first day, last day frames

It’s official, the new school year is upon us! We’ve already gotten letters from preschool teachers and in only a couple weeks the boys will be wearing those too-big back packs and making us hold back the tears. Michael’s – the awesome arts and crafts store – challenged us to get creative and come up with a way to celebrate the Back to School season!   Here’s what we came up with:

At the end of every school year we love seeing everyone’s little collages of the first day / last day photo comparison. To see how much kids grow in less than a year is crazy, and so rewarding! We used Michael’s unfinished wood frames and a few rolls of their awesome selection of 3M Expressions Tape.This craft is for any age, and is fool-proof and mess-free! Even though they won’t see the completely finished results until May of next year, we have some ideas on what to fill that “last day” frame while they wait…
We love the idea of setting new school year goals together as a family. Things we each want to accomplish, the kinds of people we want to be, and priorities and hopes for the year. Writing them onto a 5×7 piece of paper and then putting each person’s goals in the Last Day frame, right next to the First Day picture is a wonderful daily reminder of what we’re working towards. Then at the end of the year when we put that Last Day picture into its frame we can talk as a family about our successes with those goals. Sure our boys are young, but we are happy for any reason to create these goal-setting and goal-keeping habits! We’re excited to try it out as families, and we’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!

This post is brought to you by Michael’s – Where Creativity Happens.

Find more Back to School Adventures on Michael’s Pinterest page.