My first grader came home last friday with 3 grocery bags full of papers and work he did during the year, I'm trying to organize them, some I will recycle, but most I will keep, but there's just so much and it's so overwhelming. PLease share if you have a good way to organize your kiddos work.
Thank you
Re: End of year school work organization ?
You don't need to save all that stuff, honestly.
I have found that my own kids are excellent judges of what's "special" and what can be pitched. When we get a big stack of work home, we generally only keep a few pieces, limited to:
--artwork that's they're proud enough to display on their own walls.
--longer writing projects that they worked hard on or got a good grade on.
I do display artwork on a closet door in our living room. After a while, I have the kids snap a picture with their digital cameras, and the original either goes in the trash (if they no longer feel so attached to it) or in a portfolio I have for each of them (if they feel very attached to it.)
I would say that we save about 10 items a year. Enough to look back on proudly some day, but not so much that we are loaded down with meaningless papers.
One trick I have used successfully with my kids when they've wanted to keep absolutely everything is to say "Okay, you can keep stuff, but you have to find a spot for it in your room where it's safe and out of the way." Stick with them until they either come up with a reasonable solution or decide it's okay to cut down on what you keep.
When you make them responsible for dealing with the clutter, it's amazing how quickly they come to the realization that all those "precious" papers really aren't that important.
Another trick is to put stuff in a temporary holding zone. Anything from the holding zone that hasn't been looked at/played with/reminisced over in _____ months gets tossed. You know that none of those "important" papers will ever be looked at again. Keep a few representative items from each grade or you'll soon be buried in papers!