As a parent, the first day of school is always emotional for me. I am simultaneously so proud of the little people my children are becoming, but also wistful at how quickly the years seem to pass! Because I never want to forget the little things about them that I hold so dear today, this year, I put together a set of printables to make a sweet memory book to document the little people they are at this special time in their lives.
The idea is to sit children down on the first day of each grade through their senior year of high school (preschool through the twelfth grade) and interview them about who they are at that point in time. Topics in the interview range from best friend and favorite food, to stats like height and weight. I have plans to also make a set of similar printables to be filled out at the end of each school year, so that I can see how much they grow and change in just the span of a few months’ time!
My children and I sat down last week to fill out their pages. They had so much fun being the center of attention, and when I told them I was going to keep these in a special place so they can look back on them when they are all grown up, they seemed genuinely delighted!
Along with the interview questions, I also included a place to display a proud photo of the child on that big first day, along with the information about their teacher’s name, school and year. (The field for teacher’s name has been removed for grades 7 through 12, since middle- and high-schoolers have a different teacher for each subject. I also tweaked some of the wording so that the interview would seem more “grown up” for that age group.) Once everything is filled out, I can place each page in a sheet protector and add it to a special photo album reserved just for this purpose. What a special memento this will be for them to look back on once they are all grown up!
Below you’ll find a link to page where you can download each of the files. If you have a little one just starting out, it might be handy to print them all out at once and place them in an album to fill out gradually over the years.
EDITED 7/29/13: To download these files along with an additional set of end-of-year printable interview questionnaires, please click on this link, and then scroll to the bottom of the page, where you will find all of the links for pre-k through 12th grade.
Thanks so much for stopping in!
Having grown up in a home brimming with sewing notions and paintbrushes, Amy has a deep love for all things creative. On any given day, you’ll find her knee-deep in her latest creative endeavor, with projects ranging from sewing and crafts to home decor and kid-friendly ideas. Amy believes that everyone, regardless of skill level or experience, possesses the ability to create something beautiful, and Positively Splendid was born of her passion for helping others harness their innate creative potential.
This is such a great idea. I have a son who is starting Kindergarden next week and I will try to do this with him every year. Thanks for creating and sharing these!
Wonderful idea Amy and what a fun thing to look back on from year to year. I’m definitely going to use this with my little guy who starts kindergarten next week.
Tracy
Precious idea Amy!! thanks so much for the printables!!
Thank you! Pinning this!
Love this idea – I’m going to post it in my back to school to do list!
I love this idea and love this printable. I downloaded all of the years to have for later. Thanks so much!
Great idea! I hope you will link it up at The CSI Project this week. The challenge is Back to School. Come on over. STarts tomorrow night.
http://www.thecsiproject.com
Oh, Amy, I love this!! Printing right now. I only wish I’d had this last year for kindergarten. But at least I can get Michaela Byrd’s preschool in. 🙂
What a wonderful idea! I have one kid in 5th grade, one in 2nd grade and one in K. I am so excited to start this with them.
Darling idea…I pinned as well but see that I am not the first! TFS!
I love this idea, Amy!! I will be saving these for next year. 🙂
Amy, I kid you not, I just created the exact thing today to share on my blog!!!!! It goes along with a craft I’m making but seriously…so crazy ironic! Yours is adorable and if I include mine with my project I will be sure to link to yours too to spread the love. Everything you do is just so dang awesome.:)
Oh Amy!
this is wonderful. such a neat idea.
xo
kellie
Such a sweet idea! I just printed them out and filled them in with my two girls. Thanks for the quick and easy keepsake!
Love this idea! Downloaded, pinned & shared on my FB page. Thanks for sharing such a great idea!!!
Have a happy weekend
Tausha
sassystyleredesign.com
I love this it is a great idea! However I am not seeing where to print this. Am i missing it or something? Thank you
great idea I will have my grandchildren fill them out thanks
Thank you so much for sharing. My little boys start 3 and 4 year old pre-school this year. I’m so excited to start these traditions with them. I also bought copies of Oh the Places You’ll Go for their teachers to sign at the end of the school year.
These are wonderful! I downloaded them all, so I’ll have them ready each year. And pinned them, too. 🙂 I have a sixth, fifth and first grader this year.
Love this idea! I might even record the kids reading it so we always remember their little voices.
Thank you! 🙂 Going to add this to our list of things for our first day of school–which is coming up soon!!!
No link 🙁
So sorry for those experiencing difficulties seeing the download box above. (It should display directly below the sentence that mentions needing to click over to the blog for the downloads, and it might take a few moments to load completely.) In case it doesn’t work for you, you can click directly over using this link: https://www.box.com/s/bc957c1a89335dcfaa6a
Thanks, everyone!
Thank you for these! We’re having a “bye summer, hello school” party next weekend, and this will be a fun activity for the kids to do.
Thank you SOOOO much! Just in time for Bean’s first day in Kindergarten. Wonderful way to remember this special day.
These are just wonderful printables!! I can’t wait for the kids to fill them out! Thanks so much! 🙂
I love this idea! I’m going to use it this week and pin it too!
This is awesome! Thank you for your hard work. we are going to be doing this tomorrow.
Thanks! We homeschool and aren’t too concerned about grade level, but he’s a Sept birthday so we do things like this around his birthday for posterity.
What a great idea! I still can’t see the link on the page though or access the one you put in the comments? Is it down?
@Angelica, did you try copying and pasting the link into your browser? For some reason it didn’t show up hyperlinked here. Let me know if this helps; all is showing up fine on my end, so the files should be good to go. 🙂
Found via Pinterest…thanks so much! I hope to do this every year for each of my children! 🙂
Found you through Pinterest. Thank you so much for sharing these printables. They are SO cute!
Thank you for these pages. I will enjoy using them with my kids ecery year.
Thank you for these, they are adorable! We’ll be using them in our homeschool classroom!
Blessings,
Valerie
These are absolutely perfect and just what I was looking for! Thank you so much for sharing. I took your advice and downloaded the whole set. Later today, I will print them all out and set them in the kids scrapbooks. Thanks again for helping me be on top of things. 🙂
This is such a wonderful idea. Where can I find Preschool-7th grade? I see the PDF of 8th-12th but not Preschool-7th. Could someone help please. Thank you very much
Hi, Tracy! All of the printables should display in the download box at the bottom of the screen. If you are viewing in a reader, on a mobile device or with certain browsers, you might not be able to view them properly. Let me know if that’s the case and I can email them to you!
Amy,
For some reason I can’t see the links to download the printables? Could you possibly email them to me? Thanks so much.
Christine
Hi! I have tried desperately to get the links to work-both on mobile and a desktop…. Are they no longer available?
BTW, loving your site!!
Thanks!
I just saw a couple posts up where you offered to email them to someone, could you do the same for me? Oh pretty, pretty please? 🙂
I’m having trouble accessing the download- any suggestions?
Thank you! Love these!
Thank you so much! These are so adorable, and will go great in my foster boys’ scrapbooks! I wish I’d found something cute like this back when my big boys started school.
I can’t seem to find the link to download these either- it just keeps returning me to the original post. Are you able to send me the printables or correct the link? Thanks!
this is awesome 🙂 my little guy started kindergarten yesterday and I truly love this idea… i plan to create a scrap book out of every year… may take me 13 years to finish but it will be well worth it 🙂
Last year I printed only the ones I needed, and now with a little boy going into Third Grade, I dont have it printed and I am struggling to find it. As I scroll, I just keep reading everyones posts on how cute these are and how hard they are to find….have they disappeared? I am on a laptop too, and cant seem to make it work…Help!
Hi, Lindsay!
The printables are definitely still available, but for simplicity’s sake, I am offering those printables and the end-of-the-year version all in one spot, as I have indicated in the note written at the bottom of this post. To access all of the available printables, click the link in bold below, and then all of the interview questionnaires can be found by scrolling to the bottom of that page. Thanks!
Hi, everyone! Those who have questions about where the links are for the downloads, I wrote an editor’s note on this post a few months ago after I added a set of end-of-year questionnaires to this set of printables. As I shared in that note, I am now offering the interviews for both the first and final days of school all in one spot. That post can be found here: http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2013/05/first-and-final-day-of-school-interviews.html To access all of the files from pre-k through 12th grade, click on the link above, and then scroll to the bottom of the page, where you will be able to find the list of all of the available questionnaires. Thanks!