Family albums or per kid?

Both. Each kid has 4 categories and currently multiple books per category, with the exception of birth/ birthdays, that all fits in one album. The categories are:
Birth/ birthdays
School/ sports
Holidays
Misc/ everything else

I also maintain for the family:
A book for each Disney trip (3 books)
One book that covers all other smaller vacations
A series of books about people and events important to DH and me. (To date 3 large binders)

see the thread I started just prior to reading this thread labeled, "why do you scrapbook and my latest project" for a long winded explaination why I am I extremely glad I choose this route. 2peasrefugees.boards.net/thread/9845/why-scrapbook-latest-project

I did baby albums birth to 1 yr and then everything in an annual family album after that, except for School
Days, which will be around 3 albums by the time it's all done.

I've been scrapping for almost 10 years and given the amount of albums I have now, I'm so glad I didn't do additional albums for each kid in addition to family album. By the time my kids are grown and out of the house, there will easily be 30-40+ albums completed, so in my mind, that's too many to ask my kids to take on. If my mom asked me to
take 40 albums, I would think she's crazy!! I mean, it's a legitimate space/storage concern!! I plan to enjoy our albums as long as I live and after that, they can do whatever with them!!

I scrapbook for myself. All the layouts go in one set of albums. My kids can do whatever they want with them when I'm gone; I won't care then.

Family. We are a whole. It never entered my mind to do separate albums for separate people, kwim? (Not that there is anything wrong with doing separate albums, don't get me wrong, okay?) Anyway, I will say that now that I have children old enough to look at the albums from a young adult perspective, while they do love seeing their featured LOs, they also comment about each other's LOs, and they bring up memories not contained in the album. I love that. I wonder if that would happen if they had separate albums. Would one adult child bother to ever look at another's album, kwim?

However, I am working on childhood albums for each child now - because I want to, not for the kids. LOL It is mostly because there are products out there now that didn't exist when my kids were little that I would like to use, not to mention that I scrap a little differently. These albums are not chronological, so it was just easier to get an album for each. I was never a scrap every photo person, so I still have plenty of pictures from their childhoods to scrap.

I think this is a great discussion, because, like I said, it never even occurred to me to do separate albums, and I can see the pros to doing so. There is no wrong way to do your albums, as long as you do what is comfortable for you.

I have a baby album for each (or will, need to get working on my 3 year old's!) and will have a few school albums (using the old BH kits). My oldest has one completed school album that holds Pk-3 plus some collages of him ages 2-4. And I've started his 2nd one that will have 4th-8th, then I will have a 3rd that will hold all of HS. I plan on doing the same for my youngest.
All the rest go in chronological family albums.
So they will have 4 albums of them and they can decide on the family ones at a later date

I do both too, but don't duplicate LOs. Most LOs go in the family album. I made albums for them from birth through HS but only did about 4-8 pages a year. I did school/class picture, birthday LO, favorites LO, and then pages of any activity they were in or important milestone. The rest go in the family album.

I make two books: I have two boys. Most of my layouts are identical except I will focus on one boy more than the other in his book. This involves a lot of work, but I like the fact they will each have their own set of books to take. I wouldn't have shared well with my two brothers. We each got one book of pictures when we moved out.

I did family albums until about 5 years ago.  Then I switched to albums for each child.  It is not more scrapping - I usually split the photos so instead of a 2 page spread of Christmas, each kid has a one pager, for example.  Pages specific to that child go in that child's album.

Layouts of me or their dad or something else get split between each kid as well.  When my DH got teacher of the year, I did a layout for each kid's album.

I hope to live long enough to go back and separate the family albums.  I want each kid to be able to have their own albums someday.

Me to a T.

Family albums unless I decide to pull out all the baby layouts someday and do a first year album... I didn't take as many, or as good photos of my first two so there aren't as many photos, and I didn't write enough notes...

I am "trying" to make each kid a school album with their school picture, class picture, what they liked about school and some art work but for some reason, maybe it's because it's more formal, it's boring and more like sticking stuff to a page. It doesn't help that the school class pictures change sizes depending on photographer, school, year etc some are those little individual pictures of each kid and are 8 by 10 and some are a group class photo 5 by 7 size...

I don't know I might ditch the idea and put everything in my regular albums. Sorry for the digression...

I guess the answer lies in why you're scrapbooking. If it's for yourself then do whatever makes you happy, works for you. If it's so that your kids can have a preservation of memories then I suggest family albums.

I'm the oldest of 5. While my mother didn't scrapbook she did keep extensive photo albums with notes. As we became adults these albums were copied and given to each of us. It wouldn't mean as much to me if it were an album just about me. I know about me. I lived my life. But seeing my siblings and other relatives, family and friends is wonderful. It brings back a lot of memories I wouldn't otherwise think about. I honestly look at it much more than I would an album about myself.

My suggestion would be family albums. If you feel you need something more then perhaps a small album per child that showcases just their special accomplishments? I think that's a good compromise.
Kat

I make the children an album each, this includes pages about them and their individual relationships. Pages with all of us and places we go and family events go in my album. The project life album is kinda mine too.