02 May 2011

Filofax for Children?

Children in my experience are great imitators, they love to be doing the same as Mummy or Daddy. I'm sure we can all remember dressing up in shoes that were miles too big for us, or having our own gardening tools and trying to help weed the garden.

You might also remember books that you had as a child. I can remember the 'I-Spy' series of books, which always seemed to have a slightly 'sinister' side to them. My son I recall had a 'FunFax' organiser which had 'interesting' facts in it, puzzles and other activities in it as well as a diary.

So do any of your children copy you and have their own organisers yet? I'm sure we would love to hear about what they do with their 'organisers' Of course it would be another way of putting in to use some of your under used Filofax organisers.

Could we have a 'Young Readers' section on Philofaxy including their own printable templates? 

No harm in starting them young... as they say!!

12 comments:

  1. I had forgotten about my FunFax, that was one of my favourite things growing up!

    I don't have children of my own, but definitely remember wanting to copy mum and dad so I got a hand-me-down one when I was 5 (Dad thought it was best to learn organisation at an early age) so I'd use it as a toy diary, so on Monday Barbie would go visit my Lego collection etc or sometimes I'd write when a friend was coming over. Oh and I kept track of birthdays too. And I'd use the note section to write stories and draw.

    And when I got older I loved the money sections and to do lists to keep track of my allowance and things I wanted to buy.

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  2. I smiled when you mentioned the I-spy books! I had some of those.. now my son has them on his shelf! Not sure what their 'sinister' side is though, so now Im curious!
    My son doesnt have a Filofax.. hes only little though, so theres time yet! He does like drawing in mine though, whenever we're somewhere and hes bored he will draw pictures on the coloured notepaper.. at first I was like 'can I really let him do this!?' but I actually like opening it up and seeing what he's drawn, its like a little surprise each time! I'll be keeping an eye on the comments to see if anyone has children who has one.. then I may be pinching ideas as I love the idea of my son having one too! :0p

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  3. I think it was because back in the 1960s a child going around with a note book jotting down numbers and details of military vehicles and such like was seen as cold war spying!!

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  4. My 13 year old daughter has 2 of her own filos, the pink mode and pink hearts plus 'borrows' one of mine (vintage pink Finchley), all pocket sized. She loves them, obviously not to the extent that I do. Her friends are now showing an interest and want their own too.

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  5. I had about 5 or 6 funfaxes, the ones i remembered were, finding nemo, a horse one, lion king?

    I used to love them, but they didnt have a proper diary

    then when i was in college i got a ratatouille funfax and put filofax pages in it to use as my college diary, i loved that rat (yes i was 18 but i am aloud to love cute cartoon films :-) )

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  6. This is a little off the Filo topic, but it made me remember how my kids and I would always write back and forth in a spiral notebook. When they were little, I would write something like, "I love Josh," (and then read it to him!), and then he would "write back."

    The notebook never stayed in one place too long, but it was always in plain sight where everyone congregated. At first, I would find scribbles with a crayon; in later years, it would be a common thing to have "I loved my birthday present!!!!!" written in sparkly gel pen, or "Hi Mom, be cool today!" written with a random Sharpie from the pen jar. It was like magic to see things appear on those lines. Of course, I would always write back. The unwritten code was that you were never supposed to see anyone actually writing!

    I've heard that people use fancy "circle journals" for just this purpose, sending the whole journal back and forth to friends instead of just individual pages. We went through a half-dozen lowly spirals, which have become some of my most treasured possessions.

    Wow! It made me smile to remember this! The upside is that both my son and daughter - who are now in their 20s - still write the occasional paper card to me along with their thousands of emails and texts! I guess you can't start their paper-and-pen habits too young!

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  7. My older girls (all of age 8 and 6, respectively) want a Filo like me. They begrudgingly use the FC compact ones I bought them (on clearance from Target). Of course, they still want one just like mine. (sigh)

    On that note, I may just cave and get Domino pockets for them...sturdy, colorful, and affordable (not full price-no way!). They can grow into them, really. Thinking one pink, one grape, one gooseberry--I have a red one I could hand over to the boy.

    The youngest truly does not need one--but, she will want one anyway!

    I think it is never too early to teach organization skills. Or to instill a bizarre attachment to one's Filofax. :)

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  8. Oh, I agree - you can never start with organisation skills too early!

    I too had I-Spy books - there were loads of them, not just the 'planes, trains and automobiles'. As I recall though, you could send them off when you had completed them but I can't remember what you got in return... a swift access into MI5 when you were old enough? Maybe that was the plan - get small kids to spy for you and send their results in, in exchange for a badge or something... Steve - can you remember what you got?

    I didn't have a FF was I was small though - just borderline OCD which has now (happily) found an outlet in filofaxes!

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  9. Apparently it was a badge...
    http://www.redshirt.co.uk/media/i-spy-i-spy-books/

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  10. I wonder if there are any 'young' readers of Philofaxy? Or could there be some younger readers if we did some articles aimed at them?

    So parents let us know what you think..

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  11. I LOVED the i-Spy books. I wonder if they still make them (although it would be easy to make your own i-Spy sheets these day with a computer).

    My twins are just 2 so are a little young for organisational skills (if you are ever too young for planners!!!) but my daughter always says "Mummy drawing" when I bring out my Filofax and pen. I can't wait until they can have a diary of their own (even if it just to track pocket money and holiday events).

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  12. my three year old loves looking through my filofax and sticking the filofax stickers everywhere. i did contemplate letting her use my mini identity as I know i will never use it again. The 12 year old however has her eye on my personal songbird. I can't really see me letting her have it, but did contemplate getting her a pocket domino for christmas, to start her off.

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