6 Easy Ideas for Managing Your Child’s Artwork
It’s that time again: the start of school. For many of us moms, it’s the start of pre-school. My kids have been in pre-school for about four weeks now (and my mental health is the better for it!) Lucy is in the 2-year old class, so she brings artwork or little projects home twice a week. Eli, 1, goes once a week, and doesn’t bring anything home yet.
I love that the kids get to do fun projects at pre-school. I love seeing how proud Lucy is when she shows me what she did, and listening to her cute voice describe it: “What did you make, Lucy?” “A col-LAGE!” Another new word in her ever-expanding vocabulary.
So this is just the beginning. Soon, artwork is going to start piling up all around us if we don’t have a plan of action for what to do with it. I’m sure lots of you moms know what I’m talking about. What happens when there’s no more room on the fridge?
Thanks to ideas I’ve read in various magazines over the past couple of years, I’ve acquired some helpful tips for this issue. I don’t really take credit for these ideas – except for #1 and #3, which I just thought of as I was writing this post. I hope this helps you prevent mountains of construction paper from forming in your house & car!
- Turn your laundry room or spare wall into a gallery. As I mentioned last
week, my house has out-of-date wallpaper. In our laundry room – a place where I spend a fair amount of time each week, and also the room we walk through to get to the garage – the wallpaper is pretty busy. So I started taping up the kids’ artwork and projects. Every day that Lucy brings home something new, she helps me pick out a spot on the wall, and up it goes. It’s her artwork-central. She loves it. I get to appreciate it, and the less of that wallpaper I see, the better. - Take pictures of the artwork as it comes in, and save them in a special folder on your computer. Then the opportunities are endless: use the pictures for your screensaver, or make a photo year book for each school year!
- Create a blog just for their artwork. Give the address to family members and friends so they can comment. The kids will love the praise on their own special webpage!
- Mail pieces of artwork to distant relatives. Not only does this get it out of your house, it gives Grandma a special surprise amid her bills!
- Keep a special portfolio, box or file for each of your childrens’ work. At the end of each quarter or semester (or any time you feel is necessary), sit down with your child and the artwork, and do a cleanout. Have them choose their 5 best pieces, and save them in the portfolio with the dates and their signature. Then decide what you will do with the rest. Tell your child that any of options 2-4 are acceptable, but it’s time to make room in the portfolio for new things that come in. Not only does this whittle down the amount of paper you’ve got at home, it gives your child ownership in what is kept, and even helps develop a critically-thinking mind.
- Frame your favorite pieces to be hung on the walls. I saw a picture of this in the latest Real Simple; the decorator created a collage on the wall of framed family pictures and artwork. It was really cool and colorful.
Surely there are other ideas and tips out there for cherishing the work of each of our little Picassos, Monets, or better yet, Dalis. 
What have you done?
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Wow! What great ideas!
I love the idea of taking pictures of the artwork. Then you could make a picture collage that takes up less space. I have been keeping some artwork in a giant posterboard size folder for a while now.
I like the laundry room idea but we have a basement that doesn’t really have any good wall space. Actually there is one wall that might work. I’ll have to try it.
We also have some IKEA metal strips (that we have not yet hung up) for the boys’ room to hang the art work of the week in.
These are fantastic ideas, Dawn! I am planning on doing number 4, but just haven’t done it yet. I have been saving artwork from Annabelle’s MDO to mail to my mother. I know she will love them.
Amelia, I have seen the IKEA metal strips before and those are pretty cool.
I think you can also use some string and clothes pins to hang in their room.
Or maybe hang a special bulletin board in the house just for their art.
For now, we do have one piece proudly displayed on the fridge. It is fun, because Annabelle has just started creating fun artwork.
I do something that wasn’t mentioned – but it’s a bit like the second suggestion. I scan my favorites, and then create a digital scrapbook page. This is a “drawing” Jake did when he was 3 or so. http://www.designerdigitals.com/ddgallery/showphoto.php?photo=13956&ppuser=165 It’s fun and makes storing all those paper scraps more doable.
Dawn, those are all great ideas! Seriously, I’m getting out my camera right now to make a “virtual scrapbook.”
I just got done reading this month’s issue of FAMILY FUN (which I LOVE!!) and they gave some really great tips for displaying art work as well. My favorite one was displaying them in old picture frames. You get old picture frames of different sizes (thrift store) paint them a solid color, then remove all glass and backings from them. Nail them to the wall in a collage. Nail a small binder clip to the wall inside each one. Then the kids clip their favorite pieces in the frames. This is now my weekend project. I can’t wait to get this up in my house!!!
I was going to display the art with a close line look. I got this idea from IKEA. Just hang up thin metal wire. Then you display the art work with binder clips. I think IKEA actually sells a kit for this but I was going to make mine with things we had around the house.
Great Info! I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter. I saw this on KABB (Fox News) and had to check it out! Very Nice!
Great ideas! I also use the artwork as wallpaper, but I do it on the doors of my daughter and son’s rooms. That way they get to see them more often. You just of course have to be careful to only use the tape that won’t damage the door! We have a seasonal table in our home to celebrate the time of year. I sometimes include the children’s artwork on the table or on a wall near the table. For example, we made a table runner for the table this fall by gluing leaves to wax paper. A nativity scene my son made is now the centerpiece of the table for the holidays. You get the idea.