When my daughter arrived home from Kindergarten on Friday, I checked her take home folder as I always do and in it was an interesting project for her to complete. The assignment for her weekend homework was to create a Memory Box Project.
According to the sheet, they are working on a Personal Narratives unit and each child was to make a memory box or bag filled with items such as pictures, objects, etc. about their past memories: A birthday card, a photograph of an event, whatever that is memory filled.
I thought about this project a lot because as a child, I had a lot of memories but when it comes to visually having items that hold memories, I can’t say I have many. We moved around a lot as a child. I don’t have any pictures of me in grade school. I don’t have any of my old yearbooks. I don’t have any stuffed animals or artifacts from my childhood. It is almost as if my childhood didn’t exist. It feels weird living in the present, thinking of the future, without having a shred of anything from my past.
I think that it why as a parent, I save almost everything my children have, because I want them to have something from their past.
It’s made me think long and hard about where I came from. What I stood for. If I don’t understand my past, how can I move forward?
Food for thought perhaps.
sounds like a great project! I love saving stuff too, my mom did for me and its so nice to have the stuff that brings back memories
I have a memory basement. I need to make it smaller.
Maybe soon I'll have a memory box, and a memory dumpster.
My oldest daughter did this project too… and I loved it. We painted a photo box then decoupaged the whole thing with pictures of her and people who were/are important to her. Filled with lots of goodies that were meaningful to her. While doing this project I thought about my memories and lack of physical things to remind me (like you).
I realize I may be saving too much , but I would rather they decided what is important later than me determine and they miss having it.
My daughter still loves her memory box and displays in a prominent spot in her bedroom (9yrs later), she tells me she takes it down occasionally to peep into it and stroll down memory lane.
This is a neat idea. Though I save a lot of things for my daughters already, making an actual memory box would be a fun project.