What do you do with all of the art projects that your child has made during the school year? I am looking for suggestions on what to keep and what to toss. Keeping all of them is not an option. Also, how do you store them?
Thanks!
I say keep one/month. Keep them all throughout the month and pick the one you would like to keep. Then make a scrapbook of their artwork throughout the year.
Great question and responses! I'm not so good about involving the children about what we keep, though I do let them choose which ones to send to relatives (all far away, they love getting art work). I made an artists portfolio like I had when I took art classes (two large sheets of sturdy cardboard, taped together on one long side to make a large folder and a rectangle "handle" cut on the opposite side in the middle, about 1 1/2 inches from the edge. I showed it to my son this morning and he was thrilled to see some of his old pieces. I don't have much wall space, so I strung a tension wire (from Ikea for hanging curtains) and hang current artwork in the open space I have between my kitchen and dining room with clothes pins. Bonus -- because it's suspended between 2 rooms, I can hang 2 pictures back to back and double how many I display.
Photograph them and put the photos on a shared site on Shutterfly to share with family and friends. (we save/frame a few.) The fun thing about photographing them is that I also have some shots of cool magnadoodle and whiteboard drawings.
A friend of mine took a digital picture of all the art her child did throughout the year and then put them into a book. You can make a digital photo book on most of the photo websites-snapfish, shutterfly, walgreens etc. She has a great keepsake and it is all in one small book. Good luck.
We save some, and send some to relatives if possible. Relatives that live far away love receiving artwork! The ones she wants to keep are in a scrapbook.
I kept some of them and put them in an album. We hung some of the larger ones on the wall and took a photo to put in the album. You can let your child help decide what to save, though probably will want to save everything like mine did.
Before you toss anything- get your child involved in making his own portfolio or book.
I have heard that some mom's have scanned or taken digital pictures of their children's work. Then they make a nice book by downloading the pictures on a internet site like Snapfish or Photobucket. Not too expensive and you can make multiples.(possible gifts to grandparents?) They look really nice.
Save a couple if he (or you) are particularly proud or attached. Frame then and hang them in the house- over time, put in new ones in front (save the old ones behind inside the frame)
I need to do this too.
I think I should have prepared myself for this project too.
(should've) as moms we never hear that enough- especially from ourselves.
Good luck
Try www.ShareMyKidsArt.com - I love this website! It's free and lets you store and organize your children's art. The thing I like it about the most is it has these little buttons so that you can email or upload to your facebook wall pieces of art; this is really nice for us because we live in California and my parents live in Hawaii and my wife's parents live in NY. If one of our children create something we want to share with the grandparents, we simple press a button.
The only thing is you need to scan or photograph the art, which seems like a hassle but it's actually fairly easy. Good luck!
