Capture it!

My parents did a great job of preserving memories for my brother and me in photographs. Fun pictures by our front steps and beside the occasional grassy Alabama snowman chronicle our growth. They also memorialize my green bell bottoms and toothless grin in the late 70s and the height of my bangs in the 80s. It's so much fun to go back through these slides and photo albums with my own children when we visit Dad and Mom.

One of the things we all enjoy the most is listening to interviews my Dad occasionally recorded with my brother and me when we were children. These snippets of audio capture the funny way I said elphanant, I mean, elephant and clearly show the way I viewed and thought about life in those earlier years.

Now it's our turn to preserve this gift for our own children. Sometimes we capture their words in a more natural, low profile way while lying in bed with them at night discreetly recording their responses with the concealed microphone of a cell phone or mp3 player. And other times, we've been more obvious about the interview by bringing out our digital camera or webcam and allowing them an opportunity to be the star performer.

Want to try this with your own kids? Click HERE for some questions to help you get started. Select the ones you like and add in your own to customize the interview for the ages and personalities of your children. Who knows you might even learn some things you never knew about them!