Organizing Your Child's School Work...

I'm sure you all have it together in the the organizational department, but I will admit that I don't.  I hope you don't have your kid's school work from the previous three years just sitting in a bin like I do here.  What a mess!  And now that it's almost November, this years school work is piling up on my kid's dressers.  It's about time I did something about it.

Oh, and don't forget this one here.  It's stuffed so tightly the seams are about to burst!

I wanted to share a little afternoon project with you that helped me get a system in place for school work I wanted to keep for sentimental reasons and to just see how much they've grown.  


Now, I have two kids and both kids work was mixed up in those bins and bags.  There were even school fliers and things that I have no idea why I kept.  Let me tell you right off, this will not be fun, but it will be satisfying when you are finished.  

First off, you'll need to get some 2 gallon sized zipper bags.  These are from my local grocery store and cost around $2.  My daughter Halle is now in third grade with two years of preschool and my son Colin is in first grade with two years of preschool.  I decided to lump their two years of preschool together just to make it a little easier on myself.  So, I needed 5 bags for Halle (preschool, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade) and 3 bags for Colin (preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st grade).  These bags are great because they keep things separate and waterproof.

Now, dig in to that school work and separate it by grade and child.  You need to be ruthless.  I didn't save any worksheets, coloring book pages, or anything that didn't show individuality.  If it didn't have a name on it, I pitched it.  You can't keep everything, but you do want to keep art work (unless your daughter has a knack for drawing the same exact puppy or princess  over and over and you have 200 of the same picture).  I also kept anything involving creative writing.  I love seeing their perspectives on things and those are things they will really get a kick out of seeing later in life.  Some of their past teachers created a sort of scrapbook of the year which is wonderful and have been saved as well.  I believe I included a class picture in each bag along with their report cards.

After it's all said and done, here's what I'm left with (and an overflowing recycling bin).  They each have a zipper bag in their rooms for the current school year.  I have noticed that the largest bags are from preschool and they start getting smaller from there.  I guess they must do a lot less arts and crafts and a lot more reading and work sheets the older they get.  The bags from this current year don't have very much in them yet compared to last year's bags.  


Going forward I've been throwing out graded worksheets as they bring them home, after they spend some time on the refrigerator.  Creative writing and art work and other projects go in their respective bags after being hung on the fridge.

Have a great day!

PS.  If you are inspired to do this in your home, make sure you put the finished bags away, maybe in a closet or keepsake chest of some sort.  You won't feel as satisfied if they are laying in the middle of your living room for two weeks, trust me, I know these things :)