My Daily Daughter - A Yearly Photo Challenge

When my daughter started Kindergarten last year, I randomly decided to take a picture of her every morning on the way out the door. I didn't really have a plan for it in the beginning. I just thought it would be fun to catalog her daily looks.

By the time I'd gotten to about 60 days of photos I considered stopping but ended up keeping with it.

2015

I was so glad I did because at the end of the school year, I had one picture from every single day she had attended school. I put them into a pic montage video and edited in some music and it turned into a beautiful living yearbook. Watching all the pictures go by, I was able to see how much she'd grown. I was able to remember the days we had a hard time getting out the door and the days she was super excited to go. I was able to share it with my friends and family and to also show it to my Bugaboo herself. She loves watching it.

2015

I am doing it again this year, now that she is in first grade. I'm excited to put together the montage in a few months. I have been listening to the radio to try to come up with the perfect songs to accompany this year. Last year I put the photos to Roar by Katy Perry and Brave by Sara Bareilles. I like to to music that reminds my of Bugaboo. She is fierce, so Roar was perfect but she is also timid sometimes, so Brave was great too.

2016

If you want to start this photo tradition, here are some tips I can offer.

• Pick a spot in your house with good, year round lighting that has a permanent feature with which you can gauge your child's height. I use the hallway at our front door. Its very easy to see how much Bug has grown as she stands in front of it. 
• Take a couple quick photos every day. Sometimes its hard to get a smile and that's okay. The real mood makes it more fun. My kiddo likes to do funny poses sometimes and I love that. Other times I have to make a silly face just to get her to play along. Either way, it only takes a few extra seconds out of our morning to take a few quick pics.
• Once you decide on the pic you are keeping, put it in a folder either on your phone or computer with the date so you can easily pull them up in chronological order. 
• When the school year is over, you can put all your photos to music using any number of photo editing programs. Just find the one that is easiest for you to navigate. I used Windows Live Movie Maker and it was very user friendly.  

2016

I hope you will consider starting this fun tradition no matter what grade your child is in! And if you have any suggestions for recent music that you love, feel free to comment below. Thank you!