Troop scrapping upate and a sad observation

[FantasticDisFamily]

Hi all,

I apologize up front - this is long...

I've mentioned before that my GS troop has gotten into this idea of scrapping. Over the past couple of years we'd done some simple things - not always following full "acid free" protocol , and then in December we did frame a pages. They really enjoyed that and wanted to do more.

So we put together a schedule were we alternate our meetings in a 4 week rotation (badge work, long term craft, badge work, scrapping) and last night was the first official scrapbooking night. I thought I'd take a few minutes to post a little bit on how it went and some of the observations in case any of you out there were intrugued. My girls are 8th graders - 13 & 14 years old for the most part.

I have to say that taking this step had me a little worried. Anytime you're proposing an activity that has some significant expense involved it can be a little dicey. The troop approved spending $50 on basic supplies - 12 x 12 paper/card stock, some lettering stickers, tape runner, and mounting squares. The troop has basic scissors. My co-leader and I agreed to make our durable supplies - edging scissors, punches, croppers, big paper cutter, templates, idea books, and so forth available for the girls to use. Girls are responsible for their own books, photos, and any individual supplies they want and we suggested at least one acid free pen for journalling.

Everyone pretty well had it together. A wide range of book quality but all acid free. My co and I work with 12 x 12 top loaders and because they've all looked at my GS books at least they tended to go with that format. So we gave them some general instructions on the basics and let them go for it! Really wanted them to not have too many restrictions on their creativity.

Then we sort of wandered from girl to girl to see what they were working on and look for any immediate "problems". Well one of the girls had an old magnetic page album that she was looking at. My first thought was she was pulling pictures from it and she had some wonderful family shots. I commended her on getting them out of there before they deteriorated further and asked what sort of book she was using. She said that WAS her book. A little more conversation and I realized she was serious. She didn't have a book. She said she was just going to "rearrange" some pictures in that book. I couldn't bear that. So I walked into my workroom (we meet at my house) and dug for an 18 x 12 strap hinge I had won as a door prize at an auction several years ago. Since I knew I'd never willingly work in that format I gave it to her.

This girl has a mom living at home, but we've observed over the years (our troop has been together since kindergarten) that mom is rarely home and has very little involvement with her girls. It is a pretty sad situation in many ways. She has a delightful grandmother but I suspect this was one of those situations where she didn't talk to Grandma - grandma was an art teacher for years and I know would have either gotten her set up or given dad a list of things to buy. This one isn't a money issue although a couple of my girls could have been.

The other thing that made me a bit sad was the lack of photos too many of the girls had to work with. This girl has her ENTIRE FAMILY HISTORY in that one magnetic album. I mean everything from the day her parents were married. Another one of the girls had a couple of dozen photos, some printed on plain paper. This was all she had been able to find of her family and the events she been involved in over the years (she transferred to our troop 2 years ago). Now my co and I always get double prints and liberally hand out the ones we aren't using or trading with each other to the girls. We'd also put together a basket of additional prints for them to go through.

So next time we work on out books (and I managed to assemble 4 pages I had pre-planned!) we'll spend a little time talking about how taking pictures helps capture memories whether you scrap them or simply put them in acid free sleeves! One of the photographers from our local paper is a friend of our family, so maybe I can talk him into doing a half hour talk on taking pictures. He always stresses if you don't take the shot, you'll never get a good picture.

Well just thought I'd share with you all. Any thoughts, hints or ideas for working with this age? Sue - we're looking forward to the 26th!

Deb

 

[pattyT]

I almost cried at the thought of these girls not having pics.
Then I realized that the first 15 years of my life were all in one magnetic album (til I got my hands on a camera)

Its funny cuz when we have a party or go to a party I ALWAYS take a TON of pictures of everyone - but I find I take more of the kids I know there parents NEVER have a camera-
like DH's friend who is a single father, etc...

That is awesome that you are introducing these girls to the world of scrapping - and photography!

 

[WDWMom]

Deb,

Thanks for posting this experience. When we meet with you, I hope to not have this problem. I am going to talk to the girls and let them know what kind of supplies they will need and lots of photos. Maybe I will show them some of our family albums so they get the picture (no pun intended).

My family thinks I am crazy sometimes at the pictures I take. Like when they were all sick at Christmas and I wasn't. Or how our golden retreiver, Ariel, loves to play with Walt, the hamster. She is so gentle with him it is cute. I really think pictures capture memories we no longer remember. They are important in our house and I hope my children learn this from me and go on to take lots of pictures when they are on their own.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

That was my reaction exactly Patty! How sad. But then I come from a family where my dad (usually) or mom (occasionally) had a camera out and going.

Actually, one of my favorite sets of photos are the ones my mom took of all the activities surrounding my wedding. (I've mentioned the need to get these photos out of the magnetic album and into an acid free environment before) Some of the photos are pretty pathetic - like at rehearsal where she was trying to unobtrusive and have the heads are cut off! She included them anyway and a comment about so many people losing their heads over this wedding!

Sometimes it is hard to get the pictures and we've all had the evil eye from our kids! Like a few weeks ago when I had the camera going throughout DD's hair highlighting appointment. I have a dozen or more shots of just that - in all stages. Saturday DS took his road test and yesterday we did the license stop at Secretary of State. He was NOT going to let me take any pictures. And I didn't want to make him nervous. But I did set the camera to manual focus and take some shots from inside (through glass) of the parking lot skills test, the testing facility sign, and the SOS sign. Then last night when he took off all by himself for the first time I blakcmailed him. ONE shot with the window down so I could see his face, in exchange for the keys! Now most of these are going look like pictures of the van - ahhh, don't you love journalling!

But indeed we'll spend some more time talking with the girls about taking pictures, how they can get fairly inexpensive cameras if their parents aren't into photos, etc and naturally we'll probably take even more of the events they are part of! My LSS loves to see me come in with film because doubles are automatic and sometimes triples!

It was fun to see some of their work at the end of the evening. Some were pretty simple - pictures mounted on the page with a little journalling. Others had some stickers. And their approach was really different than mine, my co's, our extra mom, and probably all of us here!

But it was their's and we emphasized that was the important thing. To make these memories their memories in such a way that they were preserved. For instance - we had pointed out the supply of edging scissors suggesting possible uses in edging borders, photo mats, etc. NATURALLY several of the girls used them to cut photos. Ok, we all did that at one point. Must be part of the natural evolution of the process.

And DD used markers to outline some of her pictures rather than mounting them on cardstock to set them off from the page background as I would have. Several of the girls had saying stickers which were placed ON the photos. The first time I saw that, I took a deep breath and said they needed to make absolutely sure those stickers were acid free when doing that and to just think about whether or not it added to the memory. The particular one my DD did was actually pretty funny and said in just a couple of words and placement of that sticker what would have taken a paragraph or more of journalling to capture.

Anyway, I have a feeling this is going to be a pretty awesome adventure with lots of EXCITING moments.

Deb

 

[pjlla]

Wow.... you are so brave! What an undertaking! Just a quick comment. Don't forget, for some of these parents/grandparents, in their generations photos were only taken on special days. They weren't for "everyday events". Even my mom now still doesn't take as many photos as I know she would like to... doesn't want to "waste" the film (don't tell her but I bought her a digital camera for mother's day!). She just spent three weeks in Florida and had less than two whole rolls of photos to show for it! Don't know if any one remembers my previous post, but my DH and I took 1400 photos during our 7 day trip to Orlando!!

Anyhow, just an observation.........................P

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

and asked in coversation form what the scoop is...

In one of the cases it is a split family situation and the mom "destroyed" everything when she moved out. What that particular girl has is what grandma had.

Another one actually thought she had a lot (the one I gave the album to)

The 3rd is the one I had to quickly move to another room as her response nearly broke my heart - well mom took lots of pictures of my older brother, guess I'm sort of an after thought. This girl is ALWAYS the last one picked up, her parents NEVER attend anything she does - sort of like they are handling the basic mainenance requirements and not much else.

And YEP it is all those sorts of things that keep my co-leader and I going when the meetings get a little draining, etc. We're not in what I would describe as an "underprivileged" area either. Pretty conservative upper middle class suburbia.

Anyway, we had a blast and I'll probably keep you guys posted on future developments if y'all are interested.

Deb

 

[mkpb]

This thread has been such an inspiration to me. I'm sort of helping with my DD's Brownie troop. I'm so into scrapping and want to help them get into it. I've been taking pictures at all their meetings, etc., since we started in Dasies. Now I'm trying to figure out how to do scrapbooking with 5-6-7 year olds. I would like to start now and make it an ongoing project (not just this year, but their whole time in scouts).

Here's my idea: Send a letter home with the girls about what we will be doing with a list of supplies each girl will need. I was thinking about inviting the moms to work with us or at least attend the introduction so they will know what kind of supplies to buy, etc. The pages this year would be very 'guided' as the girls work well with "kit-type" projects. They could work with their moms on some other pages.

Any other ideas that might help?

THANKS!
MK

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Hey MK,

Now trying to do this with girls that young is REALLY brave. I'd really suggest talking with the moms on this one before making the decision to "really" scrap - even in kit form.

I started scrapping our troop with their kindergarten year and the girls enjoyed looking at those books. I also sent lots of double prints, etc home with the girls. Some of those are coming back now and some moms already scrapped in personal albums.

What we did at those ages and stages was to put together books of various types associated with different badges. For instance one of the Brownie books we did was connected to the Women's history or family history or maybe both try-its (sorry I'm really stretching my memory here for the details!). Anyway - the girls did the interviews, brought in photos, etc and we assembled a master book that was then copied for everyone. We also did a couple of cookbooks, one with poetry and stories. Again they always had some pictures. My co-leader and I did the arrangement, assembly and printing.

At the age they are it is tough enough to get paper turkeys cut out and assembled! Think about progression. Back at that level we worked on the idea of preserving memories - had them give us ideas on what to say about various pictures I scrapped and so forth, what to put in the books mentioned above and so forth. As older Juniors (5th & 6th grade) they did more of their own stuff and now finally as 7th graders last year and 8th graders this year they did individual pages and are just progressing to "real" scrapbooking.

However, if you have a majority of moms that think this is interesting it could make for a good mother daughter project. I'd just suggest thinking in terms of a) one on one mom to daughter work and b) pages rather than books.

Just my thoughts!
Deb

 

[mkpb]

Deb,
Thanks for the advice. I know it is a brave move to try to get these girls to settle down enough to scrap. I was definitely thinking it would be a Mother/Daughter project. I was also thinking about pages (not books). We have a meeting this afternoon. Maybe I can talk with the moms to see what they think before we plunge into anything. I also like the idea of a "troop" book that could be copied for everyone. I would be wiling to coordinate that. Each girl and her mom could do an "all about me" page to be included with the troop stuff.

Thanks again!
Mary K.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

Kewl! Let us know how it goes!

Deb