One of the most exciting things you can do as parents is to capture memories that can be enjoyed by future generations in your family. This is certainly a year-round activity for you to pursue. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season provides a focal point for such efforts, given the many family events and activities that take place, i.e. school programs, church performances, family gatherings, etc.  Given the digital age we now live in, accomplishing this can be simply a matter of becoming a bit more organized and purposeful, while also learning some techniques and approaches.

In order to assist you on this, we compiled some ideas for your consideration:

A Thankful Box

You might like to make a Family Thankful Box. This would give your family and friends an opportunity to write down the things for which they are grateful over the year.  Cover an empty tissue box with fancy fabric, or scrapbook paper and place it in a visible spot along with a post-it notepad and a glitter pen. When you can, take a moment to write down your treasured memory. Sometimes in that lull between Christmas and New Year, gather the family for an oral rehash of these moments in time.  Type them up and add a copy to each of your children’s memory boxes for safe keeping.

Legacy Pictures

Below is a list of photos that you can take that will capture key moments and events:

• Your child in their favorite clothes- winter and summer
• A photo of the child with their one or two best friends
• A photo with their classroom teacher
• A photo with their teacher of afterschool activities- for example; volleyball/basketball/tennis/chess/swimming/soccer
• A photo of the child doing their favorite thing- for example; if they love to read, holding up their favorite book of the year, or if they love soccer, a photo of them in full soccer regalia with a ball underfoot
• A picture of the inside of their bedroom
• A picture of them with the neighborhood friends

 Child Interviews

Interview your child on video. This can be done on his/her birthday or maybe even on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Set up your phone/camera on a tripod or some type of stand and pose some questions to your child. Then save the video for future viewing. Imagine their reaction when they see themselves 10 to 20 years from now! Here are some sample questions:

• What is your favorite food? drink? toy? animal?
• What is your favorite game to play? DVD to watch?
• What is your favorite thing to do outside? Inside?
• Where would you like to go? What is your dream holiday?
• What books do you like to read?
• Who is your favorite teacher? Why?
• How has God blessed you?

Personal Media Channels

There are a number of social media apps that you can use as media channels to capture family pictures and videos for posterity sake.

• Facebook: make a family page for pix and videos
• Pinterest: set up a set of boards to capture pictures for different occasions
• YouTube: use this as you repository for your videos; you can mark them as private or unlisted to ensure they are not available to the public, should you desire so

There are a host of other apps. The key is to simply select what would serve you best in capturing and hosting your visual memories. Just picture your kids as adults looking at and hearing themselves as kids. We are sure there will be some laughs …and some tears.