By Corey~living and loving | Leave A Comment
Last Fall, my daughter started her first year of pre-school. Each day after school, she would proudly clutch the evidence of her learning. Soon, atop many surfaces of our home were piles of beautiful artwork and worksheets.
Being that I am one of THOSE sentimental mothers, I could hardly handle throwing a single one away. After a few months, it quickly became apparent that I had to find a solution that would satisfy my want to document my daughters progress, while not cluttering up our house.
Photographing a variety of pieces each week, tossing away all but a VERY select few of the originals, and storing the photos in a designated folder on my external hard drive was the ticket I was looking for.
I have found it a joy to go back and browse through photos of her paperwork, and every couple years, I plan on making a DVD slideshow to easily see her progress.
My house thankfully free of schoolwork piles, I get to keep all the memories I desire, and they will last much longer than the originals would have. I have no doubt that my daughter will also cherish these photos when she grows up.
This Fall, as we are working into her second year of pre-school, it has already been fun to compare the photos with last year’s. Her growth and development has been amazing.
This idea is not limited to schoolwork, of course. I also make a habit of photographing her easel paintings, and any and all craft projects we do here at home as well. It might just be me….but I find children’s artwork so satisfyingly beautiful.
Now go forth and declutter your own growing paper piles. You’ll won’t regret it.
It is a picture perfect idea!
ABOUT Corey~living and loving
Corey finds herself blissfully caught between mothering her adored Sugar Bear, and her budding passi{read more}
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I think your last photo, the primary colors, is art in its own right.
i have a 15 month old so i have just started this project, but my plan is to have them bound into a book like one from blurb.com each year so that i can have a hard copy to flip through and put on the shelf.
What a wonderful idea. Thank you for sharing!!
I too take photos of my kids work and put it on his blog. It really saves space keeping all those pieces of work he brings back every term.
That is soo funny I’m a military wife and stay at home and in preparation for our next move I letting go a lot of books. See the military will move you but only up to a certain weight and then you get charged by the pound. The catch is you won’t know your over weight until it’s already packed and weighed. So it force us to declutter and downsize every move. Which is really good for me being a pack rat. I started on a whim taking pictures of a couple craft projects I just didn’t think I’d be able to find again and then IT struck me. So many of my craft books I picked up for just a few crafts or less and all that paper adds up. Now that there are three of us it made since to get rid of the heavier things first. So I grab a stack of books and flip through them. If there are a lot of things I want I keep the whole book but I take pictures of the other individual crafts in books with just a few items.
I’ve also started digitizing old photos “just in case” a move goes bad and a box gets wets or worse lost.
I like your idea as well my little guy is only 2 but we already have started our art projects so I think making them into a book will be great! Thanks for the idea!
What a great idea!! I wonder if I will have to strength to part with the originals.
What a great idea! My daughter always has a TON of art! And although we have an art portfolio where she is supposed to store it, it gets full pretty quickly!!
I will have to see how she feels about this!
Children’s artwork is satisfying – so is the way you photograph it. What a fantastic idea. Wish I had thought of it 19 years ago…
I love Corey’s blog – so full of love and living the life…
I do this with my daughter’s art work as well!
Since my memory is terrible, it also gives me an opportunity to record the who, when, where and what the heck it is.
This is a wonderful idea! I think it could be used to document just about anything around the house.
such a fantastic idea! you could even use a program like shutterfly or mypublisher to create a simple and adorable bound photobook of the artwork! could make a fun gift for grandparents and such!
What a fabulous idea. I have a whole drawer full of papers that could be photographed. Love this!!
Thanks for the reminder! I am usually too quick to toss the papers, but taking pictures of them is a great way to remember the progress they’ve made.
Just wanted to let you know that I linked to your post in my post here: http://nagle5.blogspot.com/2009/01/digital-camera-for-cleaning-and.html Thanks for getting me thinking in a new direction…even if our paths completely diverged!
What a great idea! I’ve been scanning in a few, but they stack up and I procrastinate. Never thought of just taking a quick snap! Thanks for sharing this!
I love this idea in theory, but then I just can’t get myself to throw the originals away. It’s the smell and texture of the artwork that speaks to me. And the few pieces my Mom saved for me from my childhood have become treasures for us.
I think is the best way to do it if you have more than one child, or the papers can get overwhelming, or even musty or moldy if you live in a high humidity state. Just scan them in, or photo them in and then transfer/copy onto an external disc or drive.
This idea would also work with magazine ideas and articles. Take a pic of the ones you like and recycle the rest of the magazine!
What a great idea! My little one isn’t old enough for me to be having the “to throw it away or not to throw it away” debate with myself, but it was surely coming. Thanks for saving me from the pain of decision-making! lol