Your Kid's Art.... memories to be stored!

Earlier this morning, & as I was searching for a certain paper for my son's school I found myself caught up with piles and piles of his artwork, papers, crafts etc....

When he started nursery last year, the crafts & papers started pouring in! Fast forward to now.... and with only 4 more month left for his 2nd school year to end...
I feel I'm already embracing myself for round 2 of all the mountains of art, school papers, and awards that he will be inevitably bringing home.  Sound familiar? 

So I found myself wondering: “What do you do with your kids’ school work?” 

I got so emotional as I was going over all the amazing work my creative son have created over the past time, however, my once neat and organized spaces is filed up with piles of papers that represent a year’s worth of work to my son....It is such a bittersweet feeling, because I love looking through my kids’ schoolwork and art, and yet I can’t stand clutter and piles.  

What’s a predicament? Which brought me to this important question:

How to Organize ALL of the School Work, Drawings, Pictures...that your Child Brings home?

First of all let me share this small info with you..I'm 1 of the many  mothers that have saved EVERY SINGLE PIECE of paper my son has brought home from school.
So it took me almost 3 hours to sort his last years from this years papers, YET...

I couldn't throw any of them away!! YES....

1st: they make me feel like a good mother, cause I don't have my scribbles saved from my own childhood
2nd: I really love and enjoy watching everything my son did
3rd: last but not least...I have no idea what to throw or what to keep!!

So, I referred to GOOGLE for answers :) and Here's some interesting articles as well to creative simple and fun ideas I came across:

• What to Do with Kid Art
• WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR KIDS' SCHOOL ART? ARTKIVE IT

So what to keep and how to save these memories?

What to KEEP?

For sure YOU KEEP ALL: ARTS - STORIES - Anything with their HAND PRINT.... anything that is important to you and your child...and which also
A)  Shows their personality
B)  Shows their growth in a certain area
C)  Makes YOU smile

How to STORE?

Either you or allow your kids to pick 1 of their favorite arts they brought home and display it around for a day or 2...You can hang it on the fridge, their closet or bedroom door, on the wall..or get creative :) 

That's how our FRIDGE currently looks like :)

here's some nice Ideas that I am very tempted to try!

Next....Create a Memory Binder!! Yes...BINDERS were proposed in almost all my search as 1 of the best ideas to organize and save your kid's mos cherished artwork..
It's very straightforward and simple....A fast, fun to look through, and easy to keep up with and store.

Extra TIP: ONLY STORE THEIR SPECIAL WORK!  (add some special notes / like a scrapbook). GIVE IT TO THEM ON THEIR GRADUATION DAY! 

WHAT GOES INTO THE BINDERS?
Whatever matters to you gets saved. If it is not too important, you don’t need to keep it... PICK the ITEMS THAT HAVE A SPECIAL MEANING:

• FIRST STORY? 
• FIRST FAMILY PICTURE THAT HE/SHE DREW?  
• ​Report cards every year. Special notes from their teachers.   Preschool graduation diplomas.

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I really loved this idea & decided to start with it right away.. I got 2 different colored binders / 1 for each year and sheets!! For the last year ones I might just save them as they are, however, for this year artwork I'm thinking to add separators and notes to make it more special :)

WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL OF THE OTHER PAPERS/ARTS?

Anything I want to save that is too big or just doesn’t make it into the Memory Binder I'm currently keeping in these plastic bins. 

At some point when these boxes start getting too full, I’ll go through them and decide what’s really worth hanging on to.

Looking at the bright side... my little girl can enjoy the books as she will start Nursery this FALL!!

1. Share with the Grandparents: they will love saving those memories.
2. Save on an App: Look for Special apps that help you in storing..take a picture of the artwork and store it
3. Create a Photo-book: This will keep all of those extra papers in one little thin book for you! This will cost money, but it may be well worth it to you. You could do one every year.

What about you? What do you think?

Do you struggle with what/how much of your kids’ work to keep, or how to keep it organized?  

Will you be giving these method a try? or do YOU have Any other fun ideas for saving kids’ school work? ​

Sharing is CARING! so Please SHARE :)