Schools Finally Out,

May 29, 2008

But what do you do with all the papers and crafts that come home at the end the school year? Forrest just finished his third year of schooling. Each year I seem to have to deal with more papers and projects every year. At first I was trying to keep everything in a binder, but I then had a picture in my mind of Forrest having to have a U-haul to take all of his school stuff when he moves out. Last year I came up with the art wall.
Anytime he has a new picture we hang it on his art wall. At the end of the school year I take a picture with Forrest and all of his pictures. Another idea is to lay at all of his art on the floor and also take a picture. This way I am not trying to save every picture he has ever made. At the end of the school year I try to keep at least one art project and maybe one piece of work that shows his personality, like a story or a question and answer worksheet. This year I have been faced with a dilemma. Forrest has numerous items that don't fit nicely into a binder, but I would still like to keep. I stumbled upon this idea in Family Fun to use Priority Mail boxes to store art projects in. The best thing about these boxes is they are free. You can order them at usps.com or pick them up at your local post office. Being the lazy person I am I had them shipped to me, also free of charge. Other things I like to do is video tape Forrest on his last day of school talking about his friends, his school work and his teacher. Hopefully one day I will put these all on a DVD for him. This isn't a perfect system, but hopefully it will hold until I figure out a more permanent system. My goals is for Forrest to only have one or two binders filled with his school work. That way he will treasure what I have worked so hard to save and not consider it just junk that needs to be thrown away.