Are you overflowing with your children’s pictures and artwork? If you are like me, I am keeping my children’s artwork and homework. If I didn’t have a particular reason for keeping it all, I would tell you choose a couple of pieces every few weeks to hold onto and follow this system to help you keep those piles organized.
How to Organize your Children’s Artwork
So now onto why I am keeping my kids artwork and homework; about a year ago my oldest son was having some minor issues in his preschool class. The teacher suggested we get him some assistance or at least check with our family doctor. Well after a few months we finally did. We didn’t think anything was going on with our son but that he was just shy and not a big participator in his class, but as we were able to observe him in his class we noticed a big difference between him and the rest of the kids.
At this time in our lives we are getting Speech therapy – receptive learning for him and so for us it is imperative to keep every single homework or artwork for the next year so we can see if there is any progress. So here is how I have found to organize all those papers and will be so easy for us to go back each week by week to see his progress.
So let’s get started.
7 Steps to Organize your Child’s Artwork
1. Get a 2-3inch Binder for each kid. To make it easier color coordinates by their favorite color. You may want to do one binder per year or for every 6 months depending on how much you are saving.
2. Get page protectors. You will want one page protector for each week for each kid per school year. You can purchase a pack of 10 protectors from Dollar Tree for $1 or get 200 for under $12 on Amazon.
3. Label each binder with the child’s name. We’ve had problems with the school system getting our two boys mixed up so be sure to label each binder with your child’s name. Add a picture of the child to the inside of the binder!
4. Let each child decorate their own Binder. Let them use stickers, or color markers if using a white binder. This will help them get excited about keep their school work organized and will become a routine. Let’s help our kids learn good organization skills as they are younger.
5. Label each Weekly Page Protector. Make sure to Label each page protector with each week date. You will want to do this for all the weeks of the school year and don’t wait to label each week as it comes. Make sure to have a school calendar so you know when their breaks and start and finish dates of the school year.
6. File projects and paperwork as soon as it come in the house. As projects and papers come in immediately put them in the sleeve protector for that week and don’t let them pile up on the kitchen table. If you don’t do them right away it takes a lot longer to try and organize them later.
7. Determine how you will store the Binders. Will you be putting them all on a bookshelf or just the ones for the current year while you store the others in plastic bins? Make sure you have a plan in mind where you will be storing them. Having the plastic bins is a great way to start organizing other items for each child you want to save for them when they get older like their first outfit or first toy, etc. Placing these binders in there will allow them to decide if they want to keep them or not. Be sure after the end of the school year you put away the binder and start getting the new one for the next year ready. Save some time and be prepared.
Check how you can organize your Child’s School Work Digitally.
Topic: How to Organize your Children’s Artwork