Do you save ALL of your child's art projects?

[Beth76]

OK, my son is 3 and goes to Mom's Day Out twice a week. They do a craft every day. They are very cute and my son loves to show them to me when I pick him up. It's the first thing he says, "Look Mommy, look what I made!"

Now, some of them he actually destroys on the way home. I throw them away when he's not looking and he doesn't miss them. Most of the time it's a craft that I can hang on the fridge. But, when that gets full, I throw some away to make room for the new ones. Am I a bad mom for throwing away his projects? Keep in mind that he's 3 and most of the projects are put together by his teachers and he just paints something on it or puts a handprint on it.

 

[Jolie C]

I save them until I have a huge stack of things and then I box them up and mail them to grandma!

 

[hipporina]

It's amazing to me how much stuff my kids make. I wouldn't feel bad about throwing it out at all. I was overwhelmed by everything my kids were bringing home from church and homeschooling at my mom's, so I came up with a system to deal with it all. I have a copy paper box for each child that I put everything into. Then at the end of the year, or when the box gets full, I go through and keep the best stuff. Then the rest goes into the trash. Then I get to start over for the next year.

 

[faithinkarma]

My kids are 30 and 26 and I still have some of their projects. I had saved them all, thinking they might like samples when they grew up. They thought I was nuts ! Go figure ! I ended up keeping some for myself and tossing the rest. Had I not been moving to another country, I would still have them.

PS
When I was working with young children, the mother I most wanted to ***** slap was the one whose child rushed eagerly up to her to show her what he had made, only to have her reply " don't tell me you have another piece of junk to hang on the fridge ". GRRRRRRRR

Anyone want to take a guess at how that kid turned out?

 

[cgcw]

Each of my kids have a box in their closet full of things. When they bring home a paper or make something, into the box it goes. When the box gets full, it's marked with a date and put up into the attic.

I have saved everything they have ever made. Being they are 4 & 9, that's a lot of stuff. Pack rat is my middle name.

 

[Beth76]

Originally posted by faithinkarma
When I was working with young children, the mother I most wanted to ***** slap was the one whose child rushed eagerly up to her to show her what he had made, only to have her reply " don't tell me you have another piece of junk to hang on the fridge ". GRRRRRRRR

Anyone want to take a guess at how that kid turned out?

Oh That's terrible. That's my favorite part of picking him up, seeing his project and how excited he is to show me. I love his projects. I just can't keep them ALL.

 

[jacksonsmom]

No I don't.
My son is just an art freak that I would have enough paper to make a fire marshall faint if I was to save it all!!!

BUT I NEVER throw away his art projects in front of him. Also when I do throw some away I make sure they are on the BOTTOM of the trash. That way he won't see it when he goes and throws something away.

I do save a lot of his art though. Especially anything with hand or feet prints. Those I could never throw away. I also saved the first art project he wrote his name on.

Sometimes Jackson's art is simply putting pom-pom balls on paper. Things like that usually get thrown away.

 

[pjlla]

I would say that I save 95% of the stuff. Each child has a box per school year.... as they bring it home, after we have had sufficient time to admire it, it goes in box... at the end of summer, after the VBS and Sunday school projects go in, the lid goes on, it gets labeled with name and school year, and into the appropriate closet it goes. DD is finishing 3rd grade and DS is finishing K. I have done this for both of them for both years of preschool all the way up to now. I'm sure at some point I will have to go through the boxes and reduce them significantly, but for now I have the space...................P

 

[ZachnElli]

Nope and I don't feel bad about it. They make so much stuff! Even when we go to restaurants and they draw or color on the kid menus they bring them home! No way am I saving that! They never see me throw them away. And I save the really special stuff, the stuff they worked especially hard on and the things I think they will remember when they get older.

 

[poohtown]

no, I don't save all of them. I do save all the really good ones though and I have a special art gallery. My upstairs hall has kids artwork framed in very simple wood frames of different size. Some of the work stays permantely while others make room for something new. The ones that come down go in a special file for each child. I have had more people come into my house and comment on that hall than any other thing in my house.

 

[Annette_VA]

My oldest is just turing 3 next month, so we're not fully into the whole crafting thing yet. He's starting preschool in the fall, so I'm sure the craft invasion will begin then.

One tip I read in a parenting magazine is to take pictures of the crafts. That way, you have a memory of them, but not a house full of craft projects. I'm hoping this will work for us!

 

[HappyMommy2]

My kids are 4 and 2 and make "crafts" at Sunday School and other activities. I have a scrapbook in which I save a very few of the most special items. We also send a few to DH who is deployed. Some are suitable for folding in half and making into greeting cards for grandparents. Still, there is too much of the boys' precious "artwork" lying around the house, so I have started arranging the remaining projects on a bed or the floor and taking a picture of them before throwing them away--the picture then goes into the scrapbook.

 

[Evil Princess]

My parents only saved a choice few (I took private art lessons for years, that stuff piles up), but my granmother saved EVERYTHING we ever made for her or at her house. Considering we went to her house every Sunday for dinner, that's alot of stuff. She has huge folders full of our work, it's nice looking through them from time to time.

 

[fluffernutter]

What I did with all my little sisters artwork was use it as giftwrap so relatives could enjoy some of her artwork and that way we wouldnt be "throwing it out"
-Marcy

 

[Mimi Q]

Yes, I save it all.

 

[LScot]

For artwork I save my favs and her favs.

But I keep every worksheet she does all year long, every school newsletter, every award, everything like that. I use a large 3 ring binder and it is all in order with page protectors. A page protector will hold like 50 sheets or so of seatwork. I put all the math in order and so on.

Why do I do this? I'm just that weird...

 

[Disney Princess 6]

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