Keeping Work, Projects, etc.

[Scout19075]

I guess this could be a HE question or one for the Good Housekeeping topic but....

How long do you keep your children's work, projects, magazines, etc., for?

SmallBoy and MrScout built SB two bookcases last month and we (SB and I) are in the process of organizing his books, magazines, "school" books, etc. Up until now I've been saving his magazines in magazine racks/boxes and just lining them up. But shifting things around today made me realize that I've been hanging onto his CBeebies magazines, as he called them his "work" for a long time, but he's never gone back to look at them. We'll keep his train (think Steam, Railway, etc.) and his astronomy (BBC Sky At Night) magazines (mostly because MrScout would flip if I got rid of the train ones and I wouldn't dream of getting rid of the Sky at Night ones because it's SB's favorite program). I want to get rid of the CBeebies ones but oh the guilt I feel!

SB won't miss them. He never looks at them, asks for them, etc. In fact he's rarely asking for new magazines if we say we're going to newsagent and when he does he's looking at the adult train and astronomy ones (have I said SB is 4 going on 44?!). He's very happily donated "baby books" to the library a couple of weeks ago and though old toys are a bit more of a struggle is often willing to part with them so "other littler children can enjoy them, too." I'm not sure why I'm struggling with the magazines....

Someone, please, give me a swift kick....

This is what an attic is for.

:)

Ermmm... I don't. "It's the process, not the product" is my excuse for this shoddy bit of parenting. If something is precious to the kids then they keep it.

However, in principle I like my sister-in-law's approach. Every few years she had a good clear-out and selected a few items from each year which she thought she'd like to use to remember her kids at that age, and placed them into a box. So there was one box (about twice the size of a shoebox) per child per year. She culled it a bit more after they were grown up when she discovered that some of the items in the boxes did not look familiar to anyone in the family! Clearly they were once meaningful to someone, but not any more.

I don't tend to keep them neither.
If something is particularly unusual or brilliant then I'll keep it in their keepsake box but as this was started when they were born only special things get a place.
The rule is if the box becomes too full and lid won't close something has to come out for something to go in.
It is harder with dd because she does so much and likes to keep her programmes of appearances and concerts etc.
First tap shoes, first violin etc. That's going on the wall though in display thingy.
An idea is to frame the best pictures or have one made into a canvas etc.

Some people like to photograph all the special stuff and just keep the pictures.

Probably not what you were hoping to hear but my mum has loads of this stuff in the attic and we're having a great time looking at it with the kids. I'm sure she must have thrown loads away too though, just pick the bits they've enjoyed the most and don't feel any guilt about the rest.

Oh I wish we had room in our attic but it's full of MrScout's crap stuff. I have been taking pictures of artwork and projects as it's hanging (and all projects get hung up/displayed -- he loves showing it off), mostly so my American parents/family can see (he's the only grandchild on my side and my family is all still back in the States).

SB has been working through some Y1 science and math the math has been more games and activities (like weighing & measuring with scales & rulers and thermometers) but I haven't been photographing the science. since a lot of it is in the book we're working through. I have an art folder to store all of that in and will get one when we do the next science topic, maps, (what the Americans call) Social Studies, etc. His Religion is in two file boxes (one for work we do at home and one for projects he makes at Little Church on Sundays).

It's more the magazines and sticker books (that are just that, sticker books, not like the astronomy sticker book he has where it's full of facts and information that SB still loves to look at and have read to him) that I don't know if I should keep/throw. I think I might keep a couple of the earliest ones and one or two of the last ones and bin recycle the rest. I think I might have to do it when SB and MrScout aren't around, though....