Ideas for Capturing Summer Memories with a Toddler
Capturing summer memories is so important for preserving family memories. This is Day 10 of our Intentional Summer activities with toddlers!
Ideas for Capturing Summer Toddler Memories
1. Get out the camera.
I love my camera! I love capturing memories. I love the details of a toddlers little palms and the squish of their noses and the glint of the sun on their hair. I don’t want to forget a moment (even though it’s inevitable that I will).
But I look forward to the day when I’m old and gray, sitting in my rocker looking through old pictures of my children growing up. I will never regret having too many pictures.
I will regret if I don’t take enough. So will you (my grandmother told me so)! You’ll want to reminisce someday. Get out the camera and start snapping.
I love using Instagram to journal our days! You can follow @intentionalbygrace to keep up with our antics, if you’d like.
2. Keep a memory journal.
I have a journal for each of my children. I’m not a scrapbooker, and I am quite terrible at filling in those obligatory lines in a baby book. So I just write down what’s happening from time to time.
You think you’ll remember these things forever, but you won’t … well unless you’re my mom. She’s got an incredible memory. But most of you are like me and forget what you had for breakfast this morning. So get a journal and write it down!
What I keep in each of my children’s journal:
- funny things they say
- milestones they reach
- a day in the life information
- favorites (toys, books, parent, friends, food, etc) of the moment
- places we go and how they reacted
- anything that I think they might like to know about their childhood
Check out these tips for keeping a simple journal from Life With My Littles, or her post on preserving memories for kids.
3. Start a blog.
My husband and I started a blog when we got married as a way to help our long distance family keep up with us. It is okay to be a hobby blogger!
Blogging is a great way to chronicle your life and preserve family memories. You don’t even have to make them public! Just set your site settings to private or password protect them for your family members to have access.
4. Capture with video.
My camera has video built in as well as my iPhone. I love pulling out the video camera and capturing real life moments.
You’ll forget the sound of your children’s squeals as they run through the sprinkler for the first time, the way you screamed really loud (probably too loud) at your child’s t-ball game, or the way your son wrestled on the floor with Daddy.
Snag a minute or two here and there of your moments together. I upload my videos to YouTube for easy access right now (as well as save them on my computer, of course). But when we’re bored and it’s a little too hot outside, my son and I will look back at videos from when he was a newborn and smile and laugh together at his silly antics.
5. Organize and back up your pictures and videos.
I’m putting this here because it needs to be done, but in the time of toddlers, I’m learning it’s almost impossible to do (the get organized, not the back up part).
I might not get to this until I’m 80 and ready to actually sit down and reminisce. But that’s okay. I can start somewhere right now, but not try to be perfect.
So I’m telling you, don’t try to be perfect. Take the pictures. Put them on your computer. Back them up (I use an external hard drive).
When you have time to organize them and put them into albums or in picture frames, do so. But don’t stress about it.
There will come a time when you’ll be able to sit down and tackle this project while you’re not having to wipe Cheerios off your keyboard.
When you have time, here are some ideas for organizing your family memories:
- How to Organize and Backup Your Home Movies (with checklist download)
- Yearly Photobook Ideas
- How to Organize, Print, and Backup Years Worth of Photos
Do you do a good job of capturing memories or do you have room for improvement? What ideas would you add to capturing family memories?
Want even more ideas to enjoy an intentional summer with your toddler?
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