Drowning in pictures from nursery - what do you do?

[FimbleHobbs]

DCs come home from nursery/pre school with a lot of drawings and colouring in. Some are obviously 'just' quick scribbles and tbh DS has no patience for colouring in so they are usually scribbles too.

I keep the special/best ones and put them on the wall and then in their memory chests - but I feel so guilty putting any of them in the recycling, even the 'unattractive' ones (for want of a better phrase).

What do you do? Surely it is normal and healthy for me NOT to keep them all, but I feel like getting rid of them makes me a Bad Mum....

Most go straight in the recycling.

I keep the better ones for the wall or for turning into 'Thankyou' pictures/cards for the oldies when its Birthday/Xmas time.

Bin 'em and don't feel guilty.

I caved in and chucked some - especially if they are covered in glitter, otherwise it just ends up everywhere. The nicest ones make up a collage on her bedroom wall (or stuck on the fridge). I'll move them on to her memory box as we get more.

I have to do it without DP noticing though as her is attached even to the barest of scribbles on one corner of an A3 sheet!

I have stuck the better ones in a scrapbook but the majority end up in the bin tbh

I do feel guilty sometimes but there's no way we could keep all of it.

I write the age on any half decent ones and photograph them, then bin 'em saving very good ones, or ones which show a real development in his style e.g. He just learnt to write the first letter of his name and wrote it all over a sheet of paper - that one I will keep. I hadn't thought of saving them to make thank you's out of - that's a brilliant idea.

Tip: Don't let them find them in the bin/recycling. We've had occasions where we've gone to take the recycling and they've spotted their artwork in the bin. I have to feign amazement at how it 'fell' in there and then end up taking the bloody stuff home again

Weegle- it saves all the hassle after B'days and Xmas as you have your 'Thank You' cards ready done. Plus you earn extra brownie points off Oldies for producing something done by nursery staff 'homemade'.

One of my better ideas since having children I reckon

Thanks for all the replies - I will put them in the (office) recycling with a light heart then. Thank You cards is a GENIUS idea which I will definately pinch, thanks!

Scan them, too - then when all the lentils/clunky waterbased paint/weird crinkly stuff falls off, you have a tiny tiny usb stick to remember it all by.

another tip is to write in bubble writing the childs name on the different sheets where its mostly covered then you can cut them out laminate them and make them into name hangers for the door.

You could do this with love heart shapes with a pretty picture in- laminate it add a key ring hoop and nanna has a keyring - you can glue laminated parts of good pics onto fridge magnets....you can cut them into butterfly shapes and make a mobile for a little girls room- you can cut them into different sized chunks and display artily in a big frame

I take digital photos of all the nice stuff, and after a while, recycle it.
Once they stary school it's even worse....a whole years work comes home at the end of the year and we just can't keep everything.

Bin, bin, bin. Easy for me to say now with 3rd child ...........

I thought the council provided a special box for them!

I always used to keep the whole lot in a big plastic bag and then in the summer holidays pick out the best 2 or 3 to keep.

Lol at special box, maureen!

I compromised - put most of the nursery pics in the loft, then years later (my ds's are now 9 and 14) when I had a loft clear out, threw away the ones that, in retrospect, meant not much to anyone. Time is a wonderful thing!

we have 3 long strings in the kitchen and dd's pitures go on these until these and the mantelpiece are full then they mostly get dated and thrown in a big crisp box(along with thank you letters and things from her friends and nanny), when that is full it goes in the attic.

a few years down the line i sift through a box, keeping things that have happy memories attached or are of us or are nteresting developmentally.

but i am a bit of a hoarder...

Bin them. It doesn't let up. DD brings home several pices of artwork a day from after school club.

Agree with 'bin them'. It continues through to school. If dd 5 wants to look for some of her artworks, she roots around the recycling bin.

I take photos of them and they pop up on my laptop screensaver every so often. One got laminated and made into a place mat. Some get posted to relatives as special presents. Some get used as wrapping paper. Some disappear ..... . A few are kept.

i save them and wrap small presents to family in them

send few out to grandparents for the fridge rest go in recycling or in the wrapping paper pile

boy has a gallery on his bed room door ( inside his room) if he wants to put a new one up he has to chose what comes down to make room for it. Some get sent off to grandparents. BUT hes not much of a painter so its not every week let alone every day.

Recycle

LOL, my ex had this dilemma too. Until I asked a very simple question...."What do you think your parents did with your stuff?"

After that she binned all but the special ones!

I recycle them, all except the very special ones.

I have 3 children, if I kept them all I could build my own house with paper let alone decorate it!

I bin the majority but a few get laminated and stuck on their bedroom walls.

Palm them off on the grandparents, who are besotted with their first grandchild (still).

Not sure how we're going to cope with dc2 mind....