Documenting the Beginning of the School Year
The first day of school is bigger than January 1st for me. This dates back to my days of being a teacher. The smell of school supplies would get me excited. Putting name tags on desks, ready for the fresh faces and new stories that would reveal themselves as I met my students.
Now that I am a mom I still have a soft spot for the first days of school. My kids go back to the classroom, we get routine back into our lives, and it hits me how much they have grown! It is the perfect opportunity to take a photo to time stamp the new grade, the new phase, the new smile that is here today.
For us this means getting out the letter boards and putting the grade and date on them the night before the first day of school. We have added what they want to be when they grow up as they have gotten older. We sit in front or in back of our house, the setting of our story. In the early images you can see the scaffolding the was up during our renovation.
For me these portraits are the photo version of the sharpie lines on our kitchen door. Each one marks their growth as the years pass. And, like those lines in our kitchen, they create a visual timeline that brings me back to what they were like when they were little. A little glimpse of who they were as I watch them grow into who they are becoming.
