I am so excited to kick off the “Ask WunderMom” column with you all! This will be a weekly post so if you have any questions, need advice, looking for ideas, send them my way! So let’s get started! Our first question comes from Ashley and she needs some ideas for school year book alternatives.
“Just received an email from the school that the minimum order for yearbooks had not been met. They need to have at least 100 copies preordered and are only around 75. This is a Catholic Private school grades preK -8 with about 600 students. Why couldn’t they sell 100? Becau…se the cost of the yearbooks are outrageous! (I did NOT order them for the first time ever and my oldest is in 4th grade) sooooo, what’s your suggestions for a fun “yearbook” like end of school thing? Was thinking t-shirts and sharpies they could sign but they do wear uniforms so it might be a little of an issue. Digital camera to school for pics of all friends and scrap-book for signatures? Was just wondering what you could come up with for my 4th and 3rd grader since you always have such fun ideas!”
-ash
Hi Ashley!
To answer the first half (or to just agree with you), I totally understand why they wouldn’t have met their minimum on orders. The price of Elementary school yearbooks is INSANE! We haven’t bought Wundergirl’s yearbook these last two years for exactly that reason. In my opinion, kids don’t need a hardback bound book with hundreds of glossy pages and color photos when they are 8! I mean really, we all bought them in high school and what have we done with them since? Nothing! At the most, they’ve sat on a bookshelf collecting dust so to buy expensive yearbooks for all 12 (13 if you count kindergarten) of a child’s school years is just absurd! If it were up to me schools would go back to the little paper bound books with mostly black and white pages probably printed off in some oversized copy machine in the school office. They don’t need much, just something to mark that time in their lives. Just for you, I’ve pulled out my 2nd grade yearbook 🙂
Now, on to my “creative ideas”….I’ve come up with a few and I hope there is something that you can use!
- T-Shirt: Even though your girl’s wear school uniforms I still think you could make this work. They don’t have to wear them to have their friends sign them, they can just bring the shirt along in their backpack and take it out at lunch and recess. Walmart has some really fun bright-colored T shirts made by Hanes that are very inexpensive. You could stencil (or freehand) the year and childs name on the front and send them to school with a sharpie to have their friends write on. Of course, this all means you’d have to trust them to go to school with a Sharpie 😉 haha!
- Matted Class Picture: This would be cute and something they could put out in their rooms, or if you do it every year they could collect them and hang them on the wall. Purchase a large frame with mat (you can also buy them separately at craft stores like Michaels). Send your children to school with the mat to have all their friends sign and then frame the mat with a class photo from that year.
- Scrap book: For something a bit more “yearbook like” you could do a scrapbook. I would let them pick out a few sheets of scrap-book paper, and book, and a disposable camera. They can have fun taking photos with their friends the last week of school and ask their friends to write messages on the sheets of paper. What a fun project to have for over the summer~working on their own scrapbook!
I hope this helps!
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