This week was our last week of school. Finally!! The poor kids had to make up hurricane and blizzard days. Getting out of school the week before 4th of July, seriously! Just get rid of February vacation and leave them with one week in spring for vacation. I would rather enjoy a week in June then the pits of snow and ice in February. Sorry, back to the post.
Every day this week the boys have been sent home with copious amounts of completed school work. Folders upon folders of art work, writing, and worksheets. It’s been a complete overload. I wasn’t sure what do with it all. Part of me just wanted to toss it all in the trash, and part of me wanted to cling to every little page they wrote on. Sentimental Sally had to go and I needed to get to business. My dining room table was covered.
The key to going through school work for me is making sure my husband is not home. He would keep EVERYTHING, bless his heart. I on the other hand, being the rational Virgo that I am, know that we can’t keep everything and we need to get this shit organized or I’ll get loopy.
The Process
Make one pile for each child.
Toss all math worksheets
Toss all letter work sheets (seriously who wants to look back on them writing 9 “A”s on a line. Really?
Toss the doodles. I’m not sure what exactly my kindergartener was doing in class all day but he came home with lots of little drawings. (any good ones, put in a pile*)
Create one Art Folder and one Writing Folder for each child.
Sort. You don’t need to keep every little thing they have written. Go through it. Try to be selective. Keep the meaningful family memories or the things that make you laugh like this one…
This one was a great memory and I love his perspective. It’s a keeper. Poor Patch-Eye Jack.
I made one folder for writing, one for artwork, and kept all of their achievement awards. Each kid has one Pendeflex folder for each grade and into a file cabinet they go. Now of course they did have some artwork which was pretty fantastic but too big for a file folder. For such pieces I have an under-the-bed Rubbermaid container. They all go in there. Someday they may get tossed, but for now they’re safe and preserved.
Note to all parents: Please dispose of the trash before anyone sees it!! Tossing a Popsicle stick away and seeing a drawing you made in the trash is just plain hurtful.
*scribbles and sticky figures…you don’t need to save more than two.
Good luck to you all in your attempts to get through the end of the school year chaos. Enjoy your summer and don’t be a hoarder.
Just like your mother (thankfully). I still have stuff from nursery school. None of it organized of course.
I wish I had your organizing abilities! I have a pile from both of mine that are waiting to go into their “school years” books but I take comfort in the fact that I too snuck a lot of stuff into the trash when the kids and hubby weren’t at home. Sometimes I feel guilty that I don’t keep more, but seriously, mine are only going into 1st and 3rd grade and our house would already be half full of nothing but their papers!
That looks like a practical way of dealing with the hoards of paperwork that comes home at the end of the school year. I still have bits & pieces from my kids – even a few special pieces from when I was at school – all in a bin in the storage room. Some of it does make good memories, the rest is junk, so it was trashed – but, as you said, never when small eyes were watching! 🙂