What to do with all the kiddie artwork??

Ima_Shelli

Sun, Oct 10 2010, 10:13 pm

I just started sending my 2-year-old to a playgroup for the first time. I am amazed at the sheer volume of artwork that my budding artist produces! At first I proudly displayed it on my fridge. Then, when I ran out of room on the fridge, I moved on to my deep freezer. Then, when playgroup was only 2 weeks old and I realized this was not stopping any time soon, I (very guiltily) threw out some old artwork. And I also admit to having just (respectfully) disposed of a construction paper shofar, esrog, lulav, and teivah. (I kept the sukkah since that was extra cute.)

How did those of you who have raised several preschoolers manage to do this without making your kiddies feel bad? I hate clutter! and have no idea what to do with all this artwork!

pina colada

Sun, Oct 10 2010, 10:35 pm

hang up all the artwork. after its been up for a couple of days, say before Shabbos, discard them when your toddler's not around.

the really special ones save.

the personalized ones, like the ones that have a pic of your child, you can put away for safekeeping.

lamplighter

Sun, Oct 10 2010, 11:06 pm

take a picture of your child with it for long term preservation and then put the artwork on the fridge for as long as it lasts.

flowerpower

Sun, Oct 10 2010, 11:52 pm

I hang it on the fridge for a day or two or three and then it goes in the garbage. If it has a picture I save the picture part.

amother

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 12:00 am

I hang it on my wall and when the wall is full, I take a picture of all the arts and crafts, and discard those that she did not personally work hard on. Anything that has her picture, or that she drew or colored especially nice, I put aside in a box. After a while, we decide TOGETHER which ones we will keep. (My DD is 5, so she's more reasonable to deal with than a 2 year old)

jewels

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 2:55 am

I also felt so guilty throwing them out. I took pictures of all their nicest artwork, uploaded them to snapfish.com and then made a photo collage on their site. You just choose which pictures you want as part of the collage, what color background and they lay it out for you. I think they come in 11 x 14 and I framed it with a cheap clear frame. It's really inexpensive and my kids love that all their art is displayed. This works best with rectangle or square artwork since then you don't have any background in the picture but I've done it with different shapes, I just lay it out on a white paper.

BeershevaBubby

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 3:23 am

I just bought a looseleaf binder. Stuff goes up for a week, then into the binder when the new stuff comes home.

curlyhead

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 5:34 am

throw it out. Only save the nicer things. You could hang it up for a week before throwing it out. I would sit with my kids every once in a while and sort which stuff they want to keep and what is thrown out.

Sherri

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 5:45 am

jewels wrote:

Cool, new idea for me. I was going to say to take a pic and put into an album, saving special ones (like a previous poster mentioned), but making a poster is a great idea if you have where to put it!

Simple1

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 7:29 am

I posted a similar question before Sukkos but got no responses. I was wondering if you throw it out without the kids knowledge. Because once in a while they catch me throwing something out and get upset about it. And sometimes they find a long lost item and comment "I was wondering where this was!" So I feel very sneaky throwing their things out.

amother

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 12:11 pm

Simple1 wrote:

If they catch you throwing out their stuff, and ask you why, just say I didn't realize it was so important to you. I'm sorry.
Best not to lie and say it was a mistake, when it wasn't.

Simple1

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:14 pm

Sounds good. But was just wondering if it ever occurs to them that their things are missing. But now with older kids, I see they do realize that they need to get rid of things so that we don't overwhelm ourselves with clutter.

wwmom

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:20 pm

other ideas along the lines of taking pictures:
1) Save to a separate file/album of your computer, and let them view it as a slideshow e/ once in a while
2) at the end of the year, you can order an inexpensive flipbook from snapfish, and your child will be able to always look thru it.

curlytop

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:24 pm

Save it for a week or so, hang it on the fridge, we all say how nice it is, etc.
then chuck it embarrassed

I try to hide it in the garbage can, if they see it I blame the cleaning lady.
Hope my kids wont need therapy for this lol

BeershevaBubby

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:24 pm

I'd like to save it until the end of the year simply so I can see the progress he's made in going from vague squiggles to rudimentary stick figures, etc....

sky

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:26 pm

Most of my ideas were taken:
1. Mail to Bubby and Zaidy
2. Take a picture
3. Scan onto the computer. I save on Shutterfly to save with family

Everything is thrown out after a week.
The only thing I keep are succah decorations because I reuse those year to year.

amother

Mon, Oct 11 2010, 1:31 pm

Simple1 wrote:

Usually they forget about it. Once they are around 4 they will sometimes remember to ask for something. I will usually respond with I don't know where it is.