Saving your kids' artwork

[Lori]

What do you do with your kids' artwork? Do you display all of it? What do you save? How long do you save it for?

[bloombaby]

some was given to family and friends. MOst is in a tote in the basement. My plans are to take digital pictures of each one (since they do SO much at day care) and then only keep the extra special ones (like the one that came home last week with her writing her name on it for the first time)

[Cynthia]

I display it on the wall in the kitchen for each of the boys and as the wall fills up (in our kitchen nook) the older ones come down. We keep the most special ones and recycle the rest. I have taken photos of the boys with their artwork as well.

[Grannyvon]

I am 65 and my kids all gone. My two great-grand girls often bring me pictures when they come and the oldest one Jade is quite good for a four year old. The two year old Cadence not so good. I have a small accent wall in my breakfast nook and have framed some of the best ones. Those not so good have the honored place on the front of my refreigerator. I did frame one bad one and put up in plane site on the wall. She doesn't really care yet but I already see improvement and think she will have some talent too as she gets older. I keep the extras in a large folder on the shelf shelf with their books in the bottom drawers of my desk which is just off the breakfast nook. When they come they like to take the ones from the ref. and put them in the drawer and put new ones up.

[Kate]

I saved the ones I most loved, sent some to my parents, and then some we would take outside and have a ceremonial fire with - Maia decided that that would be a way of sending pictures to Heaven for my mother, so that's what we did. Other pieces were recycled, or cut up to make gift tags.

[CrazyLady]

I need to tackle this problem here. Lily is quite a prolific artist and we have stacks and stacks of her creations all over the house. Honestly I never thought to send them to relatives, I'm sure my mother and grandmother would be thrilled to get an envelope of her artwork every other week or so. I've thought about doing some sort of family collage project as my husband and I are both "artists" as well. I can't get myself to throw anything out though, I'm a big softy.

[Christine]

I often put stuff up on the refrigerator that I think is really cool. Anything that I want to save, I label with the child's name and age and put into a folder of theirs in my filing cabinet.

One day one of the girls made a comment that I always throw out what they make. I told her that I couldn't possibly save every single thing that they make me because of the sheer number but that I do save the things that are extra special to me. We sat and went through her folder and she was surprised by how long I've been saving her stuff. It was pretty cool. :)

[Cynthia]

For simple drawings (artwork without a ton of embellishments)...I have heard of some people using it as gift wrap. great way to re-use some of that great artwork and allow others to enjoy it as well.

[Beka]

We have 4 kids, one of whom is so creative she begins to draw on herself if she's sat still too long without a piece of paper!!! (right now she has a glue stick, craft paper and an old rice container making a fish tank)

We stick some up, we keep special pieces, we give some away to grandparents and childless aunts and we have a biiiig collapsable file for keeping the stuff that is too old to display too precious to part with.

With Chase it's display pieces she made and things for holidays/events that we've kept, with Jude we've kept a least one piece of every major advancement he's made with his fine motor skills for drawing (with his dyspraxia his hand to eye is quite poor and his drawing very immature) with Dyl we keep what makes us smile as she's v.creative - she draws the family alot.

As for how long do we keep it? My dad still has the first piece of work i did my first day in first grade in his briefcase :giggle

[Kristi]

We hang them up somewhere for a few weeks and then each time new ones pile I up I have them choose which one to take down. I save some and put others in an envelope and mail them to family or throw out a few.

[Josie]

I hang some of the kids artwork up on the fridge for awhile. We just started keeping some of there artwork. I did keep the paper the first time the kiddos colored with crayons and plan to scrapbook it.

[scrappymom]

I find that already i've accumulated soooo much artwork ( and they havent' even started school yet ) I'm running out of room. I keep it for awhile and then i'll take pictures of it or of them with it and scrapbook it. If it's something super uber special it gets framed and treasured for ever and ever :)

[tobyedavid]

I actually throw most of it away. With three kids, it piles up quick. I do keep ones they request that I keep, or ones that are special, like first time pieces or things like that.

A friend of mine had a good idea, for which I bought supplies for, but never hung up. Buy a small curtain rod and hooks with clips on them and use the hooks to display artwork. That way you can rotate pieces and still display them. I really should do this....

[gr8mommy]

I mostly throw them away, as well. There are a few 'specials' and 'firsts' I've kept, but otherwise they get recycled.

[Jbird]

I put them on the fridge for a while, usually until they are replaced with something new. I don't usually save them unless they're really special - I'll toss them or put them in a pile for Daylon to go through and see if he wants to keep it.

[Mary]

I try to keep a representative sample from each school year. I keep both art projects and schoolwork, plus various things they do at home.

The deciding factors for what I keep are creativity, entertainment value, uniqueness or amount of effort put in. Also anything that is made specifically for me, either for a holiday or "just because" is saved. I have a Rubbermaid tub in each of their rooms that I throw stuff into after I've labeled it with the date.

[Amber]

My criteria for keeping artwork is very similar to Mary's.

My kids create so much "art" that I couldn't possibly keep it all. So I just keep what is exceptional and pitch the rest.

[Cyndi]

I hang the special ones. Alot get tossed. I can't keep everything, but if it's special I keep it.