Too many school projects!!! wtd?

amother

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:43 am

BH I have three kids close in age - nursery, kindergarden, and pre1a. they all come home with tons of projects and things from school, ranging from coloring papers to fancy contraptions... I do not have space in my apt for all of them and don't know what to do with them all. theyre devastated to find them in the garbage, s/t I try to throw some stuff out when theyre not around but if they notice it in the garbage, forget about it!!!
there must be some way/system to deal with this in a way that works for me and them. any suggestions???
and, should I be keeping any of these things for their "memorabilia"?

(posting anonymously cuz I was discussing this w/ another amother & I don't wanna give away my screen name.)

rising hero

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:49 am

Tell them that you have a new system. After x amount of time you will throw away their things. They can each choose one or two things that they want to keep for a little longer. Get three containers where they can each put in their a&c's (or combine them into one...)

Last edited by rising hero on Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:51 am; edited 1 time in total

morah

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:50 am

Take a picture of each project, while they're watching, and back it up on the computer. Then tell them, you will showcase it for real for a week, but then it goes in the garbage and the memory lives on in the computer. Maybe hold on to a showstopper or two for each child.

mha3484

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:54 am

I take pictures of DS with his projects to email to grandparents and then we keep some and toss some but we can always go back to see the old ones.

vicki

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 11:57 am

I keep my kids' school masterpieces from Friday to Friday when they come home with a new stash. If a child was especially happy with a particular project I save it longer. If a project was REALLY, REALLY special and you know it's a keeper (usually involves pictures), I put it in special bin which each child has under his or her bed.

Chayalle

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 12:02 pm

Like vicki, my DD has a box to put her projects in. Every so often I thin down the population of that box, by getting rid of older projects that she is not likely to miss. Make sure the garbage goes out before your child comes home!

sky

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 12:05 pm

We keep from Friday to Friday.
Any really nice booklet we keep in the bookcase with kids books until it gets to mangled and throw it out.
Each of my kids has a prize box under their bed. If they really want to keep something they can put it in their prize box, but it can't fill up.
We do send stuff to Bubby and Zaidy occasionally.
My 2\3 year old doesn't understand how I could throw out her stuff so I do it without her seeing.

lfab

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 12:51 pm

Like others said I keep most of their projects from friday to friday. We have this bulletin board hanging in the kitchen http://www.amazon.com/Concepts.....made where we hang them up. If they made a special project (other than a simply colored picture/drawing) I take a picture of the child with the project (or sometimes just the project itself). I then print out the pictures and put into a small photo album. This way each child has their own album and can look at it whenever they want.

Some keepers, like the rosh hashana card, mother's day project with painted handprints, All about me books... get saved in one bin.

Some Yom Tov projects that can be reused the next year like succah decorations, menorah mats... get saved in the bin of other stuff from that holiday and put away till the next year.

mom92

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 7:44 pm

I also have a bulletin board that I hang up projects. When it gets full I take down the old ones and throw them out. (After they are sleeping, and take out the garbage right away Smile

Some of them I do keep - a few a year.

miami85

Thu, Nov 13 2014, 9:40 pm

Can you take pictures of them and make them an album--either real or on the computer? That way they have the memory but can part with the actual item. Big projects like for y"t or a really special piece of artwork can be hung up.