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Is your child graduating this year? The time seems to go by so fast. It often seems like only yesterday that our graduates started kindergarten. Now they are graduating high school and will be off to college by fall. It's important to preserve and document those special final moments of high school in a graduation scrapbook.

You may already have a school scrapbooking album for your child, but high school graduation memories can fill an entire scrapbook. Dedicate one album for this special occasion. It doesn't need to be a large album, but one that can accommodate professional portraits might be important if you plan to include the sittings for senior pictures.

Senior pictures are usually taken the summer before a student's senior year. Still, they deserve a page in a graduation album. Use your favorite pose or the one used in the high school yearbook for your graduation scrapbook's title page.

There's so much to include in a graduation scrapbook. Reserve one copy of your child's graduation announcement and showcase it on a page. Following that page, include cards and letters from family and friends, especially ones with graduation advice. You might even include a letter from you with a personal message to the graduate. Write your hopes and dreams for their future along with advice you wish you would have been given on graduation day.

If your child is receiving a special award or honor at the graduation ceremony, be sure to design a page to highlight this accomplishment. Once the graduation is over, either include the original certificate in the album or make a copy.

Is your child giving a speech at the graduation ceremony? Take some pictures of your child preparing and practicing for the speech. Save his notes, including drafts, and use them on a page layout.

Newspapers often cover graduations. Clip articles from your local paper for a graduation scrapbook page. If you or another family member have placed a congratulations newspaper ad for your graduate, make a photocopy of it to preserve it in the album. Newspaper articles tend to fade over time, and copies will last longer.

Graduation is full of photo opportunities. Think about the photos you want in your child's graduation scrapbook, and make a list before the celebration starts. Pictures of the ceremony are important, but so are photos of your child with his friends, family and teachers.

Mementos of high school graduates should include the program from the graduation ceremony. Try to preserve more than one copy to use on a graduation scrapbook page to show both the cover and the inside as much as possible.

Take lots of candid shots during graduation parties. You may not be attending some of these parties. So be sure to send along a camera with your graduate and plan to exchange photos his friends, too. You'll have a lot more photos to choose from if you share them.

You may want to include a copy of your graduate's final report card or grade transcripts. A nice complement to this would be a copy of the acceptance letter to the college he plans to attend.

As a final closing page to a graduation scrapbook, design a page around a photo of him leaving for college. You might also choose to close the scrapbook with two photos that show how he has grown. Place a picture of his first day of kindergarten next to a graduation picture.

A graduation scrapbook will become a family heirloom. You don't need to make it complicated. The most important part of a graduation scrapbook is to preserve and document your graduate's special day.