I am always looking for ways to make our house a bit more organized. Papers seem to appear and get stacked all over the counter and kitchen table. The end of the school year is a particularly challenging time with tons of papers and school work returning home. This is a picture of all of Abigail's work that came home during the last week of school. What do you do with it all? Don't even get me started on all the art projects, pictures, homemade cards, progress reports from after school activities...it can be very overwhelming. Do you feel like you need to keep every single piece of artwork your child has ever created? Do you feel guilty when your child finds their creations in the recycling box? This has happened to me. And, I don't feel guilty about it. I explain that there are so many paintings and pictures that I can't keep them all. I always have at least one special picture from each of the kids on the fridge. When a new one comes home, the old one comes down. I explain that I do keep some of them and put them away for when my child is older. I started this system of organizing around 2 years ago. I bought each of my children their own paper organizer and divided the sections into what works for me.
Each child has a different colour. Abigail - red, Nathaniel - orange, Jesse - green. They stay out of reach above my scrapbooking table.
Here is a look into Abigail's folder. I have sections to sort school report cards, activity progress reports (certificates from dance, soccer, swimming reports etc.), artwork, and each school grade has its own compartment. In the back of the organizer I have place miscellaneous items (favorite baby clothes, ultrasound pictures etc.) I don't have another place for them right now so this keeps everything in one place.
There can be a lot of papers that your child brings home. My advice is that your child doesn't need every single piece of work they did at school. They also don't need to see all the paintings they created during their preschool year. So, I choose a few art pieces for the year (this is easy when you have a boy that isn't particularly crafty, but is a challenge when your girl loves to create). My criteria is that it needs to show their own creativity and progress during the year. I do not keep spelling or math work. I figure my children don't want to see how they printed numbers. I do keep stories (like the one above) because they show how my child has used her imagination to create something original.
Here is a peak into Jesse's folder. He has one or two pictures (mental note - keep some more of Jesse's art pieces) and mostly memorabilia. A favorite outfit, 2007 coin collection and the newspaper from the day he was born. I hope this idea will help some of you.
I am always looking for ways to make our house a bit more organized. Papers seem to appear and get stacked all over the counter and kitchen table. The end of the school year is a particularly challenging time with tons of papers and school work returning home. This is a picture of all of Abigail's work that came home during the last week of school. What do you do with it all? Don't even get me started on all the art projects, pictures, homemade cards, progress reports from after school activities...it can be very overwhelming. Do you feel like you need to keep every single piece of artwork your child has ever created? Do you feel guilty when your child finds their creations in the recycling box? This has happened to me. And, I don't feel guilty about it. I explain that there are so many paintings and pictures that I can't keep them all. I always have at least one special picture from each of the kids on the fridge. When a new one comes home, the old one comes down. I explain that I do keep some of them and put them away for when my child is older. I started this system of organizing around 2 years ago. I bought each of my children their own paper organizer and divided the sections into what works for me.
Each child has a different colour. Abigail - red, Nathaniel - orange, Jesse - green. They stay out of reach above my scrapbooking table.
Here is a look into Abigail's folder. I have sections to sort school report cards, activity progress reports (certificates from dance, soccer, swimming reports etc.), artwork, and each school grade has its own compartment. In the back of the organizer I have place miscellaneous items (favorite baby clothes, ultrasound pictures etc.) I don't have another place for them right now so this keeps everything in one place.
There can be a lot of papers that your child brings home. My advice is that your child doesn't need every single piece of work they did at school. They also don't need to see all the paintings they created during their preschool year. So, I choose a few art pieces for the year (this is easy when you have a boy that isn't particularly crafty, but is a challenge when your girl loves to create). My criteria is that it needs to show their own creativity and progress during the year. I do not keep spelling or math work. I figure my children don't want to see how they printed numbers. I do keep stories (like the one above) because they show how my child has used her imagination to create something original.
Here is a peak into Jesse's folder. He has one or two pictures (mental note - keep some more of Jesse's art pieces) and mostly memorabilia. A favorite outfit, 2007 coin collection and the newspaper from the day he was born. I hope this idea will help some of you.
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