When I was getting ready for my oldest child’s first day of Kindergarten, I did a search to come up with some good photo ideas for the first day of school. I found some that seemed fun and like they would be meaningful as the years passed, especially when comparing the most recent photos to some of the earliest. Here are 5 great ones we do every year. Hopefully you can find some ideas you like for your family’s back to school traditions.

1. The Front Door Picture

You know the one. This is the picture of our (hopefully) smiling child in their first-day outfit as they leave the house. The front door is a great background. It frames them nicely, and it’ll be there, mostly the same, every year. Even if you move, there will always be a front door.

2. The Info Board

We’ve all seen the pictures our friends post of their kids on the first day of school – with them holding a board that tells their new grade, school, hopes and dreams, or as much or as little of that as you want. A board is special because you take a snapshot of them at this point in their lives. I have a chalkboard that I create each year for them using chalk markers. Ours is very detailed. It helps me remember details about them and this school year that a photo alone would never capture. A caution though, because this board is so detailed, I do not post these pictures. It isn’t safe to share school and teacher information online, but I still create these boards because I know I will want to look back on them one day. In these days of social media, we take a lot of photos for sharing, but it’s still important to take photos just for ourselves to look back on and document memories that we choose to keep private. 

3. The Photo Frame

I got this idea from a friend. I bought a cheap 16×20 photo frame the first year we had a first-grader and printed out his kindergarten front-door picture as a 16×20, for the frame. I took pictures of him as a new first-grader, holding his kindergarten front-door picture. Every year I print the photo frame picture from the previous year and have them hold it. By middle school, the kindergarten picture is too small to see, but it gives a cool effect. I will admit that printing a 16×20 photo isn’t the cheapest thing to do, but print shops tend to be better value than photo enlargers, and printing it as a poster is cheaper than printing it as a photo. The quality doesn’t have to be fantastic – you won’t be hanging it in your home (unless you want to) – but I do like having it to create this photo.

4. The T-Shirt

This picture involves ordering a t-shirt that should fit them as a senior, with their name and graduating class, and taking a picture of them in it as a kindergartener. It will most likely come down to their shoes! It’s adorable. For us, we have moved since they were in kindergarten, so we can’t see their height compared to the front door, but the shirt shows us just how much they have grown. By middle school, they have grown so much that they will soon have to wear it without their other shirt underneath. By high school, hopefully it will fit well and they can wear it when they want, especially their senior year.

5. The Siblings

I always make sure to take a picture of both my kids together – they tend to feel more of the sibling love when it comes to school. When they’re at the same school, it feels like they have their own world that they both understand and we don’t in the same way. The sibling shot is particularly great for families with a lot of kids. You can see the number grow as each kid starts school, and then come back down as each kid graduates. It’s also a great way to see how your family grows and changes over time. I also love seeing friends share photos like these.

These are five ideas for back-to-school photos that have worked well for us. It’s a great time to make memories and record milestones as we send our kids off to another school year.