Guest Blogger
Making a Life Lessons Photo Book
Guest Blogger: Harper Mac
Parents have the responsibility of teaching their children life lessons. One way to do this 
that is fun and involves no lecturing at all is to create a life lessons photo book. These five life lessons can be illustrated using family photos to create a teaching book that is also a family keepsake.
Valuing Friends
Friends are an important part of life, and children need to learn how to value their friends and treat them well. A photo book gives a perfect opportunity to record some of the friendships a family enjoys while instilling in children how important those friends are. As an added benefit, this section allows the family to record the names of childhood friends by their pictures. These names may be difficult to remember when the children are grown and have made their adult friends, yet wish to remember their childhood playmates.
Showing Kindness toward Others
Showing kindness toward others includes treating people with respect, giving to others, and helping others with their needs. The photographs in this section can be as simple as making and giving personalized Christmas cards to grandparents or residents of a nursing home to more complex activities like a family night serving at the local homeless shelter. It can also include pictures of the kids playing together nicely, as that is showing respect for each other as well.
Understanding the Value of Hard Work
Families often perform hard work together, yet they may not always label it as such. Planting a garden as a family, for example, is a fun weekend activity; yet it is also hard work. Chances are, most families have photographs of themselves working hard together. These should be included in a section of the life lessons photo book. By using pictures, parents can show their kids that “work” can also be fun, and hard work has definite rewards.
Exhibiting Gratefulness
One of the life lessons most parents want to teach their children is to be grateful for what they have. Gratitude helps people feel happy and content, but it is not an attitude that children tend to naturally grasp. It has to be taught. What better way to do this than to gather photographs of the family enjoying their various blessings and including this as a section in a life lessons photo book.
Valuing Family Time
Families tend to spend their days running from one event to another, without taking the time to just stop and be a family together. Pictures of family game nights, mom and daughter baking together, dad and son tossing a softball outside, family meals at the dinner table or family vacations all help emphasize just how fun and valuable family time is.
These five ideas are fairly universal for all families, but they can certainly be changed. Each family should choose its own items for their book, and then add pictures to match. This will not only provide a beautiful, educational keepsake, but creating it can also provide the family with a chance to bond over a group project. Perhaps each child can make one as a keepsake to pass on to future grandchildren and keep the family legacy alive.
About the Author
Harper Mac
Lindsey Harper Mac is a writer and editor living in Indianapolis. She writes on behalf of Colorado Technical University.
