My son loves taking pictures and when I upload craft pictures I usually find one or two photos of his playmobil vehicles in the mix. Last month we had a busy day , a day when he was going to be dragged around all day as I checked off a long to do list. So to ease the ants in his pants I gave him my camera and the instructions to take lots of pictures. It was a huge success.
The next day we sat down together to upload the pictures and decide which to put in the book, going from 47 to 27 pictures . This was a really interesting process talking to him about which pictures to keep and which to delete. His reasoning was really fascinating. If you want you can make your collection into a book or slide show like we did.
Here are some of his favorite shots .
- Firetrucks
- Sister
- Morning TV
- Goldfish in the car
- trees lots of tall trees
- Sleeping Sister
- On the bridge
- Batman at the doctor’s office
- Sculpture outside our pediatrician’s office.
- Espresso Drive Thru
- Target
- Real Fire Station
- Frozen Peas
- Place Mat
- Chicken
- Daddy
- Mama
- Jello for dessert
This was a fun exercise to see through my son’s eyes, and it kept him engaged on a day packed with errands. It also gave him something to be responsible for, he was so good at making sure he had the camera everywhere we went. What do you think your child would snap photos of during a regular day at your house or running around town?
Elissa says
My kids love to “steal” the camera! Pics of their feet are a favorite. I uploaded the whole thing once (over 70 pics) to facebook and it’s one of my most popular albums 🙂
Laura@art4littlehands says
That is a great idea! I will do this soon. Thanks for the inspiration.
Jillian says
I love this idea! I especially love that he was in charge of picking which pictures to keep. I have an art folder for each of my kids. It only holds 20 pieces of art. They decide which art stays and which art they are done with (or can go to the trash.) I think it is a great way to put them in control of making tough decision.
Jenae {I Can Teach My Child!} says
What a fun idea!
butterfly wishes and wonderland dreams says
we do this alot I gave the girls my old digital and they also use their DSI’s its fun and good for eye hand.
now that they are older 5 and 10 I give them specific things some harder to find and it makes the time go by a lot faster.
Natalie says
We got our daughter a very simple camera, and she enjoys snapping pictures as well. It’s interesting to see what she finds fascinating – on Sunday she took about 100 shots in 15 minutes outside – mostly of flowers. I like the idea of binding her shots into the book and then writing captions.
Becca says
My oldest (4 now) has been taking pictures since he was probably 2 or younger. He absolutely LOVES to take pictures. We are going to visit a Tulip Festival this week, and they have a photography competition for 4-11 year olds (and other age groups) and I told him that he could use my really nice camera to take a picture of the tulips and we will enter him in the competition.
Here is a post I recently wrote about the subject 🙂
I love how you used it to keep him occupied during a long day of not-so-fun-for-little-ones errands. I’ll have to think of that next time we’ve got one of those days ahead!
GummyLump.com says
I love this idea. I was asking some preschool teachers if they ever had a day where they allowed the children to take photos and then create a project with the final photos! I love how you did this and I’m sure your son is very proud of his photo book! Nice work on his part and great idea on your part to keep him happy and engaged on a busy day!