Organized School Work

School papers. Sigh. It can be overwhelming, huh? I can't keep everything my precious little ones bring home from school, but I don't want to throw it all away either. Like their first little Mother's Day handprint flowers...or the first time they wrote their names...or those adorable research projects they do for Open House...those are keepers!! But what in the world do I do with all that stuff? That is the million dollar question. (Well, not really the million dollar question, but it's a good one, right?!?)

Last year when both children were in school (Channing in kinder, Chaz in preschool) I was pretty good about weeding through the school work they brought home. Some of it I hung on the fridge for a few weeks. Some of it I trashed after looking at it. Some of it I knew I wanted to keep, but didn't know how I wanted to organize that. So I got a gallon ziplock bag for each child, wrote their name and the school year on the outside of it, and started collecting the darling creations I wanted to save. I thought I would go back at the end of the school year and figure out what to do (certain that I would have come up with a brilliant plan by that time).

At the end of the year, I realized that most of the work I wanted to keep fit quite nicely inside those gallon ziplock bags. So that's where it stayed. Like this:

And my idea was born. 

I know there are a great number of other ideas (probably much better than my own)...like scanning the work and keeping a digital copy, but at the heart of things I'm just not that fancy. I like to keep it simple. Plus there is just something about going back and holding those memories of when they were younger in my hand. And I know as they get older, there will be less and less of those little keepsakes. 

Now go look through those school papers sitting in a pile on your kitchen table. It's never too late to start organizing them!! :)

XOXO,

M