Your Baby’s First Year

Babies First Year

Babies First Year

Are you expecting your first baby?  Are you a new mom, experiencing the whirlwind of new and exciting activities that a new baby brings into your life?  Maybe you relate with this commercial?

 

Along with the title of mom come many titles, as this blog points out, with 52 titles for mom. But one title it does not include is family historian.  However from the moment you first found out you were going to be a mom, you held in your memories the story of your child.

There are many ways a mom has to share  their children’s stories. In the past mom’s may of kept a Journal, a scrapbook or a baby book telling all the exciting events, stories and new things their baby did. They saved keepsakes like birth announcements, baby’s hair, or their baby’s hospital bracelet to put in these scrapbooks or baby books.

Another way parents save their stories is with pictures and movies. Mom or dad’s take pictures and video of special events in their child’s life. In the past all the pictures were printed before you saw them, so placing them in a scrapbook or photo album was part of the picture experience.

What about today? Some mom’s may still be doing the traditional baby books. But life is busy! Days, weeks or months may go by with not entering information in a book. Here are some other ways mom’s and dads have shared their baby stories.

Pictures with the phones: about 80% of pictures and video are taken with our cell phone. It makes sense since we always have our phones with us. Many parents capture their baby stories with their phone. They videotape clips of their baby saying their first word or taking their first step by grabbing the phone and capturing the experience. They then may share it online through social media sites, or by sending a text to friends. Notice how one father captured the first year of his baby on video and created this short video on you tube.

 

We share our lives on social media, as the recent app on Facebook showed. It created an instant video of your personal history on Facebook. Many were touched by these videos. Social media has become the standard way for families to share their stories as they happen.

With the use of social media and digital cameras people have become more creative with how they share their baby pictures too. Notice these pictures that were created to announce to friends that they are pregnant. Here is another example of how mom and dads have recorded their baby’s first year progress in pictures.

Although social media can be good for instant sharing, creating a tangible product for your baby to keep their stories is important. With social media your stories could be gone tomorrow if your social media account went down. Keeping your pictures and video on your phone or computer is not much better. Digital files need to be organized and stored for your child to enjoy their stories as they grow up. Helping parents create and save their stories is the reason why Tears of Joy Video created their Babies First Year Packages.

With our special package you get a video, book and poster of all your pictures and video clips you have taken from the time you first found out your were pregnant till your babies first birthday. Your stories and details can be added in the book and video to tell the special events that happened in your baby’s life. You can even use the updates you share on Facebook to place in the video or book. Notice how we did this for one mom on video and another in a book. See our website for our special Babies First Year Package with pricing. What type of pictures, video and stories should you include in you video? Notice this detailed list with instructions on creating your video.

If you are pregnant now, notice our package that allows you to create as you go. This is created for busy moms. With this package you upload your pictures, video clips and stories each month and we create a video and/or book for you. Each month you can watch the progress of your project on a private web link as we create it for you. At the end of your baby’s first year we send you the video on DVD and/or printed book.

Tears of Joy Video has just made is easier for you to fulfill your job as family historian. Your baby memories will be saved of your baby’s first year with this video and book, a keepsake that will be enjoyed forever.

Encouraging Your Child To Use Their Imagination

In school children learn to read and write. At some point those writings come alive as they learn to turn their writings into stories.  Taking those stories one-step further, you can encourage creating them on film.  How would you go about doing that?

First go over their story.  See if it needs to be created into a script.  If there is conversation of the characters you can create these into script that can be acted out.  If not your child can read the whole story on camera or audio recording.  Now that recording becomes the narration of the video.

Next decide how this movie will be told.  Will it be acted out like a play?  Maybe it will be animated with toys, or it can be told with a picture slideshow. In some cases all three of these can be used.

Once you finish the filming, the last step is to edit your film.  This is where the whole story comes together. With editing you can add titles, sound effects and music to round out the story. If you are not aware of how to edit a film, we here at Tears of Joy Video would be happy to do this for you.  Notice two stories we did below for our niece and see how these stories come alive with film.

When your child sees their stories on film it gives them a sense of pride.  It also stimulates their imagination to create more stories.  You never know where this imagination may take them.  Who knows, maybe one day you will be the mom sitting in the audience as they thank you for receiving their Oscar.

Newborn Photography and Video

I have been working doing newborn photography and video for a few years now.  There is nothing more exciting than being there to celebrate a new life.  I have also had couples give me their pictures and video to create a video of the new baby experience or babies first year of life or the birth of their baby.

I love creating pictures and videos of my clients and the ones they love.  But celebrating a birth is one of the best experiences because it is the start of a life, a hope, a future…

Born April 16th-day after tax day-with tax papers copyright http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Born April 16th-day after tax day-with tax papers
copyright http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Photo Shoot-Children

Sophia

Pictures by: http://tearsofjoyvideo.com/Photography.html

Copyright http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Copyright http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Copyright http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

Creating Children’s Stories on Video

We don’t have kids ourselves, but my sister and I have made a number of videos with my brother’s kids as they are growing up.  We were the cool aunts who showed them how they could make their stories become real.  Our first attempt at creating a story with them was at a princess party we held in their honor.  We set up the green screen and filmed them in front of it.  A month later we presented them with this story:

Next my middle niece Zoe decided she wanted to take a story she had written and create a movie.  She did not want to be in it, but she convinced her sisters and her sisters friend to star in the show.  She directed it, and narrated it, I served as the camera person and my sister edited this one:

A few years later our youngest niece Sophia wanted to do her own video.  She loved to watch the cooking channel and she wanted to make her own cooking show.  Mind you she made her cupcakes from a box…but you have to start somewhere. This is what we made with her:

What this did for our nieces is help them to see there is no limit to what their imagination can do.  Zoe and Sophia are a little older and we have taught them how to edit their own films.  But they enjoy looking back at these films and remember the good times we had making them.

Maybe you are not great in your editing skills, but if you have a video camera, a digital camera or even a smart phone you can film your kids telling their stories and then send them to Tears of Joy Video to create their stories. Inspire their imagination. http://tearsofjoyvideo.com

What ways have you used to inspire your children’s imagination?