Whether your child is in elementary school, middle school, or high school, creating a homeschool yearbook for your homeschooled student is a great way to capture the entire homeschool year for your child to look back on and remember for years to come. Here are 4 fun ways you can create a homeschool yearbook for your kids.
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What is a yearbook?
A yearbook is a book containing photographs of the students and/or school, plus details of school activities from the current school year. Yearbooks are usually made at the end of the school year to take home as a remembrance of the school year the student just completed.
When in a public school, a typical school yearbook contains photos of each student, plus photographs from school activities, sports, dances, field trips, etc.
What is a yearbook for Homeschoolers?
A homeschool yearbook is basically the same thing as a yearbook would be for a public schooled child, however, since your child is homeschooled, your homeschool yearbook will contain a lot of photos solely about your child, their projects, their field trips, etc. It can also contain pieces of artwork, papers they’ve written, and the such like.
The Importance of a Yearbook for Homeschoolers
A yearbook is a record that preserves memories of the past year. The main purpose is to build lasting memories for your child over their school year and to take a glimpse back on all the work and fun times that were accomplished during that time.
Why should I make a homeschool yearbook for my child?
Creating a personalized homeschool yearbook gives an opportunity to show off talent without it being graded, which is what makes it so important for homeschoolers. This is because they don’t have many opportunities outside of school or their homes to show their talents since they are not graded by anyone, or put on display for others to see or admire.
If your child created a beautiful painting, stick it in the yearbook!
If they wrote an awesome poem, stick it in the yearbook!
Let your child keep the memories of their past school years and accomplishments.
Creating a homeschool yearbook is a great way to fully capture your child’s homeschool experience each year, plus, it makes a wonderful keepsake.
What are some things to include in a homeschool yearbook?
There are so many great and creative ideas and ways to create your own homeschool yearbook. The best way to make your homeschool yearbook in a creative way is to include a lot of fun things that you’ve done in your homeschooling.
Some things to do before you get started:
- Before you get started, come up with a great yearbook layout.
- Come up with yearbook theme ideas
Some things to include in a homeschool yearbook:
- You can add yearbook quotes to the yearbook pages
- Many photos of your child doing a variety of activities such as projects, working, reading, cooking, etc.
- Photos of your child’s favorite experiments, plus them doing their experiments
- Student photographs (this could be a photography session or some images you snap on your phone or camera)
- Photos of projects your child finished (that are too big or bulky to keep as keepsakes). This way you can still keep the memories of those projects, without having to store the actual projects.
- A yearbook theme per section, such as the different holidays or seasons.
- Favorite poems or stories your child has written
- Images from field trips and places you visited
- Lists of your child’s favorite things from that year such as favorite foods, colors, books, songs, places to go, etc.
- Include an infographic of your favorite statistics from the past year
- Take a picture of their favorite book
- Create an interesting visual representation of one of your favorite quotes or lyrics
- …plus many more ideas!
Best Ideas for taking Creative Homeschool Yearbook Photos
- Capture-the-Moment Photos for your yearbook. Snap pictures while your homeschooler is in the middle of a project, reading a book, participating in sports or a field trip, etc.
- Use good lighting!
- Snap pictures from all angles!
Now, let’s dive into the different ways to create a homeschool yearbook for your child in a fun way.
4 creative homeschool yearbook ideas to start this year!
Here are 4 creative ideas for your homeschooling kiddos to create a lasting memory book of their homeschool year.
1. Photobook Yearbook for Homeschool
There are many places online where you can make your own photo books now!
Sometimes, you might decide you want to create a photo book digitally, instead of a scrapbook, cut and paste style yearbook.
If so, there are many places you can create a photobook homeschool yearbook.
Here are some places you can create a digital photobook:
Creating a photobook yearbook could be an activity that you do one on one with each child. You guys can choose a wonderful yearbook design together and come up with the best yearbook page layout.
They get special time with mom or dad uploading their favorite photos from the school year, add some comments, and then a completed book is sent. What a keepsake!
Psssst… Make copies for the grandparents for Christmas!
2. Three-Ringed Binder Yearbook for Homeschool
Get a nice 3-ring binder in August, with some plastic protector sleeves (like these).
Let your child create a snazzy yearbook cover page to slip in the cover.
For every activity, field trip, or art project you do, stick it in there! The plastic sleeves are perfect for creating an individual yearbook page that can hold the pamphlets or programs you get from a field trip, park, sporting event, or museum.
Make sure to include samples of your child’s schoolwork from the beginning, middle, and end of the school year.
If you collect everything, and put it in the binder as you go, wrapping up the school year yearbook is a breeze!
Awesome tip from a Veteran Homeschooler: When my kids were in high school I would simply put a copy of their high school transcript on the front of the binder. Insider tip: do a high school transcript at the end of every year of high school. Having to figure out if they have enough credits to graduate in May of their Senior year is HORRIBLE! It’s hard enough to remember what we did last week, let alone 4 years ago!!
This 3-ringed binder homeschooling yearbook can also double as a portfolio review, which is one of the options to use as an end-of-the-year assessment for some states.
3. Scrapbook Style Yearbook for Homeschool
You can also make a scrapbook-style yearbook for your homeschool.
Each child can make their own and get creative and crafty in their own individual style.
Some great places to get scrapbooking supplies and stickers:
- Dollar Tree (they actually have a nice selection of scrapbooking supplies)
- Yard Sales
- Walmart
- Hobby Lobby
- Michaels
- Joann Fabric
- Target
This could also be a great thing to add to your homeschool lessons for either craft time and journaling. Or you could get together with your homeschool group or homeschool co-op and do it all together.
Win-Win!
Get creative and add fun stickers and scrapbook papers to each page.
What a fun homeschooling yearbook idea to look back and remember what your child did over the year!
And one day it will become a beloved treasure of your future daughters-in-law or sons-in-law!
4. Box Style Yearbook for Homeschool
The idea is simple—
Grab a photo box (ones like these), and you can basically place in your child’s best projects, assignments, papers, pamphlets from field trips, printed pictures of your child throughout the year, fun findings from outings, etc. and add in all in one box.
You can store the boxes each year and your child can go through the boxes to remember what they did.
**This is not the best option for those on limited space, though.**
