Easy Peasy Video Storytelling with OneDay

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of OneDay.

I take pictures. I’ve been doing it for years and because of that hobby, my family doesn’t lack in the special moment preservation department. Our still photos are saved in folders, in albums and showcased in frames on our wall, and I love it. The photo of Lainey at the beach, framed on my dresser? I remember that moment. Thin wisps of blond hair dancing in the wind, eyes squinting from the sun, shoulders dusted with sand. It’s all wrapped up in that photo, a memory frozen in time. I love my kids’ baby photos, the ones that really capture the things I loved most about their littleness–folds in their chubby hands, Cheerio crumbs glued to their cheeks.

I’m diligent in taking photos of my children not only because I want to remember everything about these days, but because I love the art of photo taking–the challenge of capturing who they are, their spark, their relationships, their timidness, their curiosity–in a single photo. I’ve realized over the years though that because I’m good about picking up my camera, I’ve forgotten to capture video moments of my kids. Recently while digging through the archives, I found a few videos of Lainey when she was a toddler, particularly one where she was dictating a letter to Santa, making present requests for herself and Nella who was just a baby. I had completely forgotten how precious her little voice was, how her tongue awkwardly attempted words against her pacifier teeth. As soon as I began playing the video, the whole family joined me around the computer. The girls were mesmerized, and Lainey didn’t believe the little girl on the screen was her. We watched as teeny little Lainey looked over my shoulder and bossed me through the letter writing process.

“Write Maywee Kissmiss, Tanta,” said three-year-old Lainey. And with that, seven-year-old Lainey fell to the floor in a giggle fit.

“I said Tanta!” she laughed. “I said Tanta! Play it again! Play it again!”

And if that was funny, you should have heard her when I asked in the video, “Do you love Santa?” and three-year-old Lainey snapped back “NO.” Lainey done lost her mind, laughing so hard, she got the whole family going. We’ve since watched that video–oh, about three hundred times and “Maywee Kissmiss, Tanta” has become a frequently dropped phrase in conversation.

I’ll always love still photos. But I’m challenging myself more to make quick videos to preserve the things photographs can’t capture–their voice, their laughter, their humor, their hilarious answers to questions that tell so much about how seven-year-olds view the world. I have a voice memo saved on my phone of Dash’s two-day-old cry and his suck-and-swallow noises, and those clips are just as precious as our photographs.

So it makes perfect sense that I’d love what OneDay has created to help families tell their stories. OneDay’s app allows parents to make short movies of their children like a pro in seconds, doing all the think-ahead work for you so that you get your child’s favorite things, funny sayings and thoughtful answers to questions preserved in little clips that the app stitches together for a short movie showcasing unique personality. The app not only preserves your children’s stories, but it makes it easy for you to tell your own story to share with your family with a whole list of themes for parents–what you believe, your influences, your inspiration, about your childhood, your wedding, etc.

My favorite thing about this app that makes it great for me to use is that it’s set up for quick video capture–simple, not editing, not thinking required. I can open any story, ask some questions that take just a few seconds, tuck my phone away and pull it out again later to finish a complete story. And the questions are all written for you. You know those priceless kindergarten projects that come home with all the funny answers to questions you wouldn’t have thought to ask your kid–things like “my dad’s favorite thing to do is...read magazines on the toilet in the bathroom“? You can find these things out for yourself now and lock them up in sweet videos to be watched for years to come.

The app also has story themes for babies who might not be quite as prolific with words as older siblings.

And once you create a library of these stories, your kids will love rewatching them, especially when their voice has changed and they’ve gained a bit of a filter for outlandish childishness.

In one minute, we created a cute video with OneDay’s Halloween theme yesterday:

Top tooth gone! 

Videos can also be easily shared with family and friends right from the app if you choose.
You can download the free OneDay app here!

And to think only 20 years ago, I hadn’t even used a cell phone yet. I love the way technology enriches our families in good ways–storytelling just one of them.

Thank you OneDay for sponsoring this post, and thank you readers for checking out the sponsors that make great products and services our family enjoys and also help make supporting this blog a little easier.