Ideas/thoughts

What a lovely idea. I'm also in favour of the make their own option. Although leaving a couple extra kits for kids who might not be comfortable creating in a group setting might be an idea too. 

Keep us posted on how it all goes!  

I've taught children scrapbooking and love it. But I do have some thoughts. If you give them access to everything, some will take and use everything up; some will just sit there not really knowing what to do; and then your middle grounders.  Here's how I would tackle an event of this type. I'd have pre-packaged album kits in ziplock baggies. They can pick by the color scheme seen through the bag. I'd either walk them through each step of making their backgrounds or have all of the backgrounds premade or a combination. (this depends upon time you have to actually be there). Then walk them through embellishing, titles and journaling. 

A.  If I were there all day on a Saturday, I'd totally let them do all of their own backgrounds, cover, and everything.
B.  If I were there for just an afternoon, I'd do the combination  - letting them create some maybe 2 of the inside backgrounds complete with the embellishing, title and journaling, and then work on the cover.  They can finish the rest on their own with their bag of supplies.
C.  If I were there for only an hour or 2 in the evening, I'd probably have all of the inside premade. I'd show samples of the inside and how I'd decorate it; letting them do this on their own time with the supplies in the bag. Then we'd just work on the cover, so it could be individualized.
-- I would probably have a box of extra supplies for the cover that's from my stash there to choose from - including lots of silhouette cuts to personalize for all of the above options.
D.  If you can't be there, I'd premake the books, bag them with extra supplies for personalizing and maybe include an instruction sheet with samples in each bag.


Hope that helps. It's something I've thought about doing here myself. Please let us know what you end up doing and how it goes.

Kids go nuts with stickers, markers, stamps.  Let them have the creative outlet.  They may not have photos for pages but they can journal or place art work.  Don't have other people do the work for them and sliding in cards is boring for a kid.

I have done many kids classes and this is what I do:  I buy skinny 3 ring binders and I put 10 document protectors in each one.  You can buy them in packs of 50 or 100 for a few bucks.  I get the kind of binders with a plastic slide in cover.

I get an assortment of cardstock, stickers, stamps, maybe patterned papers, letter stickers, and they decorate a sheet for the cover and then add pages to the book.  You can ask people to give you sticker sheets they don't want or have some used stickers.  You can buy assorted cardstock packs in all colors for $2.50 on sale.  

Give them a theme to work on like - my favorite things, my best memory, my friends, my favorite person, Someone famous I want to be like.
You can print up pictures of that person for them if they tell you ahead of time.  

I hope you do not think this post is not out of line. I do mean it with the utmost respect.

I would think that a 5x8 album size would hold more importance and respect, much like a book. It is easy to cary, transport and store. Many times all these kids have is a garbage bag for a suitcase, I can't imagine a 6x6 album would do well in a plastic garbage bag. The 5x8 can have a rubber band around it or just tie it shut. After you are gone from their lives it will be easier for these kids to add to it too. they can fold a piece of paper in half, add holes and you have a page to work on. I do like the project life kind of thing. it can give protection to what photos they do have.

I also would investigate how they will print a picture and do these kids even have smart phones? Will you have to have a laptop and printer available? many times they will want to scrap a picture they do not have, (parent is dead) so talk about journaling the memories to share with their future kids, cousins, neighbors or their future special someone.

I would also stress to document happy times. Maybe it is a house (they can take a screenshot of google street views to get a pic of a place they no longer live or hang out at.

Please, please don't tell them how proud their mother, father, sister, stepparent will be if they do this, unless you do know of their personal circumstanses. It is great to say they can take pride and be proud of their work.

I do love this project.

another thought, if you are meeting with the group of kids more than once, heck maybe just once, at the end have them take a piece of paper, write their names on it and pass it around in a circle. Each person will write a short positive thing about him/her on the paper. I love how she smiled, pretty teeth, love the outfit, "that small act" meant the world to me kind of thing. This exercise is very uplifting and many times people will carry this in there wallets for years.

Thats a small detail (plastic bin) that speaks loads and i totally mean that in a very good way. Sounds like my thoughts will not apply to your program. Maybe thay will help someone else.

I am sorry if i put a damper on your ethusiasium, I truly believe that what you are doing is fantastic and most of those kids will appreicate it. The ones who dont take an interest will be like my cousin. Such a great guy, interesting, accomplished and just has no interest in anything "yesterday". Pictures? Nope, Great grandfather came over on the mayflower, single handedly saved a whole town from flooding, whose wive single handedly built and ran a hospital and had 4 wonderful children that all became president? Nope, no interest. (He cracks me up and it fascinates him that i hold an interest in history). Speaking of which, I need to call him today.