School Memories

If you are like many parents you have a drawer, box or several locations storing your child’s school memories. When you go to throw something away, your child makes you feel guilty by telling you “That was my favorite project or I was saving that one” So, you put it back and continue to collect years of school work. But what’s a Mom to do?


Well, after a few years of guilt and running out of storage. I started to look at creative ways to store my children’s school memories. It was important to me to handle this situation with care. I realized that each piece of paper held a challenge, a need for concentration and sometimes caused struggle. Yet, each grade or make indicated they made it, and accomplished the skill required to move forward. I decided I could not hold onto every little piece of paper but I wanted to hold and honor as much of it as I could.

Here are a few suggestions on how to keep your child’s school years organized without it over taking your home.

Report Cards, Progress Reports & Awards:

Store report cards in a decorative accordion file folder with a tie string. Label each section with grade and school year (Kindergarden-2009-2010). Place report cards, progress reports and awards for that year in order. An accordion file folder has twelve months enough slots to cover kindergarten to graduation!

Homework/ Miscellaneous:

I have a large entertainment center that has two drawers opposite of each other. I have one labeled for each child. Throughout the year they place their homework and other important papers in their drawers. At the end of the year, usually four weeks into summer I have them take out their drawers and we spend several hours going through each paper reminiscing about what went on during that school year. We have a lot of fun talking about each piece of paper and it is enjoyable to watch them relive the challenges, good times and sometimes silly times that happen while they were at school. I ask them to save 5-10 pieces of school work from each subject that they feel depicts the year. Sometimes we have a few extras, but the majority of the papers they are ready to throw away. I then take those papers and place them in a binder by subject, grade and year. I decorate the dividers with sayings or clippings of newspaper events. I use 3-inch binders and I have been able to get all of elementary (K-6th) into one binder. I then place them on our book shelve so anyone can take it down and take a walk through memory lane.

Great Ideas for Sharing Now:

Consider having a wall of fame in your laundry room. I have a large corkboard that covers half of one of my walls. It is decorated and its header reads “Nikko & Briar’s Hall of Fame” I place awards, certificates, art and other things that make them feel proud on this board. We exit and enter through our laundry room so everyone sees the board several times a day. When my kids where younger they would bring visitors to our laundry room to see the Hall of Fame Board, they where very proud of it’s the nice thing about the location of the board was that it did not have to be pretty and organized all the time.

Art:

Display Art- Have your child date and sign their art. Place each piece on the corkboard for one month. Then remove the art and place it in your child’s drawer for storage. Rotate Art on the Hall of Fame board each month. If you really like the piece, frame it and make it a permanent piece of Art on your walls.

Calendar/Personalize Cards:

With today’s technology you can scan in your child’s art work and create holiday calendars or personalize cards. If you’re computer doesn’t have the ability to handle this project you can use services like kodakgallery.com, vista print, or staples. What a great way to share your child’s art with family and friends. Image how proud your kids will be when they send calendars to grandma, knowing every page has a copy of their art work on it.

Take a Picture:

Take a picture of each piece of art work and then place it in a scrap book. This will take up less space and the picture will last longer then the project it’s self. Give each piece a title, description, date and year. This will condense the art work and once filled you can consider having the scrap book made into a book. Making a great coffee table book!