Pocketful of Memories: School Memories Hardcover-spiral – June 30, 2007

This book has a colorful yet classy style. It's quite simple yet sturdy in construction: spiral bound with protected binding, hard cover with 14 thick pocket pages large enough to store 8x10 keepsakes, such as drawings, report cards, certificates, etc. There is one pocket for each grade for Preschool through 12th grade. This book will last longer if your child wants to keep adding it when they graduate from high school at age 18. The beauty of it is that it's not like the typical (wordy) journal because of the limited space to record memories. You can tape (or glue) at least one photo every year. For each grade, you have room to write something on the front and back of a pocket, no more, no less. I really like that they ask unique questions at each grade but there are 3 basic questions that are always asked: name/signature, height and weight. It will be interesting to see how the child forms their signature through the years, as well as grow in size. I purchased this book and one other book as gifts for my niece and nephew. They are too young to appreciate it of course. The other "competitor" book (similar name "School Memory Album" covered less grades: only Kindergarten to 6th. Between these 2 books, I believe this "School Memories Album" will most likely endure the test of time between the two (about 14 years of schooling). Note that the pockets are a bit glossy, so you will need a permanent marker or a ballpoint pen that won't smear. One minor suggestion: Provide an extra pocket for miscellaneous stuff or allow it to be expandable, but it's not a deal breaker.Again, this is a gift for family, so I definitely recommend this for friends and family. This is definitely good for a parent who does not have much time (or patience) to sit down and write in a journal but would like to quickly capture the key moments from their kid's childhood. In my humble, "School Memories Album" makes for a nice gift for kids who just started school around Pre-School to 1st or 2nd grade, especially on their first day of school!

Finding a memory book this size, that covers Preschool to Sr. Year of HS was a challenge for me. I like the full size pages to fit projects and the binding, which allows for packing the pockets with memories and expanding to fit. We are in 4th grade now and pull this out once a year to have my kids fill it out and to stuff the pockets. A new parent, with kids starting preschool, I was overhwelmed by the number of drawings and projects my twins started bringing home daily. This book supports the advice I got to take photos of anything 3D or with glued on food products, keep a few the great items and be consistent in completing this. The larger projects won't fit in this (recommend photos of these also), but it is great for class photos, report cards, drawings, and short writings.

I love this book! I bought it for my first son a few years ago, and have since purchased 2 more for my other sons so that they can all have the same book through their school years. I love that the pages are large and ask unique questions for each school year - and I love that it includes preschool. It's sturdy and well made, and it has a nice pocket in the top of each page for each school year to store special papers. Great product!

Finally! A school memories book that can fit standard size papers and certificates in its pockets without folding them! This is 1 of only 2 I could find that could actually accomplish this, and I looked around ALOT. I like this book because of the non-girly look since I have a son, all the areas provided to write current information about your child including*age,*weight,*height,*child's signature,*best/new friends,*teachers,*various "favorites",*school subjects,*a place for the yearly school photo,*and various other prompts (example- Kindergarten: "I am taller/shorter/about the same as other kids in my class", 5th grade: "How I draw myself", 6th grade: "I'd like people 100 yrs from now to remember me for", 9th grade: "The hardest thing to get used to has been", 10th grade: "5 yrs from now I hope to be", 12th grade: career goals, senior prom & graduation info.There's also enough spacing between things on the pages that you can add some additional hand-written notes or reminders if you want. The content and look "matures" as your child ages so each year has an age-appropriate look to it, and it gradually adds additional relevant info like "place to go on a date" (11th grade), etc.It goes from preschool through high school graduation, and there's a full-size pocket for each year to easily keep special papers, projects,report cards, and certificates, etc safe and organized. And because of all the various prompts for info and simple lay-out, this book is very easy to use and keep up with (as long as you actually remember to write in it every year, lol.)Not sure exactly how durable it is yet since we've only had it about a month, but it seems like it should hold up ok. It's spiral-bound with a hard front and back cover (made of a laminated or coated cardboard I think). Ours already has a couple creases in the material that covers the spiral binding, but nothing major and I'm still *extremely* happy with it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a school memories book.**BTW, don't use gel-type pens/ink when you're writing in this book, the pages have a coating on them to protect them and this type ink dries slowly and smears easily! If you do use it just leave the page open for awhile and make sure the ink is completely dry before closing it or turning the page**

I love to scrapbook and preserve memories but with 2 kiddos I hardly have the time. This book has made it so easy to capture some of the memories of school without taking a lot of time. Book cover preschool through 12th grade and each page has a place to glue in a wallet size school picture and different fill in the blanks to questions about that year of school. I love that each page has a spot to keep papers or projects. Love it and I will definitely be purchasing another one for my younger son when he is school aged :)

Exactly as I hoped it would be. I actually have my own school keepsake book filled up to grade 12, so very happy he will have his own to fill with memories. Fits all regular size pages and artwork. Room for plenty of masterpieces. He was thrilled with it and started to fill in all the information for Preschool, Kindergarten up to his current Grade 1. Great place to note friends names, what the child wants to be when they grow up, and favorite things. Be prepared, this will fill up and become very tatty! But when you come across it in 20 years it will be priceless! Thankfully I now have a place for special school memories and can help him weed out the rest of artwork we don't have to keep anymore :) A great deal!