There’s something exciting about autumn. Yellow buses rattle down our gravel road to bring children back-to-school. I look forward to cooler weather, colorful leaves, and fields of crops ready to harvest. Anticipating my favorite season makes me smile. And going back to school, even preschool, means it’s school picture time.
Don’t you just love to see how your children grow and change each year from baby to toddler to preschooler? It warms the heart. But did you know displaying photos of your children improves their self-esteem? Research shows children make better choices when photos are displayed.
So many of our photos are online, which is easy to access and share. Digital frames display a never-ending slide show. But printing photos are a tangible way of remembering events and honoring those you love. Choose a few each month to print out and display or keep in an album. Include both candid action shots and more formal poses.
What photos should you display and where? How do you get kids involved? What are the best places to hang photos? I’m glad you asked!
1. School Photos: Frame and display school pictures and update them each year. School photos are a great way to show how your child changes and grows. Packages with a variety of photo sizes from wallet to 4x6 and larger allow you to share with family and friends.
2. Birthday Photos: Shoot and display yearly photos on or near their birthday. Our older daughter, Emily, has done this every year and it’s so fun! Her children hold a framed photo of the year before. They often go outside with the natural light and vibrant setting. We treasure these special birthday photos of our grandchildren.
3. Family Photos: Frame and hang family portraits. Besides your immediate family, make a special point to take a group photo when you get together with extended family. It can be casual where everyone wears whatever they have on. Some people coordinate colors and fabric or order family t-shirts. Others like to be more formal where everyone gets dressed up.
4. Photo Albums: Make a photo album with photos of each member of the family including extended family. Some people create an album for each child and an album for the family. It’s fun to take them out and look back at special days, vacations, birthdays, and other events.
5. Photo Review: Review and talk about extended family members to help prepare for a visit. If family members live far apart and children don’t often see them, it helps to show photos of who they will see and how they are related. How fun to meet a cousin they didn’t know they had!6. Photo Boxes: Allow each of your children a small case that holds 4x6 photos to keep their own collection. Include photos featuring that particular child, plus some of the family, their siblings, and their pets.
7. Child’s Creation: Get your kids involved in creating simple album where they can paste photos of themselves any way they want. You can purchase double prints of special events for this purpose. Provide a small photo album or glue stick and paper, if needed. Put a plastic placemat down to protect the table. Give them the freedom to place the photos anywhere they want and in any order. You can help label the people, events, and dates.
8. Best Places to Hang Photos: On the refrigerator, in the hallway, and/or up the stairwell. We use magnets with clips to hang photos on the fridge. They are quick and easy to hang and then change. A hallway or stairwell is the perfect place for photos, too, where you can see them every time you pass by. Plus, temperatures don’t fluctuate in these places helping to protect your photos.
9. Worst Places to Hang Photos: In direct sunlight, in a bathroom, or near a heating vent. Why? Direct sunlight causes fading. Bathrooms are too humid. Humidity makes mold grow and photos swell. Hanging photos near a heating vent makes them warp.
10. When They Visit: Our grandchildren see photos of themselves in our home. As a grandparent, hanging family photos of our children and grandchildren helps me to keep them close, miss them less, and count my blessings. Knowing it helps their self-esteem is an extra bonus.
Book news! My spooky/sweet Halloween book, In the Witch’s House, released September 2.
Perfect for ages 5 and up, this magical autumn picture book features:
🕸️ Gentle suspense with just the right touch of spooky fun
🎃 A cozy, heartwarming Halloween twist
📖 Lyrical, read-aloud text that sparkles with imagination
👻 A balance of mystery and comfort—spooky but never scary
✨ Themes of courage, friendship, and facing fears with bravery
Order from Amazon here.
FREE printables featuring Kate from In the Witch’s House here.
Amy Houts is the author of 100+ books for children. She writes for both faith-based and general market publishers. Amy’s faith-based books include bath books, Noah’s Ark and The Creation (Sunbeam/Bushel & Peck Books), God’s Earth is Something to Fight For (Sunbeam/Bushel & Peck Books), and God’s Protection Covers Me (Beaming Books). Amy’s educational books include 60 retold tales for the series, Compass Children’s Classics. Her 10 nonfiction science early readers were published by Highlights. To find out more, see: https://amyhouts.com and Linktr.ee/amyhouts.
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