SCHOOL YEAR TIME CAPSULE

The first week of school can feel like the beginning of a new adventure. There are new teachers, new classmates, new routines, and plenty of questions about what the year might bring. One simple way for families to capture that moment is by creating a school year time capsule.

During the first week of school, invite your child to write, draw, or talk about what they imagine the year ahead will be like. Younger children can draw pictures while parents write down their answers. Older children can create their own page, letter, or short story.

Try a few questions such as:

• What do you think your favorite subject will be?
• What is something new you hope to learn?
• What are you most excited about?
• Is there something you would like to accomplish this year?
• Who do you hope to meet or get to know better?
• What are you curious about right now?
• What do you think will be the funniest thing that happens this year?
• If this school year were a story, what would you call it?

Children can also include a drawing of themselves, a favorite saying, their current favorite song or food, a list of friends, or even a small photograph from the first week of school.

Place everything in an envelope, box, or decorated container and write “Do Not Open Until the Last Day of School.” Then put it somewhere safe.

When the school year ends, open the time capsule together. Some predictions may have come true. Others may seem funny. Your child may discover that a subject they expected to dislike became a favorite, that they made a friend they had never met before, or that something that once seemed difficult became much easier.

The real value of this first week of school activity is not whether the predictions are correct. It gives children and parents a chance to notice how much can change in one school year. It also creates a collection of childhood memories that families may treasure years later.

Consider making the First Week Time Capsule an annual family activity. After several years, your child will have a wonderful record of who they were, what they wondered about, and what they dreamed of accomplishing at different stages of childhood.

At Growing With Stories LLC, we believe that every child is living a story worth remembering. Sometimes all we need to do is capture a page before turning to the next one.