Organizing All That Stuff That Kids Bring Home From School

Ali~ Thanks for giving us not only helpful tips, but a glimpse into your real life! You seem to be so relaxed and always have it all together. Nice to see that you have some "piles"of ongoing projects like the rest of us!!!

What a wonderful post Ali! My four year old son is just finishing up his first year of pre-school and I have been collecting so much stuff! Right now I just have it all in a file folder box - but I know I need to get it in an album. I was thinking about making an album just for him that was school stuff - acomplishments, etc. You gave me some great ideas!
And just a side note question for you - maybe you will do a Q&A again soon! I haven't scrapbooked for a couple of months now. I seem to have lost my creative mojo! Does this ever happen to you? What do you do to get it back? I still am taking pictures and documenting via my blog but not finding enough will to scrapbook anything.

Thanks for your details...I'm just starting to figure out what I want to do with my first son's school stuff (he's in his second year of preschool now) and I like your ideas of how to tackle it all. I'm wondering, what will/do you do with the 12x18 artwork he brings home? I'm thinking a large storage tub to hold that along with a school years scrapbook to document his school days.

I love this idea, Shelley! I think I'd like to keep that stuff right in my Christmas box along with my other Christmas decor. Thank you!

Kudos to you for getting this process underway this early in Simon's (and Anna's) life ... after collecting all of that school "stuff" for the past 13 years for my two boys, I finally managed to at least get it sorted by child & school year into huge manila envelopes a couple years ago. After that huge sorting task, I bought a storage unit with a drawer for each kid, which is where I stash their memorabilia during the year and then empty it into a folder at the end of the summer. For most years, each of the boys has 2-3 very packed 10x17-inch envelopes. That is in addition to piles and piles of photos waiting for their stories to be told. I also have purchased an album for each of the boys ... so far empty. Other than a partially finished baby book for my first - and even less actually completed for my second - that's about all I've done. So I have 13 YEARS worth of stuff to get together, which has been on my mind a lot lately because my oldest will complete 8th grade next month ... and {gasp} move on to HIGH SCHOOL! I have vowed to be more on top of things with my two girls (now almost 3 and 9 1/2 mos) and so far, am doing much better with them. I cringe whenever I think of all those wonderful memories that are lost to me now because I just didn't get them recorded. I just love when you share these projects ... it's like a call to action to actually DO something about all of this! (And I must admit, it's comforting to see that you have piles, too! :). Thanks for sharing...

You've got some great ideas I may have to adopt myself! I especially like your year-end ritual ... TFS!

My nieces and nephew were always doing some kind of art (family of artists). I am an art teacher so I knew which drawings to keep as they went through different developmental stages. I would date them and put them in a portfolio. When they graduated from art school/university, I slipped the drawings and paintings into a very nice presentation portfolio according to date and gave the whole thing as gift.
They loved it and could see their talent emerging year by year. They're professionals
now themselves and have a record of when it all started.

Thanks for sharing this, Ali. I'm doing Stacy Julian's School Of Life album for my daughter, and I absolutely love the system. I have one Rubbermaid tub for the overflow. Anything that doesn't go there or her SOL album gets recycled or mailed to grandparents.

I love this idea too.

Thanks for sharing this. One of the key points for me, that you mentioned too, is returning to piles later to whittle them down further.
We have a metal file box (from the dollar store but the same kind as Pottery Barn sells) on a wall in our mud room and all school papers go in there. Sometimes it is too overwhelming to decide what to keep or not keep at first glance. Once a month I go through and recycle/toss and keep only what hits me as uniquely representative of something.
At the end of the year, we'll go through it again and keep only a few signature pieces. This is in addition to art work from home (kept in a rubbermaid tub), teacher notes, etc. I'm using Becky Higgins school years kit, and believe this might be the one album my son wants to take with him when he leaves home (since he is deciding so much of it).
I only wish I had purchased more of BH's kit for my younger boys!

Funny you should write about this now... just the other day I was thinking of the piles and bags of art and 'stuff' that I have accumulated since my twins have been in Jr.K and now Sr. K. I have an overwhelming amount of papers and projects and I had wondered how you would handle it all. I bought two big American Crafts binders and loads of page protectors last year but have yet to tackle things. I'm also at a loss for what to do with the larger art pieces - do I save them, scan them, frame them photograph them??? Not sure what to do. I know I have to edit but starting is a bit daunting. Thanks for sharing a bit of your process - it's nice to see I'm not the only one with 'piles' - but mine, oddly enough, usually end up on the dining room table!!

My first thought on the oversized pieces is that I am just going to crop them down to fit in the 12x12 albums. If it was something totally amazing I would probably frame it. So far most of his things could be cropped and not lose the overall feel.

It could be a sickness :)

Oh my gosh, Ali, we are on some kind of psychic wavelength, LOL! Yesterday I was looking at the pile of my kids' artwork on the kitchen counter, thinking I needed come up with a new system to keep it organized. I thought of YOU! (Really!) You gave me great advice on getting my garage studio set up a couple of months ago (still a work in progress!). I love your ideas on putting kids' work in sleeves directly in their scrapbooks, and using the art itself to create layouts. Love that! Can't wait to try it.
Another cool idea I saw in a magazine a couple of years back -- (I think Cookie?) There's a company (I forgot the name!)that will take the scanned images of your child's artwork, and put them all on a poster. I'm sure one of the many photo printing websites around could do the same. I'm thinking about giving that a try, it would be fun to frame & hang it in the living room.
Thanks for reading my mind and publishing another great post. :)
Hope you and your family have a lovely weekend.

Nice to get a glimpse into someone else's system of keeping school memories. I'm ruthless too. When my kids were in elementary and doing art work regularly, at the end of the school year I'd go through it and keep only the exceptional pieces of art (c'mon...be honest...not every piece is exceptional but we don't tell the kids that) and take photos of most of the others, especially big, bulky art pieces that would be hard to store. I've kept ceramic pieces and crafty things like that. (Both kids had the same teacher in 2nd grade so I have 2 adorable wooden snowmen they each made that I won't part with). I kept notes from teachers, evaluations, stuff like that that you mentioned. I used to draw pictures on my daughter's lunch bag (she liked the brown paper ones for this reason) and she'd bring them home because she liked them so much so I've saved a few of those too.

Hi Ali,
Thank you for sharing your process of going through school work. Although I do not have my own kids yet, I am a teacher, and get lots of letters, drawings, etc. from my students. At first, I was saving a lot of what they gave me. As I have been teaching longer, I tend to of course save photos, the class picture, as well as really sentimental letters from students, or a drawing/coloring page that really moves me in a way. That said, I also have MANY piles around my house, and too going through other life memorabilia. I'll get through what I can now, as I am going away, so it will have to wait until I come back.

P.S. The photo of Simon on your "Simply Be You" layout is gorgeous! What a cutie :)

It sounds like you have a great plan going.
When I was teaching preschool & the parents would ask what to do with all of the excess art work their child did I would suggest to use it for wrapping paper when sending gifts to friends and family. (Grandparents especially love receiving a gift wrapped that way).

SIGH>>>i wish i had been on top of this from the beginning. now I have a 3rd grader and 2nd grader and all that stuff to go througH! the good news is, i put each grade a big padded envelope and put the year on it for each child! so it's sort of organized. and i already threw out most of what I didn't want. it's just a matter of finding the desire to go through it all. oh and my albums are NOT in order. about 3/4 of my layouts arent' even IN albums yet! you are so LUCKY to be so organized!!!!!!!!
keep INSPIRING ME!
tara

Calli,
This is a great way to teach kids how to purge things themselves (which I, at 30 years old, still have trouble doing!). I think it is great that you are involving your kids in the process and importance of "saving" and "purging". I think boys often have trouble with the concept of saving. I was always amazed when guys I dated had little more than one box of possessions to their name and was sad that I couldn't glimpse into their childhoods! On the other hand, I have way tooo much stuff. So learning to prioritize items is great.
The few times my mom did help me go through my things, she would put things I wasn't sure if I wanted to part with yet in a box in the attic. Several years later when we would go through the box, I found it much easier to decide what was important to me since I wasn't so attached to seeing the items every day.