Before the First Day: 10 Things About Your Child Worth Remembering Right Now
There is something about the beginning of a new school year that makes you realize just how quickly childhood changes.
The backpack is ready. The school supplies are labeled. New shoes are waiting by the door. And somehow, the child heading into this school year seems a little taller and a little older than the one who came home for summer break.
Before you take the traditional first-day photo, take a moment to remember the child standing in front of you right now. Back-to-school memories don’t have to be perfectly posed or beautifully styled. Sometimes the things you’ll treasure most are the tiny details you barely notice while you’re busy living them.
Here are ten things about your child worth remembering before the first school bell rings.
1. Their Smile Right Now
Missing teeth. Half-grown adult teeth. Braces. That one stubborn baby tooth hanging on for dear life.
Photograph it.
We spend so much time waiting for the “perfect” smile that we sometimes forget the imperfect ones are childhood. That gap where the front tooth used to be won’t last. Neither will the slightly-too-big grown-up teeth that replace it.
2. The Way They Laugh
Not the smile they make when someone says, “Cheese.” The real one.
The snort. The belly laugh. The scrunched-up nose. The laugh so big they throw their whole head backward. Think about what makes your child genuinely laugh right now. Is it a terrible joke? Their sibling? The dog? Saying a ridiculous word at the dinner table?
Better yet, record it. Years from now, a photograph will remind you what their laugh looked like. A tiny video or audio recording will let you hear it again. That’s worth keeping.
3. Their Favorite Thing
What’s the thing that goes everywhere right now?
Maybe it’s a stuffed bunny with one ear hanging on by a thread. A dinosaur. A doll. A book you’ve read approximately 4,000 times. A LEGO creation you’re absolutely forbidden to dismantle. Don’t hide it before taking pictures because it doesn’t match. Include it.
The things children love tell us something about who they were at that particular moment. Someday that tattered stuffed animal may mean just as much to you as the photograph itself.
4. What They Want to Be When They Grow Up
Ask them. Then write down the answer exactly as they say it.
Maybe they want to be a veterinarian. A firefighter. A ballerina. A paleontologist. A YouTuber. A princess who also owns a bakery. Don’t correct them or make the answer more sensible. The wonderful thing about childhood is that the possibilities haven’t been narrowed down yet.
This year’s answer may be completely different by next August. That’s exactly why it’s worth remembering.
5. Their Current Obsession
Children go through wonderful little eras.
Dinosaurs. Horses. Space. Taylor Swift. Trains. Sharks. Fairies. A very specific species of frog you had never heard of until your child began telling you about it every day.
Write down what your child cannot stop talking about right now. Even better, photograph them with it. One of the best ways to preserve childhood isn’t simply documenting what your child looked like. It’s remembering what made their eyes light up.
6. The Way They Still Fit With You
This one matters.
Pick them up if they’ll still let you. Let them crawl into your lap. Notice where their head lands when you hug them. Notice how their hand fits inside yours.
One day, almost without warning, your child will become too big to carry. Eventually they’ll stop automatically reaching for your hand when you cross a parking lot. You probably won’t know when the last time is the last time. So remember what this version feels like.
And please—get in the picture with them. You don’t need perfect hair first. One day your kids will cherish the pictures they have with mom and dad.
7. Their Hands
We photograph children’s faces constantly and somehow forget their hands. Take a picture of them.
Maybe there are dimples across the knuckles. Maybe their fingernails are perpetually dirty from digging outside. Maybe there are friendship bracelets stacked halfway up an arm, chipped nail polish, marker stains, Band-Aids, or evidence of yesterday’s art project.
Their hands are changing right along with the rest of them. Someday those tiny fingers will be grown-up hands. Photograph them while they’re still little.
8. What They Actually Like to Wear
Yes, take the beautiful first-day-of-school picture in the carefully chosen outfit. But photograph the other outfit too.
The superhero cape. The sparkly skirt with rain boots. The same T-shirt they’ve worn approximately every third day all summer. The princess dress at breakfast. The backwards baseball cap.
Children begin expressing who they are surprisingly early, and clothes are often part of that story. You may not love that Minecraft shirt nearly as much as they do. Twenty years from now, you might. Plus, you are going to need blackmail photos to show at their high school graduation party.
9. Their Serious Face
Not every photograph of a child needs a smile.
This is something I wish more parents knew. Children have wonderful thinking faces. Curious faces. Determined faces. Quiet faces. Those expressions are every bit as much a part of your child’s personality as the giant grin you hope to capture for the grand parents. If your child looks thoughtfully at the camera instead of smiling, don’t immediately say, “Smile!” Take the picture. That may be the expression that reminds you most of them someday.
10. Who They Are When Nobody Asks Them to Pose
This might be the most important one.
Watch your child when they forget you’re paying attention. What do they do? Do they build elaborate worlds on the floor? Talk to themselves while they draw? Dance through the kitchen? Search for bugs in the backyard? Read upside down on the sofa? Tell stories to their stuffed animals? Photograph some of that.
Childhood was never meant to be performed.
Some of the photographs you’ll treasure most won’t be the ones where everyone looked at the camera and smiled. They’ll be the photographs that remind you exactly what it felt like to live with this funny, curious, complicated little person.
Your Back-to-School Memory Checklist
Before the first day, take a few minutes to capture:
- Their smile right now
- Their real laugh
- Their favorite thing
- What they want to be when they grow up
- Their current obsession
- A picture with you
- Their hands
- Their favorite outfit
- Their serious face
- Them simply being themselves
You don’t need to do all ten in one afternoon. Leave this list on your phone and catch them as they happen. Because the goal isn’t to manufacture memories. It’s to notice them.
Want to keep this list?
I made a simple printable version you can tuck on the refrigerator, keep with your child’s school memories, or use as a reminder to notice the little things before the new school year begins.
Before They Walk Through That Door
Back-to-school season tends to focus on what’s coming next. The next teacher. The next grade. The next milestone.
But before we rush forward, it’s worth stopping for a moment to notice who your child is right now.
The missing tooth. The battered stuffed bunny. The weird jokes. The favorite shirt. The way their hand still automatically reaches for yours. These are the details that make up a childhood.
At Brown Bunny Photography, that’s what I want to preserve. Children don’t need to perform for my camera. They can play, talk, investigate, be serious, be shy, be silly, or be gloriously wild.
Because the goal isn’t a photograph of a perfect child. It’s artwork that reminds you of your child. And that is always worth remembering.
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