Three years ago my oldest daughter, Izzy, finished highschool.
I wanted to do something special for her, to celebrate her school years, and decided to do a small photo book celebrating each year of her school life, from kindy through to Year 12.
I already had a scrapbook that I’d bought for each of my daughters when they were little, which holds their formal class photos, school reports, certificates and other memorabilia. This project was to be something different.
I decided to combine photos that I’d taken of Izzy throughout her school years, school Facebook posts from highschool as well as artwork and other projects that she had completed.
My family photos are organised into years, and within each year I have chronologically ordered folders. Having an organised photo collection made it easy for me to find the photos that I needed. I copied one or two school photos from each year into a separate folder including:
- First day at kindy and school
- Getting a ride to kindy on the back of her dad’s bike
- In the playground at kindy and primary school
- In the classroom at kindy and primary school
- School Sports Days – Primary and Secondary school
- Running race at Sports Day
- Long jump at Athletics Carnival
- Book Week costumes
- School swimming lessons
- Riding a scooter to school with a friend
- School Talent Show
- World Challenge trip
- School Formal photos
- School Lacrosse coaching
This collection of photos highlighted the progression of Izzy’s schooling life as well as her interests, her strengths, and her friendship groups.
I have kept all of Izzy’s artwork from over the years and chose several pieces from kindy through to Year 11, which is the last year that she studied art at school. I scanned the smaller pieces and photographed the larger pieces, incorporating them into her book. Once again, this highlighted her progression in art from Kindy through to Year 11.
Together with her artwork, I included a couple of written projects that she had completed at Primary School.
It was a fun journey for me when putting this book together, remembering the many school events and marvelling at how quickly those years had gone by.
Once the book was completed and printed, I presented it to Izzy during her official last week of school. I had written a personal note on the inside back cover, as had her dad and sister. She took the book to school with her, and it was then signed by her school friends, teachers and School Principal, making it a very personal souvenir from her school life.
I am now looking forward to repeating the process for her younger sister, Ivy, who finishes Year 12 in a couple of months’ time. I plan to start this project within the next week or so, to make sure the book is ready to give to her by the time she officially finishes school at the end of October. It won’t be a complete surprise for Ivy as it was for Izzy, but I know she will love it regardless!
If someone in your family is finishing school this year and you would like to do a similar project for them, now is the time to start thinking about it, as the end of the Year 12 school year is fast approaching. If you need help with choosing or scanning photos, scanning artwork or putting the photo book together, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
