Do You Throw Away Your Kids' Artwork?

Something a friend suggested that you take a photo of those that you really love and once a year make an album of all the photos you took. I think its a great idea - I haven't started it yet, but certainly a way to toss without the guilt.

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I keep my very favorites but take photos of almost everything else and then recycle.

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I ask my kids to go through all their artwork monthly. I tell them to pick their favorite drawings/paintings/whatever, and I keep them in a an airtight box. The rest go in the recycling bin.
I also take pictures of their best art, and at Christmas, I made a book for almost nothing at Snapfish, one for each grandparent.

:)

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This is me to a T, but I finally got around to throwing things out. I keep one box of stuff per year of life. You have to be choosy, or you'll lose your mind. But be mindful of where you store the ones you keep....we had a flood and we lost some preschool artwork, which was very tough for me.

As for taking pictures, I had thought to do that too, but my clutter of digital files is another mess I have yet to deal with....

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I throw most of it out. My kids are 8 and 6 so I've been throwing for a long time now. I'll save a a couple of items from the beginning, the middle and the end of the year and the rest goes (when no one is looking). The way I see it is...why are you saving it? For you to look through someday or for the child to look back on? Either way, will either of you want to look at tons of paperwork or just a few items to see how you (or they) progressed the years?

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We display one thing at a time. If they bring home something new, it replaces the last thing they put up. And when we replace it, we throw it away. However, I do keep the occasional piece. Now that my daughter is older, and quite good, we frame some of her pieces, make notecards and other gifts out of others.

But every person in my family has a keepsake trunk. They can put anything they want in it, but when it is full they have to take something out to put something else in. It really makes them evaluate what goes in the trunk. And who needs more than a trunk full of "keepsakes"?

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Other than those precious few pieces that get saved, I digitally photograph everything else (within reason). I don't bother tagging the photos since all I really need is the date (which the camera automatically records). I simply create a folder on my computer called "2009 Scrapbook" and dump any artwork (or anything) in it that I'd like to remember. A new year.. a new folder! I'm glad I did this because I've since gone back an been amazed at the progress my son has made in coloring, drawing and especially writing. I photograph old toys, birthday cards, gifts, or anything that seems trivial but makes up the character of life at that moment. In the end, that folder becomes a time capsule for the year and provides me with less clutter and peace of mind. I'm sure my son will enjoy the experience of digital archeology into his childhood later in life. I know I do and thats only after a few short years.

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I used to keep everything from my older son and now have many boxes. My twins are in first grade and they bring home 5-15 papers each a day! I have to throw it out or it will take over my home.

Also, my MIL told me that she had saved every scrap from each of her 5 all thru the years and none of them could care less!

So you know, maybe just looking thru 1 box years later is much better and more meaningful than 25 boxes.

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I have every piece my 13yo and 6yo have done for school--every weekly newsletter, every behavior chart, every report card, every graded paper--each year I have a book made with that yrs stuff. This way I have all the memories with none of the guilt.

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I have only saved a couple of things which I feel really reflect "artistic" development. I don't feel that smearing substances on a paper is art; nor is pasting stuff either randomly or as instructed by a teacher; nor is copying something created by someone else. All that stuff is nice for small muscle development and following directions and yada yada, but it's not art. What is it about scribbles that parents think are uniquely worth saving? Yeah, we're glad our kids are developing skills and such. So should we save the first mud they tracked through the house, every bib they spit food on, the first turd they dropped in the potty?

My nanny is an artist by trade, so she is saving their precious little "artworks" and I'm sure she plans to proudly compile and present them to me. I guess I will have to pretend to be so excited, before I hide them in the "throw away when safe" box.

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I meant to add: when my kids get old enough to care, I won't throw their stuff away; I will let them have possession of the artworks they care about, and I know that most of them will end up discarded sooner or later, with no "mean mommy" taint.

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I have a preschooler and a kindergartener. I save and date the things that show their improvement and that I know I would genuinely want to look at one day. And not just art work. As spelling and handwriting becomes more accurate, I save samples. When little mistakes are just giggle-worthy, for example, she wrote 2 "p's" where she meant to write "b's" in the word nibbles, and came home with the word nipples on her paper. I had to ask her what they had been talking about that day, because the lesson in private bodies wasn't until a couple weeks later! So, of course, her daddy and I had a good chuckle and that paper got saved. Everything else, if the artwork is not her best work, and she is quite artistic, gets thrown away. Certs, evals, report cards, get saved, but you just cannot save every scrap they bring home, it would take over your house!

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I like the taking photos of the artwork idea and another suggestion I have is to sit down (with or without the kids depending on their age) and pick one (or 2) favorite piece(s) of art for the week, keep it(them) and trash the rest.

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DO NOT THROW IT AWAY. Email it to me and I will critique it on my blog: http://whatmykidsartsays.blogspot.com/

I will uncover their true genius. Believe it.

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