Scrapbooking with Teens: Best Practices

Teens have so many dramatic events in their lives. Keeping these events in scrapbooks is a great way to preserve a teen’s roller coaster years. But what are the best practices for scrapbooking with teens? Here are four of the best practices for scrapbooking with teens.

1. Let teens pick out what they like in photos and scrapbook supplies.
2. If you must make suggestions, make them nonchalantly, and definitely not forcefully.
3. Let the teens have some space away from younger and older siblings.
4. Invite friends over to join in the fun.

Let the teens you will be scrapbooking with pick out what photos they want to use. Also let them choose the scrapbook supplies to fit their personality. Even though you took 5 pictures of your teen at their first high school dance, they may only want two of the pictures in their scrapbook. This is ok. Keep the extra pictures if you want or put them in a family scrapbook. Some teens will not like a picture of them with their hair messed up put in a scrapbook for everyone to see.

It’s good practice to let the teen pick out scrapbook supplies, like paper, stickers, and other embellishments when it is their scrapbook that will be worked on. There are many embellishments made for so many different interests. Have teens look on the Internet or at scrapbook idea books if they want to be independent and do all the scrapbooking themselves.

Second best practice for scrapbooking with teens is to limit the suggestions you make. Some teens seem to not like being told what to do with their scrapbook. Make suggestions in a nonchalant way and don’t force the issue if it is not received well. What ever you do suggest let it take time to sink into the thought process that your teen is compiling for the scrapbook page or pages he or she is working on.

The third best practice for scrapbooking with teens is to give them some space. When scrapbooking with teens remember that teens like space, this will include from siblings, especially younger ones that may mess up any work the teen has done. This does not mean that you will need to isolate your teen. But give the younger and older children that are not scrapbooking a different activity to do.

Let your teen have the space on the table or counter needed to lay out what they are working on and create their scrapbook to their liking. When scrapbooking with teens, giving them space also includes time. Let your teen work at his or her own pace when they are scrapbooking. Teens will most likely not work at the same pace as you will; they may be faster or slower. Give them some space and let them work at their own pace.

One of the best practices for scrapbooking with teens is to let them invite friends over. A teen can feel more at ease when friends come over to share in the excitement of creating memories through scrapbooking. The teens will giggle and laugh, or snicker at the photos, but they will have a great time and enjoy the company. As you let them invite friends over try to remember that this may slow down the process a little, but the ideas they bounce of each other will give their scrapbooks a great look and feel.

As you are scrapbooking with teens keep in mind four of the best practices to make it an enjoyable time for all involved. Begin with letting the teens pick out what pictures and scrapbook supplies they want to use. Then be sure and limit your suggestions, especially if they are not received well to begin with. Third, give teens the space they need to concentrate and not have their work disturbed. And last, but not least, see if the teens you are scrapbooking with want to invite over some friends to share in the activity.