A big thank you to Apologia for sponsoring this series…
We sure do love our homeschoolers’ art projects … but I think we’d all admit we don’t really love managing it all. I’ve come up with a few creative tips to manage art masterpieces!
The first and best idea I can offer to manage art masterpieces is to get rid of it. WAIT! I mean, lovingly pass it along. Each week I set aside which craft projects are going to bless Gramme, Papa, Aunt Lisa, and Great Aunt Alyce.
This is a great idea for a few reasons!
1. these family members are not online and do not see every single Instagram shot!
2. they love kid art and have the refrigerator space to spare.
3. it’s a fun way they can keep up with our school projects.
4. cheap holiday gifts.
Keep a separate folder for the masterpieces you’re going to mail. Pick one day each month to mail it all out <~ this is perfect timing to incorporate “social studies”, mailing, addresses, or a field trip to the post office too! {you’re welcome} If you have more kids or daily piles of art just mail the stuff out weekly. Be sure to put recipients on rotation.
The second idea I have to manage art masterpieces is to file it away in your child’s own accordion file folder. These are great because they have the space to fill up fat and it gives your child the responsibility to decide what they want to keep and what is not worthy to keep. Perfect opportunity for practicing first time decision-making on a non death or life issue! (ok, I know – throwing away art work feels like death or life to little ones, but you know what I mean!)
Every few months or at the end of your school year go through those files and help decide if the child still wants to keep something. Once a huge Star Wars fan my son is no longer as interested in keeping those favorite sketches.
We started purchasing spiral notebooks, with the reminder, “do not tear out the pages”. Keeping them intact makes for super easy storage. Notebooks are also a great idea to bring along to turn a field trip into an art field trip.
Another idea to manage art masterpieces is to frame them and hang them up. I realize some interior decorator would have a major heart attack if they walked into my dining room, but we love the kid decorated room. And my boys love seeing how much we want to display their hard work in our home. Actions speak louder than words, so rather than compliment artwork – hang it up!
My last idea to manage art masterpieces is to install cork board. We have two walls in my son’s room for his absolutely favorite sketches, drawings, etc. Once a board is full it’s up to him to decide if he wants to keep the drawing/sketch or chunk it. If you do not have the desire to hang cork think about putting up string and paper clipping art work to the string itself.
These are our favorite ways to manage art masterpieces, Please share yours!
This post was written for The Homeschool Village by:
Stef Latyon is wife to Thad, a golf course architect, and homeschool mom to two hands-on active boys. When she’s not planning the next great field trip, she enjoys yoga and tennis. Stef created The Homeschool Village in 2010. She shares fun tactile learning projects as well as intentional parenting tips at EducatingLaytons.com.
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