Each and every school day, each one of your kids comes home with several, and I mean several, very important papers. Pieces of artwork, stories they wrote in their English class, models of Jesus’ tomb, pieces of flint from the playground, notes from their friends, etc. etc. Each is the expression of their beautiful minds developing, and regardless of the level of effort required, each seems to carry a significance in the moment that screams “Hang on to me! I’m a record of a fleeting moment in time!”
What to do with all of these “precious” papers? It’s taken a few years of honing, but I’ve developed a system to process all of these important treasures. When my best friend called me last week in a state of panic, unsure of what to do with all of her children’s school work from last year in order to hit the ground running this school year, I gave her the rundown. And here it is for posterity’s sake…
First, you need to purchase one crate for each child, similar to the ones in the photo below, and label each with your child’s name.
Boxes could also work. I keep mine in my garage, for quick access when we are coming to and from the car. I try to look through my kids’ tote bags or backpacks soon after they arrive home, at which point I can discuss any noted issues with them, check their progress, etc. After we’ve done this, I immediately take their papers to the garage, and put them in their respective crates. At this point, I DO NOT TOUCH THE PAPERS AGAIN UNTIL THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. The papers, artwork, notes, writing assignments, projects, and even at-home doodles will pile up, big time, but just keep stacking away in the crate.
At the end of the school year (or at the end of the Summer if you’re a Summer Lover like me), it’s time to get down to business. This is the point at which you will need to get discerning. You will need a few supplies for each child in your household: a cardboard banker’s box, file folders (one for each year of school, labeled per the below), and a large portfolio. I purchased my bankers boxes at the office supply store, and our portfolios from Lakeshore Learning.
Get your crates out of your garage, one at a time. Go through each item in the crate, saving the best examples of work, projects, and artwork – and throw away the rest. Just throw them away, and don’t look back! If you end up saving too much the first go-around, take one more glance through the pile of “preciousness” and make sure you are only saving the best of the best. Put all standard paper size work into the banker box file folder for that child’s grade year, and all larger pieces of artwork, etc, into the portfolio. Then move on and do the same for all subsequent children. Your crates should now empty, and ready for another year of learning, growth, fun, and so many, many more “precious” papers.
Slam dunk!
Waiting until the end of the year will not only save you time, it will provide you with enough distance to get good perspective on what’s a keeper, and what you can part with. I remember shortly after Justin and I got married – our photographer gave us proofs of 500 photos from our wedding, and asked us to pick our favorites for a wedding album. We were only a few weeks removed from the big day, and not selecting a picture felt like a terrible slight of the memory it captured. It was excruciating. We even asked him if he could just give us a disc with full-res versions of all of the photos he took, and not just the 500 favorites he selected. I’m pretty sure Justin even asked for them .raw format so he could do his own post processing. He said “Guys…that’s like 2,000 images, many of which are basically duplicates. It seems hard now, but if all of the photos are the best photos, then none of them are. He was right, and now we have a much more limited selection of photos that we’ve committed to frames, but that perfectly capture the memory of the day.
Our kids academic keepsakes are indeed a great record of this stage of life, which we all know to be fleeting. And I know someday, we’ll all get a kick out of looking back on them together. Like our wedding photos though, putting a little distance between the collection and selection part of this process will turn your kids’ keepsakes from a jumbled heap of crafts and paper to a organized, well-curated repository of their early years!
