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If you were to interview a wide spectrum of children of different ages regarding their aspirations and goals, one item would emerge chiefly from most others as a leading desire among young ones. That would be to grow up, or to be older. And even though we tell them they are getting bigger, and they see how quickly they outgrow their favorite clothing and shoes, to our children, the growing process seems a bit stagnant on a need to know basis.
Being Big
While adults have dissenting opinions on the subject based on personal experience, children live in a world where being big is everything. They dream of being “big” and all the freedom and power that comes with it. To tell someone that he or she is “big” ranks up there with all the superlatives imaginable. Being “big” is THE destination for just about every little person with future and present aspirations.
Notches on the Wall
Growth charts offer a wonderful way to track the process of growing with your child, as he or she will be able to check their own personal record any time they want to. Before the advent of growth charts, many families would record the growth of everyone in the home on the frame of a door in the house, say, to a closet or pantry, where all the family members’ heights would be either notched into the wood or scribed using a pen or pencil.
These recordings would take place and be updated on a predetermined basis; either every few months or every birthday, but regardless of how often, (at least for the youth,) those height marks would continue to rise with time, proving that growth had occurred.
Portable Growth Charts
Today, you can find growth charts that work beautifully for recording growth, and without permanently scarring any surface of a home’s interior, as the presence of a growth record on a door frame could reduce a home’s sellability, somewhat. Made of durable canvas and brightly colored with cheery artwork and clear, legible height marks, families will be able to both track the growth of their children and if they ever move, they can take it with them to their next home, which is something that would be most awkward to do with a door frame.