How to make a season yearbook your kids will actually want to read

A year is a long time in a child’s life, and a 300-page annual album is a big project nobody finishes. A season is the right size: about three months, a handful of firsts, one or two traditions. Small enough to finish, big enough to matter.

What to include

• One “cover moment”. The photo that sums up the season.
• Firsts. First lost tooth, first swim without floaties, first time they read a sign out loud.
• Traditions. The same photo spot every season becomes priceless by year five.
• Their words. Quotes beat captions. “I’m not tired, my eyes are just resting.”
• Ordinary days. A Tuesday breakfast. A messy room. The everyday is what they’ll miss most.
• A measurement. Height on the doorframe, a handprint, a drawing of the family.

What to leave out

• Twelve near-identical shots. Pick one.
• Anything they’d be embarrassed by at fourteen.
• Other people’s kids, unless their parents are happy for them to be in it.

Make it theirs

Let them choose the cover. Ask them to tell you their favourite memory of the season and write it on the last page in their words. Older kids can write their own captions. Read it together at bedtime and you’ll be doing exactly the kind of storytelling researchers link to resilience.

How Jelly does it

Every memory you tag with a child lands in their book for the current season automatically: spring, summer, fall and winter, following the real equinoxes and solstices. You can flip through it on your phone any time. Printed hardcover books are coming, and you’ll always see exactly what gets sent to the printer before anything leaves your phone.