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New Year’s Time Capsule Tradition

December 30, 2013 by Anna Ranson

Create a fun family keepsake with kids for the New Year with this simple time capsule idea, filled with memories, drawings and fun questionnaires! This is a really fun activity for the New Year period and is easy for everyone to get involved.

New Year's Time Capsule for kids

This new year we are starting a new family tradition of compiling an annual time capsule filled with little keepsakes to help us remember what stages the children are at and our particular best memories of the year that has just past.

It could make a great activity to do on New Year’s eve or day when family and friends are around. Get everyone involved and include as much or as little as you like in the capsule, adapting the idea to suit your own family.

Self portraits for a new years time capsule

I explained to the girls that we were going to take a “snapshot” of what they are like at the end of 2013 and that it would be a quick and simple activity to collate some information and pop it into a bottle to lock away and open again one day in the future.

First of all I gave them all a little pieces of card with a simple frame drawn around it and asked them to draw their own self portrait. I then dated it and added their ages and names. I absolutely love kids’ drawings and what they tell us about their stages of development!Child's questionnaire for a new year's time capsule

Then I gave them a very simple and easy questionnaire to fill out asking them some questions about their favourites colours, foods, books, tv shows etc. My eldest was able to complete this by herself and my 3 year old dictated her answers to me. For baby Bean we all talked about what we thought her answers would be and I wrote them down.Handprints for a new years time capsule

Last of all I drew around the outlines of their hands, overlapping them to show the contrasting sizes. After the photo was taken I wrote their names by each hand outline in corresponding colours, and added their exact ages.New years interview for kids

We then rolled all of these up and dropped them through the neck of the recycled drinks bottle. I tucked our Christmas family photo inside too and my own list of my favourite events and memories of 2013, then we sealed it up and we are going to store it in the loft until one day when we choose to open it! We can cut off the bottom of the bottle to get the papers back out again.New Years Time Capsule Memory Keepsake

We will do the same things again next year and then one day we will stick all of the drawings, handprints and questionaries into a large memory book, looking through the changes they make each year! A 10 minute activity each year that can end up with a lovely keepsake memento for the future.

Do you do anything to mark the changing years? Please share!

New-Years-Time-Capsule-Memory-Keepsake-for families

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Filed Under: Age, Learn, New Year's, PHSE, Preschooler, School Age, Traditions Tagged With: Family Traditions, New Year

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Comments

  1. IQmom says

    December 31, 2013 at 12:25 am

    Wow..nice idea. I was thinking of making a resolution time capsule for myself and open it on 31st Dec next year. Hey, I will do that and I will also put the palm outline of my 1 year old daughter as a reminder in it. Thanks for the idea.

  2. Shannon says

    December 31, 2013 at 2:15 am

    I love that your girlie wants to be a Sunday School teacher when she grows up. So cute!

  3. Heather C says

    December 31, 2013 at 3:44 am

    This is such a wonderful idea. We are going to start this tradition too. Thanks for sharing!!

  4. Kirsty says

    December 31, 2013 at 5:15 am

    What a lovely idea and it is precious to see a child who loves the Lord Jesus.

  5. Danielle Askins says

    December 31, 2013 at 9:18 am

    What a lovely idea 🙂

  6. banking classes in pune says

    December 31, 2013 at 9:56 am

    what piety site this is!

  7. PinkCatJo says

    December 31, 2013 at 10:12 am

    Such a lovely thing to do – a perfect and yet so simple memory creator.
    I’m starting to think about something to mark the turning of the year when I return to school next week – this might just be the perfect thing! x

  8. Anik says

    December 31, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    I love the idea! I’ve been looking for something to make with my son this special evening – the time capsule is perfect! 🙂 Thank you and happy New Year to you! 🙂

  9. Jenny @ The Brick Castle says

    January 1, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    I adore the writing on the questionnaire, it’s so beautiful, really precious treasure 🙂

  10. chocoholicmummy says

    January 3, 2014 at 11:43 pm

    Hi Anna,

    I couldn’t find an e-mail address to write to you, so I’ll try to keep it brief! Just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing your wonderful ideas, you’ve been such an inspiration to me. I am also a primary school teacher and a mummy and have decided as part of my new-year-resolution, to start my own blog (http://buildingblocksandacorns.wordpress.com/) which is absolutely nothing compared to this one! Just wanted to know how you got started and some honest advice? Thank you so, so much 🙂

    Lou x

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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