Is your child graduating this year? The time seems to go by so fast. It often seems like only yesterday that our graduates started kindergarten. Now they are graduating high school and will be off to college by fall. It's important to preserve and document those special final moments of high school in a graduation scrapbook.



You may already have a school scrapbooking album for your child, but high school graduation memories can fill an entire scrapbook. Dedicate one album for this special occasion. It doesn't need to be a large album, but one that can accommodate professional portraits might be important if you plan to include the sittings for senior pictures.

Senior pictures deserve a special place in any graduation album. Your student's senior pictures are usually dominate the summer before his senior year. Choose your favorite pose and use that for the title page of your scrapbook album.

There are so many things you can include in a graduation scrapbook. Save a copy of your child's graduation announcement and showcase it on a page. Be sure to include cards and letters from friends and family, especially ones with graduation advice. Write a letter to your child telling him your hopes and dreams for their future in any advice you wish you would have had when you graduated.

If your child is receiving a special award or honor at the graduation ceremony, be sure to design a page to highlight this accomplishment. Once the graduation is over, either include the original certificate in the album or make a copy.

If your child is giving a speech at the graduation ceremony, take some photographs of the graduate preparing and practicing the speech. Preserve his notes including any drafts and use them on a scrapbook page.

Did your local newspaper cover the graduation ceremony? Make copies of these articles for the scrapbook. Newspaper fades quickly. So you want to make photocopies. If you placed in a congratulations announcement in the paper, include this as well.

Graduation is full of photo opportunities. Think about the photos you want in your child's graduation scrapbook, and make a list before the celebration starts. Pictures of the ceremony are important, but so are photos of your child with his friends, family and teachers.

Don't forget high school mementos, such as, the program from the graduation ceremony. Save at least two copies to use on a graduation scrapbook page Ser you can show both the cover and the inside of the program.

Candid shots are a fun way to document graduation parties. Send a camera with your child when he attends graduation celebrations. Plan to exchange photographs with your child's friends as well. That way you'll have plenty of candid photos to choose from for your graduation album.

You may want to include a copy of your graduate's final report card or grade transcripts. A nice complement to this would be a copy of the acceptance letter to the college he plans to attend.

As a final closing page to a graduation scrapbook, design a page around a photo of him leaving for college. You might also choose to close the scrapbook with two photos that show how he has grown. Place a picture of his first day of kindergarten next to a graduation picture.

A graduation scrapbook will become a family heirloom. You don't need to make it complicated. The most important part of a graduation scrapbook is to preserve and document your graduate's special day.