Families mark birthdays in endless ways: a special breakfast, decorations put up overnight, a birthday chair, a pencil mark on the doorframe, a song sung loudly if not exactly in tune. Many of the best traditions are tiny and repeatable, which is exactly what makes them memorable.

A proclamation fits neatly into that kind of ritual. Read aloud at breakfast, it gives the day an official start. Kept in a folder, the proclamations become a record of each year: what your child loved at four, at five, at six.

Classroom birthdays work well too. A proclamation for each child means every birthday gets the same ceremony, including summer birthdays that fall outside the school year.