Uncategorized

The Art Situation

Honestly, we don’t do a lot of art at home with Henry. I really should work on rectifying that situation, but for now I’ll focus on the topic of this post: dealing with art that comes home from school. 

There are so many things I feel all at once when Henry brings up a big pile of art from school:
  • Where can we hang this so Henry feels honored? 
  • Do we have to hang all of this?  
  • What do we do with it when it’s done being hung? 
  • How am I simultaneously a nostalgic hoarder and a relentless purger? 
So here’s the system we’ve been using lately that is working for us:
  1. Big pile comes home. 
  2. I put some of the pieces in these plastic frames on the fridge. The frames help it feel not too cluttered to me. 
  3. Other pieces I take photos of using the Artkive app and then recycle when Henry isn’t looking. 
  4. When more piles come in, I repeat the process. I plan to keep one to two pieces a year in his scrapbook, but the rest will be scrapbooked electronically. I will print a book for him of all his art/work when I amass enough to make it interesting. I read this review of printing from the Artkive app to a book and it sounds really promising. 

3 Comments

  • Melanie

    Hi, Sara!

    Thanks so much for linking to my review of Artkive. I really do love their service and the fact that I can do everything from taking photos of projects to ordering and designing my book direct from my phone. 🙂

    Melanie

  • Kristy

    Kudos to you for keeping or documenting everything that comes home! I'll keep a few of the nicer pieces on the fridge and then once or twice/year put a couple pieces away in our accordion folder for saving. All the rest go into recycling. I can't imagine what it will be like with more than one child in school since my other two are not yet school age. I think I might use the app to take photos of our saved collection. I have a hard time keeping stuff but I like the thought of saving things digitally and not necessarily having to produce anything with them but having the ability to if the kids are interested when they get older.

  • Lindsey [homegrown spud]

    oh, what a wonderful idea! I love the artkive idea. My kids are just 2 yrs and 6 months…but I feel the impending pressure to keep their artwork, however it stresses me to have the clutter. This idea mkaes me feel like a loving mom again! Thanks!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *