Memory Stones – An alternative to Scrapbooks 19

I love painted rocks and stones and think they are a brilliant way to get children to record their memories or to craft and have fun. I love scrapbooks and smash books and have done them for years with children. They are fun to make and record memories of the summer. These Memory stones take it a step further and you can varnish them and add them to your garden or hide them around your neighbourhood. It really is a great way to record what you have done over the summer without putting the pressure of writing on children.

Lots of schools now require children to produce a summer diary or record of what they did over the summer and memory stones or summer memory rocks are a great alternative that is fun and a little bit different, especially if you have a child that is averse to writing a lot.

These painted rocks are a fabulous way to encourage children to craft and write without knowing that they are. We added the place and date on the back of each of the rocks. As you can see this is an aeroplane and was for Sunderland Airshow. We decided to do one each for any activity we did over the summer or for the places we visited and then added them to a Kilner jar.

There is something magical about collecting them all together in a jar and then looking at them all at the end of the summer. To make sure the painted rocks are durable and will last outside it is important to varnish them.

As it is also an Olympic year there has been a lot of watching sports this summer, so they painted the Olympic rings on one of their memory rocks too. it is great to see the different interpretations of the day. Where one painted a goalpost for football one turned a rock into a football. The same with cricket once drew a cricket bat and the other a ball.

Also, we didn’t take these pebbles from the beach, we bought them with the specific intention of using them for crafting.

When painting rocks with younger children acrylic paint pens or permanent markers are the easiest supplies to use. We used Giotto Metalic Markers here. The smaller the tip the finer the writing will be. Children love bright and sparkling colours.

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Make sure you check our our other painted rocks:

• Minion Stones – a fab Minion Craft
• Dad Rocks Paperweight
• The ultimate guide to crafting with stones