Digital Scrapbooking as an Educational Tool

While the kids might think they are just creating a scrapbook, I on the other hand, know what they will really be doing:

1. Narration Narration is retelling what you learned in your own words. We already incorporate notebooking, copywork, and dictation, but digital or paper scrapbooking is another creative way to add narration into our school routine.

2. Gathering and Organizing Information

3. Project Planning

4. Introduction to Color Sense and Design Principles

5. Typing

6. Writing for an Audience

7. Developing Patience and Fortitude (yes, working with computers can sometimes be frustrating! Also, working on a whole album takes time and effort).

8. Learning software

9. Eye-hand coordination

10. Sense of Accomplishment

When starting out, you want to make it as easy as possible for your child to complete the project. Since the goal is showing what they learned through scrapbooking, you don't want the actual process of scrapbooking to become an obstacle. The best way to do this is to start simple.

--Use Quick Pages
The page above was done by my middle daughter and I. She has not learned to type yet, so I had her tell me what she learned about insects while I typed. Didn't the page turn out great? The best thing is that I used a quick page. Quick pages are layouts already done--all you have to do is add a photo and journaling! (See the Quick Page Tutorialfor more instructions)

My older daughter helped me with this bee page. Once again, I used a quick page from Lynn Grieveson to make the process easy. The text is my daughter's narration on what she has learned about bees.

--Use Templates
A template is similar to a quick page, except that you have more creative control. Basically it is a workable sketch. It tells you where to add photos, elements and papers, but it is up to you to add the specific papers, photos and elements you want. You can also resize and delete portions of the template to fit your needs.

For the AMA layout above, I used a template by Anna Aspnes from Designer Digitals. It allowed me to quickly put together a page without having to think about layout design.

--Work with a Kit or Limit Choices at First

My 11yr. old daughter created this layout on her own. We had been studying seeds in the spring, and one day she went and collected maple seeds in various stages of germination. She made the 3-D chart and I photographed it for her. She then used that as an element on her page. When she started planning her layout, I showed her several kits that might work well with her theme and let her pick her papers and elements from those kits. Since I have lots of things to choose from in my digital arsenal, if I let her pick from everything I had---she would be too overwhelmed to start. Having your children work from a kit or two will help them focus on creating the layout instead of getting stuck thinking about all the possible options.

Well what do you do with completed pages?

-- Print your pages on your home printer.

-- Upload them to an online photo processing site such as scrapbook pictures and have them printed. You can then add them to a top-loading photo album.

-- Upload your layouts and have them printed in a bound book. I have used Shutterfly to print books, but there are other companies that offer the same service.

-- Print your pages and add to a traditional scrapbook page. You can combine your layout with lapbooking and notebooking elements to finish the project.

-- Create a slide show and upload to share on a blog, Ipod, etc.

-- Add to your digital picture frames and have a wonderful visual reminder of what your child has learned.

-- Turn into your computer's wall paper

-- Make it a background on your Ipod or Ipad.