School has started for our as well your children. These sweethearts bring home more not only brighter smiles and fresh knowledge but also fill up our homes with more paper! I can’t find an empty corner in a week on my refrigerator if I do not treasure my young Picasso’s art work.
Are your walls almost wallpapered with that art work? Do you have difficulty finding that important phone number that you posted on your refrigerator last Monday? Wait!!!!! Don’t start looking for a bigger house just yet - I have used couple of quick solutions to solve my display dilemmas that take up very little space and requires very little time out of your busy schedule as well (if done routinely).
* Create a simple art portfolio using two pieces of poster board taped together on three sides. Leave the third side/top, open for dropping in artwork as it is received. You can use this same principle for other schoolwork as well. Each day, or week, when your daughter or son brings home her treasured work, write the date on the back and drop it into the portfolio for safekeeping. You might want to replace the "display of the week" with the new one, and file the old one away.At the end of the semester or quarter (ok, could be every summer if you are busy mom like me ), it will be time to purge your portfolio. Begin by sorting by type of art: paintings, drawings, collage, mosaic, seasonal, writing samples, tests, awards, etc. Then choose a sampling from each category, perhaps several scattered throughout the school year.File the keepsakes, and get rid of the rest. (I have been doing that religiously since my first born went to kindergarten seven years ago.) If you can't bear to throw them away, recycle them by giving them to relatives. Scan the artwork, email it to relatives, and throw away the original. You can also turn that scanned graphic into note cards, stationary, or greeting cards.If your child can't bear the thought of you tossing any of her artistic samples away (well who does?), DARE to delegate this task to her. Move the storage into her room with her things, and let her be in charge of sorting, dating, stashing, and even purging. Amazing how they will decide they can actually bear to part with things when their closet is filling up faster than they can find storage containers!
* Purchase a stackable cardboard storage chest from your favorite organizing company. These sturdy units have removable drawers to fill with archived treasures, then stack vertically to conserve space. Use them as your sole art storage system, or for "keepers" only with the portfolio system as mentioned above.
* Someone has wisely said “A picture is worth the thousand words.” If storage is really a concern, take photographs of your daughter's artwork and discard the original. Either take individual pictures, or line them up for a group shot. A disposable camera kept on hand is a perfect solution for this task, or you can use a Polaroid camera and take them individually.Dedicate a special photo album or box for these treasures to be shared and enjoyed.
Encourage your child’s creativity, and eliminate the terror you once felt as you saw them dragging an oversized self-portrait out of their backpack. Create a home in which these masterpieces can safely and securely reside for years to come. Share them with friends and family, preserve them, and relish the creativity of your blooming Artist….save the wallpapering job for another day.
Are your walls almost wallpapered with that art work? Do you have difficulty finding that important phone number that you posted on your refrigerator last Monday? Wait!!!!! Don’t start looking for a bigger house just yet - I have used couple of quick solutions to solve my display dilemmas that take up very little space and requires very little time out of your busy schedule as well (if done routinely).
* Create a simple art portfolio using two pieces of poster board taped together on three sides. Leave the third side/top, open for dropping in artwork as it is received. You can use this same principle for other schoolwork as well. Each day, or week, when your daughter or son brings home her treasured work, write the date on the back and drop it into the portfolio for safekeeping. You might want to replace the "display of the week" with the new one, and file the old one away.At the end of the semester or quarter (ok, could be every summer if you are busy mom like me ), it will be time to purge your portfolio. Begin by sorting by type of art: paintings, drawings, collage, mosaic, seasonal, writing samples, tests, awards, etc. Then choose a sampling from each category, perhaps several scattered throughout the school year.File the keepsakes, and get rid of the rest. (I have been doing that religiously since my first born went to kindergarten seven years ago.) If you can't bear to throw them away, recycle them by giving them to relatives. Scan the artwork, email it to relatives, and throw away the original. You can also turn that scanned graphic into note cards, stationary, or greeting cards.If your child can't bear the thought of you tossing any of her artistic samples away (well who does?), DARE to delegate this task to her. Move the storage into her room with her things, and let her be in charge of sorting, dating, stashing, and even purging. Amazing how they will decide they can actually bear to part with things when their closet is filling up faster than they can find storage containers!
* Purchase a stackable cardboard storage chest from your favorite organizing company. These sturdy units have removable drawers to fill with archived treasures, then stack vertically to conserve space. Use them as your sole art storage system, or for "keepers" only with the portfolio system as mentioned above.
* Someone has wisely said “A picture is worth the thousand words.” If storage is really a concern, take photographs of your daughter's artwork and discard the original. Either take individual pictures, or line them up for a group shot. A disposable camera kept on hand is a perfect solution for this task, or you can use a Polaroid camera and take them individually.Dedicate a special photo album or box for these treasures to be shared and enjoyed.
Encourage your child’s creativity, and eliminate the terror you once felt as you saw them dragging an oversized self-portrait out of their backpack. Create a home in which these masterpieces can safely and securely reside for years to come. Share them with friends and family, preserve them, and relish the creativity of your blooming Artist….save the wallpapering job for another day.
Comments
oh well i guess i'll need to know it one day ...
You are good writer!
Guru Raakha!