Nov 11 2008
Organizing Children’s Papers Part 2
If you missed yesterday’s article (part one of this series), be sure and check it out first.
If you’ve read it, now you can move on.
Anything we are keeping must have their name on it and it gets stored in the ‘Big Box’ which is what we call it. Once the big box becomes full (every month or two), we take it down to the basement and each child has a box that we pull off the shelf and open up. Typically I drag a kid or two down with me and they help me sort through the Big Box and put the papers in their respective Kid Box (which is nothing more than Office File Boxes we picked up at an office store.) Anything that we find along the way that does not have a name, goes in the trash - no questions asked. At the end of the school year, each child goes through their box and gathers up 20 items that reflect who they are at that point. Yes, we have had some strange things get kept at the end of the year. They go back in the box, but slipped into an envelope or file folder paper clipped shut so that they stay together. We label each one with the child’s name, age, grade and teacher’s name.
The stuff they decided not to keep I usually go through on my own and trash whatever I don’t want. Rarely I will find a piece in the pile of trash that I just really want to keep and then I just slip it into the respective envelope. It works out really well.
So get organized if you can! It sure helps and elminates artwork and clutter all over everything. (yes, we do occasionally put papers and artwork up on our refrigerator or bulletin board from school, but usually anything on the fridge is something they drew at home and were exceptionally proud of).
