School Memories–Where Do I Keep Them?

School’s out for the summer!  Yippee!  Bring on the pool,the sunshine,vacations,and cook-outs!  Before we see those school supplies pop up into stores again,what should we do with all those papers the kiddos brought home from school last year?  If you are like me,I am a pack rat and love to keep so much of my kid’s drawings,schoolwork,and memorabilia but it does pile up!  Here is an idea of how to keep the memories from the school year without a huge mess.

Throughout the school year,keep a box in the top of a closet or in the garage–somewhere out of the way but handy–to keep the school papers.  Everyday your kiddo comes home from school,put their artwork,spelling test,essay,etc. into the box.  Next,at the end of the year,go through the entire box.  Now it’s time to decide how you are going to keep these memories. 

1. My mom took all the papers and kept a few from each year as an overview to show our progress or to keep the special ones and kept them in an 11 X 14 envelope,labeled with the year and grade and our name. 
2. Friends at a playgroup we attend had the idea of spreading out all your child’s artwork and papers on the living room floor,have the child sit in the middle of the papers,and take their picture.  Save the picture and throw out the actual artwork to save space yet keep the memory.
3. Another idea I received from friends at a scrapbook store is to scan each paper your child brings home onto the computer,file them into a file on the computer, then burn them onto a CD.  Label the CD with the child’s name,grade,age,and year.  A CD takes up much less space than a box of papers.
4. Highlight their school year  with their school picture,beginning and end of the year spelling test,and other utmost important papers in a scrapbook.  Don’t forget to check out our shop for ready-made scrapbooks!

  Whatever memory-keeping strategy you choose to showcase all the hard work and progress your child made last year at school,remember to look back on them with your child to show how much they have learned and how much you care by keeping these memories!