapbook, so this is the only printed pictures I make all year!) Then, I put a list of the curriculum we used for the year, a list of field trips and activities, a list of co-op classes (if we did any), a list of read-alouds, and a list of books each child read on their own. After that, we put in the HOD history notebook, the art notebook, and the shakespeare notebook. Then, we go through their science notebook and add most of that in (notebooking pages, written narrations, and lab sheets put into page protectors). Following that is the rest of the stuff - a section for sample pages of math, sample pages of LA, their final copies of their writing assignments, geography maps, and usually a section for extras (special drawings, cards or notes from siblings or friends, birthday cards, things they wrote, concert programs, ticket stubs, or anything with a special memory etc., put into page protectors). By the end, that binder is STUFFED!!!! But it does force us not to keep everything because it has to fit in there. If they have more personal stuff that they really want to remember, then we will put it into one folder and keep it with that binder.
These binders are some of my kids favorite things ever. They get them out from years past and look at them and laugh and talk and remember. It is so worth the time it takes to do them. And I love having a record of all that we do every year. We marvel at how much we actually accomplished during the year and all the fun we had!
Probably too much information! But that's what we do!
