Inventive ideas for storing kids work
We’re well and truly into the school holidays but if you are a parent or carer of school age children there is a good chance you still have stacks of your kids’ school books and artwork lying around the house, getting in the way and collecting dust.
It’s difficult to decide what to keep and what to throw away but if we’re honest with ourselves, some ‘drawings’ really aren’t very impressive and don’t seem worth keeping for memory’s sake. Whilst hand and footprints are irreplaceable, scribbles and blobs are perhaps not.
We encourage you to be fairly ruthless with what you keep; you only need a snapshot of each year. Allow your children to select a few pieces of work that they are genuinely proud of. Also keep work that shows progression, possibly the first piece of writing they did at the beginning of the school year and one that they did at the end of the year. The same goes for maths and topic work.
There are tonnes of ideas online for archiving your kid’s work, but a lot of them are hard work and time consuming, still resulting in box upon box (which you will then have store for years). Scrap booking is excellent and rather creative, but realistically, who has the time?
We’ve been looking around for clever ways to store and display your kids treasured school work.
Stationery box
Stationery boxes probably are the easiest and most attractive way of storing your children’s school work/artwork/certificates. Simply cut or carefully tear out the work your child want to keep and place in the box. We wouldn’t recommend having a box for each year group, but possibly each Key Stage or one box per child. Don’t forget to date the piece of work or at least put the year group. There is also spot for a label on the front of the box.
Ring binder
Not the most aesthetically pleasing option but probably the most efficient way of organising your kid’s school work using
Ring Binders. You can use dividers to separate each year group and plastic document wallets to protect their treasured pieces.
Frame it!
These
wall frames not only allow you to regularly change/rotate your kid’s artwork, but they’ll also store up to 50 more pieces behind it.
Personalised gifts
Oh, how we love the digital age! With the help of a scanner, you can reduce those piles of papers in a flash. Plus, it makes it incredibly easy to
transfer their work onto just about anything; bags, clothes, coffee cups, phone covers and other merchandise. These make great gifts for grandparents!
Photobooks
Free your fridge! There are only so many pictures you can hang on your fridge and over time they tend to fade and get crumpled. Again, using a scanner, you can preserve your children’s artwork/stories and using one of the many online photo printing companies create your own
photobook. Also a great rainy day activity if you find yourself stuck indoors this summer.
Create a collage
Splash out less than a tenner and use this template to create a gorgeous
collage of your children’s artwork. Word of warning you do need basic Photoshop skills.
Coffee table art book
We mentioned photobooks before but this is a great idea for those pieces that can’t be framed or stored easily. Simply take a photo of the 3D object (e.g. jewellery, hama beads, Lego, pompoms etc.) and using a piece of software like PhotoWorks upload them and edit to create a stunning
coffee table book.
Compilation of your child’s work
This has to be the most stunning one we came across but does come with a hefty price-tag. With a bit of research we’re sure there must be a cheaper alternative. All you need is a bit of creativity, a scanner, printer, scissors, glue stick and an IKEA frame; you could probably fashion your own
compilation of your children’s work.
Transfer to a t-shirt
You could have this done professionally, using similar services to those mentioned above, but why not try creating your own transfers? Print the image onto some
transfer paper, cut out and iron on.
Turn drawings into a 3D statue
This is probably the coolest idea in terms of tech. Turn your child’s 2D drawing into a
3-D figurine, preserving the memory long after the paper has disintegrated.
Do you…
- Keep every single bit of work your kid’s make
- Throw it all out or
- Are you selective in what you keep?
Let us know in the comments below! We’d also love to hear your ideas on ways to store children’s work.
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