The world changes rapidly but rarely does it change as rapidly and as drastically as it has in the last few months for most of us. I've been struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy within my family. We have a schedule that seems to work for us. School & work in the mornings and in the evenings we focus on having movie nights or game nights along with family dinners. It was during one of our new normal dinners that I realized how differently my son sees our current situation. While I had been thinking about all the things we hadn't been able to do - and having a small pity party - my son has been completely happy. He loves being at home and not going to soccer practice or running errands. His view of how our life has changed in the last month is so different than mine. It made me realize how great it would be to try to capture our thoughts, feelings, and opinions during this historic time. What better way to capture all this than by creating a time capsule.
We chose to create a time capsule to open in 8 years. We chose this time because that is when our 10-year-old will be hopefully preparing to go to college. Our time capsule is a combination of ideas gathered online and just things we thought would be great to keep for memory's sake. I gave everyone a sheet with questions such as their age, what they enjoyed about this time, where they went to school (where they worked), and questions about their likes and dislikes.
I also allowed everyone to pick out things they would like to place in the time capsule. My son asked for Fortnite coloring pages. I added some lovely wine corks with dates on them. We may even add pictures of us once I get the printer to work. We will be working on creating a family tree for the time capsule. I want to keep it simple by just listing names, ages and how we are related. You can make this more elaborate if you wish or skip it altogether. Eventually, I may add pictures with names written on them to add to the capsule. One thing that I want to work on is writing out the cost of everyday items. Our plan is to add to the capsule weekly while we are in quarantine to have a glimpse of how we lived during this time, our thoughts and feelings and ultimately a little about who we each are at this moment in time.
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Here are some ideas for creating your own Time Capsule
- First, decide if this will be an ongoing project or if it will be something you complete and put away in a few days.
- Next, you want to decide when you will open your time capsule. Will it be in a year or maybe 5 or maybe you want to wait even longer to open it?
- How will you store your time capsule? You can use anything from a shoebox to a bin or even a ziplock bag or container. Make sure it is big enough for what you are wanting to store.
- What items/memories do you want to store? Pictures, magazines, toys, personal notes or anything you think would be important.
- You can create a family tree.
- Pick a place to store the Time Capsule. Somewhere it won't get lost or misplaced. It does NOT have to be buried
Additional tips and ideas:
Use things you already have at home. If you don't have access to a printer then write things down. Handwritten notes are always treasured. Use stickers, crayons, markers and anything you already have to decorate your pages. For the container to store items in - look around the house for something that you can use. It doesn't have to be fancy or elaborate but something you can use and possibly decorate with the kids. Notes stored can be fun facts about the family from everyone's favorite vacation spot to their top 5 favorite songs or 5 favorite movies. Have fun with it after all this is about YOUR family.
There are some great resources for creating time capsules online. A wonderful designer even created a FREE Time Capsule workbook that you can download HERE. You can also check out the Library of Congress for ideas on creating your own Time Capsule HERE.
