My son is only in his second semester of his first year of preschool and already I am overwhelmed with the projects accumulating in our home. I display some by clothespinning them to a ribbon in our hallway. I've framed some and hung it in our home but I have piles of other art and such that are accumulating. The school projects are supplemented by stuff we do at home and things that come home from Sunday school at church for my daughter and my son. I have baby #3 on the way and I fear we will drown in art projects unless I can somehow will myself to throw some of it way (but how do I choose?) or figure out something else to do with it.
I've never done this myself, but a friend of mine with 2 kids who is much more organized than I am and does a lot of scrapbooking takes a picture of her kids' projects/artwork for her/their scrapbooks and then tosses the actual items, saving only the most precious creations for posterity. As for me, maybe I'm heartless, but my kids know that while I love their handiwork, it can't accumulate around the house forever, so I routinely throw everything away since there will always be more incoming projects a minute later. My kids don't seem bothered by it, and I'm not either. It's a very liberating mindset when you realize how much stuff you'd otherwise have to find places for and/or feel guilty about throwing away.
One great way to keep them all is to take digital pictures of them. Then you can decide what to display, make a scrapbook of them, put them on CD, whatever. And you can look back and talk about them without them getting ruined.
Dear Martha,
I have two kids that bring home a ton of art work every week. I try to hang up everything. Then at the end of the week, I let my kids pick different pieces to send to family members who live farther away. They also pick a couple of pieces that go to grandma's down the street. I then pack the rest of them up and then go through them at the end of the year and only keep two things per a year. Lately we have been saving the things that I would normaly throw away to send to some of the soldiers over seas that don't get any letters or pictures. My kids seem to love this and it gives the soldiers a little joy and then I know that I tried to do my best with the kids stuff. I say share the pleasure of looking at their art work. Good luck.
brandy
I use a large under the bed storage container and put them in there. My kids are 6 and 9 and um, there are LOTS of art projects. Actually when they got older, there were less, so there is hope for you. :)
Go through and get rid of the average ones, save the really neat ones, any with hand prints, foot prints or their first attempts at writing. Don't bother saving worksheet types (that hopefully they don't do at that age!) where it's just fill in the answer (2+3 is always going to be 5 and it's not worth saving a worksheet where they wrote 5. But saving the sheet where they wrote all their numbers is worth saving).
Good luck...
You could get an art portfolio to store them in. They sell some at Michaels. You could then store the portfolio in a closet or under a bed. And, when he's "all grown up", you can hand him the portfolio so he can see all his artwork!
I would suggest taking pictures of the projects and then uploading the pictures onto snapfish and having books created that showcase the projects....that way you can keep them and the memories, without the clutter! Your kids will also probably be very excited to see their work turned into a book!
I saved a couple things from each year for my girls. They are going into scrapbooks for them. Unfortunately we did not have digital cameras then. Save a few really great ones (but only ones that will fit into a scrapbook) and then taking pictures of the rest to put in the book. I do have to do a couple shadow boxes. My girls were both in Campfire and I saved all their beads and patches. Be creative and have fun and as they get older, let them help
I would save some favorites, and then take pictures of the rest. I've even heard of people scanning the smaller items.
Take digital pictures of the art projects and save your pictures either in online album (shutterfly and picassa will keep your digital images forever) or burn them onto a CD of pictures or put them into a scrapbook that you can share later with your kids. My Mom taught me to keep a few things from every year rather than trying to keep 100% of the materials that come home from school. Ask grandparents, aunts, uncles if they would welcome a piece of artwork from your children? My Mom always wanted stuff from her grandchildren while my mother-in-law wanted to know about what they made but did not have as much display space available.
I put up cork board on the walls of my basement stairs all down to the basement. I just hang the best ones for our "museumm." I love it!
I scan my son's art into my computer (or take a photo if it's a 3-D item or too large to scan) and load them to a photo storing website like Kodak Gallery www.kodakgallery.com or Shutterfly www.shutterfly.com
Then, when the school year is over I am going to create an art book to keep all the memories in a small, compact option! I have kept a few favorites to hang on our fridge but the rest of his marvelous creations go to Aunties, Uncles and Grandparents when we visit them! He just loves presenting his art to his loved ones and they get to share in his development. Win-win!
I don't try to keep everything. At the end of every school year, I sit on the floor and go through everything. I choose my favorites and the pieces that are good representations of what they are doing at that time. It ends up to be a box per year, and those go in the basement for storage.
Another thought:
Not everything they produce is meant to be kept forever, just the process of creating is what is good for them. We don't need to gush about and display everything they do...they need to find SELF satisfaction in their work.
I chose 10-15 projects and scanned them using a computer scanner. Now they're preserved for a long time because dust and moisture won't impact the electronic files. Easy to store as well!
As a horrible packrat I understand this problem. My solution has been to take a few digital pictures of each project - some with the child holding their art and some just of the project. Then every year I save the one or two really special things and the rest I get rid of.
Martha, I got a big box made out of cardboard with a lid that is removable. we put in the ones "They" wanted to save. turns out they want to save probably way less than you do lol. Then I also put a cork board in their bedrooms with tacks to hang up the ones they wanted to display. again they wanted to hang way less than I did. As one of the other moms mentioned Its the process not the product that the teachers are aiming for at this age. of course it goes without saying you will have the current masterpiece hanging on the fridge. another way to get them out of site is to Mail them to friends and family. that way they are being enjoyed by grandma and grandpa and aunts uncles etc and gets rid of the guilt over not "saving" every color stroke.
sherry
I too have a ton of projects that my daughter has made. I couldn't choose what to keep or not so I just put everything in a big box that she made that year and put it away for when she gets older to look at. It does get less once they get to kindergarten.
Take a picture of these so you can "save" them digitally while freeing up room in your home. You can take a pic of a bunch of a time or one picture of each. This is what I plan to do with all my daughter's artwork.
Check out Snapfish.com..... My MIL and SIL just used that site to make books of my nephews art work. It was really neat looking. That would be a special way of keeping projects with out drowning in paper.
Hi there, I don't know if this will be helpful or not, and I am not sure exactly how I feel about this, but I have heard of taking pictures of your children's artwork. Then you still can remember what they did, and it takes less space to store. Then you could make a photo album of the pictures of their artwork or if you have a digital camera store them on your computer and they take up even less space. That being said, you still have to throw the artwork out and don't keep the original works. Could you make a scrapbook or several scrapbooks of the actual artwork? It sounds like you have tons so that could be too time consuming to do. I don't have children in school or preschool yet (soon though) and have done a few things at home with my children so I have actually been thinking about what I should do with artwork once we accumulate some. Still undecided. Hope this helps and if not I hope someone else has a brilliant idea that will help. Christal