Cute and Practical Growth Chart Ideas
Author: Salma Jafri
As your child grows, you want to preserve the memories of babyhood and toddlerhood. Although it's fairly easy to measure physical growth, other forms of growth, such as mental and psychological growth may be harder to track.
Growth charts are a wonderful way to keep track of your child's progress over the year. They also serve as a physical reminder of your child's early years which you can look at while reliving the wonderful memories.
Here are some fun and practical ideas for making growth charts to track your baby's development.
Height Growth Charts
The most common, useful and indicative method of measuring your child's growth is via a height-measuring growth chart.
These charts can be colorful, have animals (giraffe neck markers, elephant trunk markers, etc), or they can be personalized using a theme (e.g. cartoon character your baby loves). They can be made from paper, cardboard, wood, etc. They can have fixed or movable markers. You can be as creative as you want - most hardware stores have yardsticks available that can be used as the basis for the measurements. You can cut out your child's favorite animals or characters to paste at the top of the chart. Add in as many colorful stickers, stencils or glued-on cut-outs as you want.
When designing this chart, make sure to have visual breaks along the way and also ensure that those visual breaks inspire a child to reach the next marker - e.g. higher branches on a tree or the next rung on the ladder.
Photographs
Photo collections are wonderful markers of growth, development and milestones. You can put together a photo album of all the firsts-baby's first smile, first solid food, first walk, first day at school, etc. Or you can put together a collection of photos via age - with monthly and yearly intervals marking growth.
Combine Photos and Growth Charts
A really fun idea is to have your child stand in front of a growth chart and take a picture. Then place that picture in a picture book for lasting memories with height, weight, age and other captions. That way you get both the benefit of a traditional chart for tracking growth as well as a memento in the form of a photo album.
Growth Charts Made from Objects
Not-so-everyday objects like surfboards and boat oars as well as everyday objects like mops can be turned into height growth charts! Just add in the measurements with a marker and stand upright in your child's room.
Hand and Foot Impressions
Another unique idea is to capture the hand and foot impressions of your child as he grows. Have your child make their hand and foot impression with paint or clay. Wait for it to set, then frame. Alternatively, put the handprint and footprint pictures in an album form.
Most of us remember our parents marking our height on the kitchen walls with a pencil. Using some of the ideas above, try and take out the time to make a custom height and growth chart for your child that you can take with you if you shift houses or need to paint the walls. It will then become a lasting memory for your child as well as for you.
