All the art work your kids bring home - what do you do with it?

[IvanaDK]

My dd and my ds bring home all this art work from reception and childminder. I can't bring myself to bin its, so I have it all stuffed in big shopping bags and I have no idea what to do with it! I did sort through it when we move din August, and binned 2/3 but now I have even more than before we moved!

Take a picture of them holding their works of art, then you just need a photo album rather than a skip
I still keep some of the best/more meaningful things and put them in those folders with plastic 'sleeves' inside (sorry, can't think of the proper name)

Scan them or take digital pics of them and keep them on a memory stick or something (although memory sticks data will expire after 10 years so you might well be better putting them onto a DVD to keep safe)

I hang the nicest ones up in their room/on fridge until they fall down or are replaced by new ones. Also have a 'portfolio' where I occasionally glue in their nicest drawings after leaving them in a pile for months... I know some people photograph their children's artwork too and have done this a few times. Leaving it aside in a cupboard for a while before throwing stuff away makes me feel less guilty/sad, and they are (slightly) less outraged if they catch me doing it..

get a huge scrap book and stick them in, we do that and make a note of when and where it was made and what it apparantly is!
its lovely to look back through.

I have 18 years of artwork because oldest turned out to be good at it and did it all through school, and there are four younger ones. (Only one seems to have talent though) I think the DD idea is great. Some of the oldest stuff I kept is deteriorating, colours fading, etc. so taking photos would be fab. Still hate to toss it all, though. I am too sentimental.

That's DVD...

Ours goes in abox and in the attic. Every now and then when we are up tehre having a clear out or whatever I get the box out. It always makes me smile

Am I the only one that puts 99% of it in the recycling bin?

It's really interesting to read what everyone does - I too tend to hang onto it for a while, then sort through and keep the best. For anyone that is interested, I have a blog devoted to the topic of children's artwork, what to do with it, how to display it, store it etc: www.artfuladventures.blogspot.com and also a Flickr group (Artful Kids)for people to upload photos of their kids artwork.

You could use it as wrapping paper. When my dd was bringing home masses of paintings from preschool I wrapped some Xmas gifts in them.

Take a photo, then goes on display for a week before being binned/chopped up by enthusiastic "cutter" dd1.

I keep only the very best & those that represent a new skill - ie the first thing she "drew" the first time she drew somrthing recogniseable as a person etc etc, they are in her special box

Display it on the fridge for a bit

Put in a binliner anything decent (ie, not some half-hearted scribble or a printed picture of a fruitbowl or something with one apple colured in) and recycle the rest

Each time there is a birthday in the family get them to write Happy Birthday love X on the back of one of them and stick it in the card

Thanks for all your advice, will probably stick to keep-it-at-first-then-bin-the-worst-when-the-novelty-has-worn-off.

Zephirine, I put most of it in the recycling too but the best is displayed up the stairs. Occasionally relations will get one as a gift. If I'm feeling really generous, I'll even go to a charity shop and buy a frame!

I have got most of it in carrier bags in storage but two or three really good bits I have framed for their rooms.

My mum still has the artwork we all did over 30 years ago - she says it is part of us and showed a time in our life when we were growing and learning.

Awww.

We keep the best ones and 'file' the rest in recycling.