How do I keep on top of 5yr old's sudden piles of paper?!

[k80pie]

My DS5 recently started school, and is learning to write - every day he brings home worksheets, drawings and unfinished colouring-in sheets. When he's sitting at the kitchen table he's wanting to practice writing, doodle, etc. and we end up with stacks of unfinished pages. I love that he's doing all this writing and drawing but how do I control the mess?! I'm at a bit of a loss and end up just stacking it all up in a pile. I don't want to bin things he's attached to - but he's naturally a bit of a hoarder so if I ask him he will never say yes to anything being thrown out.

If your kids do homework etc at your kitchen table, do you keep folders in your kitchen? How do you sort it? Help!

It's called.. the bin.

Recycle if you can.

Take photos of the sheets and then put them into recycling - do it together. Same with artwork. Only keep the really good stuff, or sheets with a good comment from the teacher. Set the precedent now, because it's just going to keep coming

Is allow DS one piece of work on the fridge he was particularly attached to. He would swap it every couple of weeks or so. And the old ones and others would get binned.

Maybe once a year or so we'd keep something particularly good. For example there's a poem he wrote about a train framed in the stairs.

But honestly, there's so much it just has to go.

Recycle! Notice board in the kitchen for the special pieces, moving to a plastic wallet in a drawer for the very occasional save-forever work

Box file, he can decorate it. Throw out the bottom half of the papers weekly.
Save anything special in a separate folder.

Ha. We have this x2. Every little thing comes home from school, then constant drawing from one kid and word searches, sudoku etc printed for the other.

Just recycle it. Don’t ask. I go through the school bag and various piles most nights and maybe keep a couple of cute actual bits of art, or things it looks like he might want to finish. But most gets recycled.

If he does ‘where is..?’ then just say you don’t know!

Fridge magnets for the prize stuff, then scan them into the PC to embarrass him with when he is 15. Recycle the rest.

The very best stuff you hang inside your wardrobe for years, to mourn over while you are waiting for A level results, to see whether he is going off to university or not.

We do have box files in the loft for nice proper sentimental pieces.

or just photograph with your phone, as it is no longer the early 2000s.

We keep 3 or 4 particularly good ones on the fridge and when they get taken down to make way for new ones, they go in one of those boxes from paperchase or similar.

Others we keep for a small amount of time then recycle. She doesn’t really notice as long as there are always a few around.

We have four frames in the playroom that display that display the best pieces of art work and a blanket box in our bedroom were we keep anything sentimental. I throw everything else out when she’s at school and can’t intervene.

Thanks everyone. I know I need to get tougher. My mum kept everything and we were still throwing out my kindy drawings when I moved out of home. I'm not doing that!

Just cleared the bench and had a big throwout. Where do your (little) kids store their homework/pens etc? He wouldn't really go down to his room to do drawing/worksheets (too far) so ends up doing stuff at the kitchen table...

My DD usually does her drawing and stuff at the kitchen table. We have a shelf in one of the cupboards that has art and craft stuff on it. The rest of her stationery is in pencil cases on her desk and she has sheets of paper in her desk drawers, she just gets them if she wants to draw or do homework elsewhere. We do live in a sort of dormer bungalow though so it’s not far for her to go.

Any thing unfinished got recycled after a week.

Anything good that either (me or them) were proud of got displayed on a noticeboard until a newer piece came in. I think we had a maximum of six on noticeboard (2 children so 3 bits each). If there was anything they really didn't want to let go then it went in a small storage box. Every summer holiday that storage box got looked through by the child and usually after the first 10 minutes of excitement and remember this mummy! only two items were left in the box. Usually because I wanted them saved

I'm in the process of making a scrapbook. It has all the best ones cut up and stuck in.

We also have a few folders with wallets and a cardboard box that is brimming with pamper.

Any colouring sheets or leaves glued to paper go straight in the recycling. I'm fed up of having a pile of manly papers on this table!!

Manky, not manly lol