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What to Do With Kids’ Art
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When my kids brought home art or school work I would put all unwanted – but just can seem to throw away pieces into a file. Each Christmas I would divide the pieces into piles for their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I would have the kids color a front and back cover and 3 hole punch it all together into a nice booklet to give as a gift. Usually during the year the kids studied something that would interest one of those relatives and I would make sure to include that in their packet. Sometimes they had even written stories that included their times together! I did this until they graduated from high school! It was fun to see how they progressed in their handwriting, thoughts, and attitudes.
My kids just turned three but I’m already guilty of several of these! I read somewhere to just keep the school art that has hand and footprints (to see how much they’ve grown) and I’ve been following that idea.
I recently made some art rails with Pantone swatches, scrap wood and clothespins for the hallway outside their rooms. They hang up all their art there and seem to enjoy seeing them there each day. I know I enjoy having them in one spot instead of all over the house! https://www.instagram.com/p/BvK_WStBipB/
My elementary art teacher had us do self portraits the first and last weeks of school every year, and then our last year we went home with all 6 years of them in one big folder. Still have it, still treasure it. (I’m an artist by hobby so I probably have more appreciation for this than most, but still.)
Love this one. My daughter comes home with at least one new piece of art every. single. day. I keep the special ones and totally KonMari the rest (give it a little appreciation before I hide it in the recycling bin!)
My munchkin paints on a long roll of paper. We just roll up whatever he’s done with and …. use it for wrapping paper! Christmas is an especially fun time to revisit old favorites with family around the tree.
So funny! Kon Mari it!
I know this was supposed to be tongue in cheek… but laminating and using as a placemat is a good idea!
Three school aged kids at home = so. much. paper. Most goes under the cereal boxes, haha! But for the rest I have ikea clip & wire ‘curtain rods’ in the kitchen eating area for displaying artwork. When it fills up, we go through it together and decide what’s keep (in a file box for each kid) or garbage. “Some day” I want to scan and make a photobook.
Uhhh am i the only one who throws things away?
My two boys love to do art projects and they are like an art factory with a daily output of five drawings in top off the ‘glued toilet rolls sculptures’ from school….
We would drown in art projects if I would keep everything
#badmomaward ?
You’re not alone! I also throw it ALL away. My mom saved a lot of my childhood artwork and honestly it is totally meaningless to me. I can’t imagine my daughter wanting her two-year-old crayon drawings.
Same. My parents saved boxes and boxes of our childhood stuff and it’s a burden now. I really don’t feel like going through dusty piles of glued-together construction paper, yet I feel guilty that those piles are choking up my parents’ basement. And I can’t just trash everything now that they’ve carefully stored it for decades! I think child art is more about the process than the product.
There was an article in the New York Times this week that might make you feel better: “I Love Throwing My Kids’ Artwork in the Garbage While They’re Sleeping” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/parenting/i-love-throwing-my-kids-artwork-in-the-garbage-while-theyre-sleeping.html
Ah my baby is still super little, but I have tons of art from daycare! I plan on collecting everything at the end of the year and submitting it to a site like Artkive or Plum Print to make into a coffee table book. Seeing her tiny foot prints makes my heart burst! As she gets older, I’ll probably just curate some pieces for the coffee table books.
I take pics of my girls’ artwork, and post on Instagram. Then, I use Chatbooks to print my IG account into beautiful, hardbound photo books. Essentially they are my family album! And there’s little to no time required on my end b/c I’ve done the ‘work’ along the way as I post on IG. I LOVE Chatbooks, especially their line of book covers from Rifle Paper Co.
So there are very few things I’ve done as a parent that I’m really proud of, but that bag of projects that comes home at the end of the school year? The one that used to make me cry at the thought of processing in my year-end sleep-deprived state? One year I just decided to turn that around. They spent a day choosing things to hang all over the house with scotch tape, and we made appetizers and invited friends and neighbors over for an art show with prosecco/Martinelli’s. They even sold some pieces! and I framed a couple that I might never have appreciated if I hadn’t seen them hanging. After that it was easier for them to choose what to keep in the large portfolios at the back of the closet, and what to let go. (I still get rid of clay pieces on the regular, though. Please don’t tell them.)
great idea! I’m going to copy you :)
This. is. genius.
I LOVE this!!
That sounds so, so, awesome. Your kids will definitely remember that for the rest of their lives. You’re an amazing mom!
That’s a great idea!
Great idea!
I am an artist and art teacher, so of course, I saved every piece of art work my own kids created!
I recycle it – double sided goes to paper recycling, single sided goes to my print projects. My kids know it. Everyone is happy. I enjoyed all the ideas though
My mum curated her favourite ones of mine and kept it in a folder in our families memory drawer, basically where all the “to file”-photographs end up, and I loved and still love “rediscovering” these old drawings and pictures every time I happen to open that drawer. It’s just magical to look at something you made remembering the time making them (or not haha)
You forgot “mail if off to grandma and become the #1 daughter-in-law”!
Ahahahah so true!
This is my go-to move
Ha, I do this too!
Haha! Cereal boxes are the best for recycling the mounds of kid-art. Wish I could make a short film of moms everywhere, shiftily tucking drawings into/under cereal boxes.
Totallly do this!! Or walk it right out to the recycle bin 2 min before the truck comes.
Omg that last frame caught me off guard. My kids are in hs and college and I’m sorting through their old art projects deciding what to save and keep. Dang…pass me the Kleenex.
Keep it in your office until you retire and your daughter is in her 30s (my dad did this with some truly awful art I did as a kid).
My dad did the same thing!
obviously the most *DAD* thing ever to do! Mine not only had old drawings and a weird pencil holder from middle school metalshop class, but had some miniature buildings I had made models of in architecture school.
Sneak it into the recycling bin ,hidden beneath the cereal boxes, when they aren’t looking. (Because the volumes are endless, and not all of it can be treasured!)
Hahahah I JUST put/hid an old drawing in a recycled cereal box today!
This exactly. When I get caught, they are so indignant!
Haha this is what I was thinking! *Recycle it after they go to bed*
We only have wood heat in our house, so in the winter, I would wait for my son to go to sleep and burn old treasures. I lived in constant fear that he would wake up mid burn and catch me destroying his beautiful art! When I told my mom she admitted to doing the same with my masterpieces and I must admit I understood but it hurt a little! I also do love framing some of his pieces. He’s 13 now but I have a framed finger painting that has his little 3 year old fingerprints all over it and I will treasure it forever!
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