Storing childs artwork

bestpud

lex wrote: »

This is an interesting one. I have all my school work from when I was at school, and really struggle to get rid of it.

I didn't want DD to go through the same thing, so I scan all her good pieces of artwork, and store them on the pc. Any models that we want to keep memories of, I take a digital photo of.

lex

I think I have the opposite problem in that nothing of mine has survived and I very much wish it had.

Guess there's a happy medium somewhere...

bestpud

dollydoodah wrote: »

Please someone tell me I am not the only one that 'stores' a lot of their child's artwork in the recycle bin ? :rolleyes: :rotfl:

Are you able to bin poor photos as well dollydoodah?

I only ask because I can't get rid of even the blurriest photos if they have one of my children on them either. It feels like I'm chucking a piece of them away.

Perhaps that's just me. Better stop now before you all think [know] I'm loopy! :rotfl:

Spendless

bestpud wrote: »

I think I have the opposite problem in that nothing of mine has survived and I very much wish it had.

I have a few (mainly books) but not many relics from my childhood due to us moving house to a place with smaller bedrooms when I was almost 12. I have nothing from primary school (for the same reason)and I threw away the stuff from secondary school a few years after I left. I treasure the stuff I do have and have always thought it's cos I only have a few things that I treasure them and a lot of stuff would overwhelm me and I'd not appreciate it as much. I just need to apply that train of thought to my own kids belongings.

*Louise*

bestpud wrote: »

I only ask because I can't get rid of even the blurriest photos if they have one of my children on them either. It feels like I'm chucking a piece of them away.

Perhaps that's just me. Better stop now before you all think [know] I'm loopy! :rotfl:

Actually - I know what you mean.

If it's only a bit blurry, but you can still see what the pic is of, I keep it, and just put it behind one of the other pics in the photo album...:D

squashy

Well i've just had my 30th birthday and my best present was a "nostalgia box" from my mum containing some old school books and pictures and other momentoes from my childhood from my hospital wristband to my signed shirt from the last day of school!

HariboJunkie

All artwork in our house is either framed in a clipframe for their bedroom wall, laminated and put in their memory box, or binned.

I'm keeping one schoolbook from each year.

Photos are organised into one album per year of the best photos. Not so good photos are in shoeboxes in a trunk and bad photos are binned.

I'd really recommend laminating some artwork as it prevents it getting raggedy and yellow and laminators are very cheap to buy.

splishsplash

I have one drawer of a large filing cabinet filled with 'the early years' - all the first copybooks, all the artwork, everything. They keep more recent masterpieces that they want to in their bedrooms. In another drawer, in my personal folders are all the letters to Santa and the Tooth Fairy, my pregnancy notes on each of them, their hospital wrist bands and cards received on their births (and to be perfectly honest, I'd forgotten I had all that stuff until now!).
I also have a journal - I started it when my first child was a few weeks old, and haven't written into it for quite a few years. It includes my feelings as a new mum, what she was like as a tiny baby, my hopes and dreams for her, and as my other two children were born, it grew to include them too. I think that only has about 20 pages of writing in it...
We also have lots of photos, although my daughters have depleted the stocks somewhat by making storyboards etc.
We have old camcorder footage of Christmas, holidays and birthday parties from when they were around four or five.
Gosh, it sounds like I'm a hoarder, which is quite funny - I'm the opposite in most areas!
My kids (eldest now is 15) love to look through these things every so often - much more than I do, and as long as they are interested, I won't get rid of them.
What I did think of doing, was getting an old filing cabinet that could be filled up as much as they want, and store it in the garden shed?

pulliptears

Im an art student, so Ive always got work floating around My suggestion would be an A2 sized folder:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/0210175/Trail/searchtext%3EPORTFOLIO.htm

These sometimes appear in Lidl for £4.99 as well, but they are good quality plastic folio's with zips and will keep everything just right.

3plus1

This is slightly at a tangent, but...

I can still remember the moment when I realised none of the 'big people' valued my 'projects' in quite the same way as I did... Found something I'd made for my class teacher lying in the bin. She'd quite obviously chucked it.

That was the year when I stopped putting any effort into my school work. What was the point? Everything would get chucked anyway.

The next year, I had a very good class teacher who realised that there was a bright child underneath all of the sulking and resentment, and she encouraged me to reach my full potential. I owe that woman a lot - she's the one who taught me that I had to work hard for myself, even if no one else cared how I did. It's a big life lesson to learn at nine, and it's slightly ridiculous that it came about because of a binned piece of artwork, but children learn things in the most unlikely of places.

The teachers I had in sixth form obviously had a huge impact on me getting into university... But I do honestly think that the woman who taught me when I was nine was equally responsible for that.

Anyway, my point is, that it hurts when you discover that people are throwing away the precious rubbish you make at school. If you must bin it, don't hide that fact from the child. It really does hurt. (14 years on, and I still remember how it feels!!)

PS I think the idea of scanning artwork and keeping it only in digital form is not a bad compromise.

bestpud

*Louise* wrote: »

Actually - I know what you mean.

If it's only a bit blurry, but you can still see what the pic is of, I keep it, and just put it behind one of the other pics in the photo album...:D

Lol, that's what I do with them too!

Squashy - that's the kind of gift I would love to receive but I know it won't happen as there is nothing left. Haven't even got my original birth certificate.

3plus1 - your post made me feel really sad for you. That's the feeling I get when I think of trying to bin this stuff!

I feel like I'm rejecting a piece of my children rather than throwing out a piece of paper and doing so will really hurt them - even if they are unaware of it!

Anyways, I am going to get a folder and some wallets to store so much in and will scan some of it, including rotated views of the more 3D stuff. At least that way they will have something they can easily look through and I won't feel I am chucking them.

Thanks for all the replies, it's been interesting to see what you all do.