Children seldom think beyond the day, let alone what they might look like as they get older, but one school has given its students a digital glimpse of their future selves – as grandparents.
Marking Grandparents Day for kindergarten this week, a public school in Sydney’s west presented visiting grandparents with a digitally altered photo of their grandchild which showed what he or she might look like when they're a grandparent.
The school – which did not want to be named for privacy reasons – used the Aging Booth app to create a photo of each student. An album – with the child’s photo on the cover – was also put together for the visiting grandparents to take home.
Inside the album was a short sentence from the child containing their expectations for their senior years.
Kindergarten student, Coco, wrote that she planned on watching a lot of television.
Mother, Jo-Anne Rapisardi, told Essential Kids the school’s initiative was a nice surprise which she will put aside for Coco’s adult years.
"I think it is a lovely link between the kids and their grandparents," Rapisardi said.
“The teachers had kept the initiative a surprise from visitors and students so Coco saw it for the first time when her grandmother did. It's very cute and I'll be keeping it forever, in the little box of memories I have for Coco."
The school has linked Grandparents Day with its story-telling unit students are currently studying as part of their literacy learning outcomes.
"The Unit covers the tradition of Indigenous Australian Elders passing the stories on and we talk to the children about how many of our grandparents tell us stories, so we thought we would try changing Grandparents Day to help bring that learning to life," the assistant principal said.
It was the first time the school held a separate Grandparents Day for kindergarten, but the assistant principal said she would definitely consider changing it in future years to coincide with the curriculum.
"We had a very high turnout – all four classrooms were full," she said.