How to Make an Easy Time Capsule with Your Kids

Time Capsules are cool examples of thinking about, looking forward to, and preparing for the future. The future is fun to look forward to or anticipate. Remembering the past is something we all use to gain joy, wisdom, happiness, tradition, and sometimes sadness. It can be fun to teach our children about the past. Creating a Time Capsule is a fun way to teach your kids about admiring and learning about the past while looking forwards to the future.

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Who Should You Make a Time Capsule With/ For?

Make it with your family, friends, children, or your class. You can talk about the items they are saving in the capsule. They can think about who might find, enjoy, and learn when it is time to open the time capsule in the future. You can do some research about the past and share some information about your parents when they were kids.

What Should You Put Inside Your Time Capsule?

A big portion of creating these Time Capsules and understanding about them is teaching them about the past and the future. Ask them questions they might have about what happened in the past. That is where you can get ideas for what to put inside your Time Capsule. Here are some of the things we included in our Time Capsule:

• All About Me Interview

• On This Day Time Capsule Record Sheet

• Photos or Art Work of People, Places, and Things.
• Coins and a Dollar
• Stickers
• Popular Playing or Game Cards
• Piece of Jewelry
• Newspaper
• Bonus: Get high tech and place a flash drive with digital versions of the printables, photos, etc. Or you could send all the information to an email address where you have sent this same Time Capsule information to be opened at a later determined date.

Here are some other Time Capsule Ideas From Amazon:

When Should you Create it? When Should it be Opened?

It would be fun to create a Time Capsule for a big event such as a Holiday, Birthday Milestone, Anniversary, Move, etc. You should choose a predetermined time to open it again. For kids, grandkids, or even our “future selves”. Be sure to seal your capsule and add a Do Not Open Until Lable. Get the Free Savor the Mom Life one Here!! Picking another milestone date to open the Time Capsule is a wonderful plan. Some ideas include marriage, graduation, big birthdays, holidays, etc.

Where Should You Store Your Time Capsule?

Think to yourself, where do you keep Important keepsakes and mementos? Where do you store things that you want to keep for a long time but not look at often? Ideas that come to my head include; the basement corner, back of the attic, top of a closet, grandmas house, etc. You need to find somewhere you can hide it away for a long time and forget about it! Don’t just leave it in the kid’s bedroom- it will be opened prematurely.

Some people like to go as far as burying, sealing in cement, hiding under floorboards, etc. You can get very intense like this with a time capsule you really want to forget. You want this thing to last far into the future if you choose one of these methods.

I recommend making yourself a note on the back of a photo, in a scrapbook, in a journal- somewhere you might stumble upon it in the future. Somewhere to remind you when to open it and where you stashed your Time Capsule.

Why Should You Make a Time Capsule?

This can be a fun organic learning opportunity to learn about the past, present, and future. This can be an awesome memory to create with your kiddos. It can also be a way to help them remember traditions, events, favorites, and childhood later on in life.

How Can You Make a Time Capsule?

There are plenty of cool DIY options for Time Capsule creations. You just need to have a container that will withstand your chosen storage location. For example, if you are storing the Time Capsule in the Attic you will choose a different container than if you were burying one in the back yard.

DIY Time Capsule Containers

• Soda Bottle
• Cigar Box
• Coffee Can
• Shoe Box
• Ziploc Bag

You can also get digital with it and create it using a flash drive or choose and email to have all the information sent to. A note thought, creating these with small kids it is was more fun to include some concrete objects.

Here are some cool options of Time Capsules ready for purchase on Amazon.

Don’t forget to always add the don’t open until label and to make sure it is sealed up very well. Using glue or duct tape on the DIY versions can be helpful with accidental early opening.

Please Check Out My Busy Boxes for Other Fun Activities for Preschoolers.