My daughter is now in middle school, and i don't think I've ever thrown away a single thing she did in elementary school.
I want to get rid of most of it, but do I keep anything...and how? I'm mostly thinking of all those science fair projects, etc., that are big and bulky, but she's still proud of them.
Thanks! Valerie
I would take good photos and put them into a scrap book.
It would be a good lessen for her about not hanging onto things.
Only yesterday, while doing a bit of rearrangement in the basement, did I stumble upon a ringbinder filled to the brim with my school projects (text and pictures). I use iPhoto and have once before ordered a photo book through Apple, and so I got the bright idea of scanning everything, then making one nicely bound book out of them. There's actually a lot of interesting information from a broad range of areas and I'd love to have them in a format easy to access.
JuliaJayne has a good idea that can be applied to many other things too such as the kids' art production at home or a collection of Star Wars action figures that are to be sold. I would print the photos into a book like the one I'm talking about above though.
I'll have to look into the photo books through Apple. I didn't know they did that. Very cool. I'd love to put photos of my son's stuff into a hard bound book along with some photos. Right now it's all in a box waiting for me to make up my mind what to do. I don't do the scrap book thing, but I know a lot of people who do, which is why I mentioned it.
I've made several passes through my kids' school work. The initial pass through was to identify items that were original. If they wrote it or drew it, I kept it. If they filled out a worksheet or colored a picture, I recycled it. Then I passed through again, with a goal of keeping only the outstanding stuff. I scanned it and recycled all but a very few items which were exceptional in some way. Once it's scanned, it feels as though I've dealt with it, although I suppose I haven't really.
I love the photos idea and scrapbook idea. Thanks!!
Val -- I think you could make a tremendous keepsake for your daughter (and you!) with a photo book. My personal feeling is that a bound, hardcover book, rather than mounting photos in a scrapbook, would really elevate her work and show her how proud you are of her accomplishments.
I've found the iPhoto/Apple books to be the simplest and easiest to accomplish; Shutterfly is my go-to place, tho, because it has more varied layouts. I understand Hallmark's is very popular, too.
Here's my #1 piece of advice: Work with your daughter on it! Along with the photos (a few different views and some closeups of interesting or artsy looking parts), ask her to type in a description of the projects and what she hoped people would learn from them or what she enjoyed most about doing it. I'd also include some of her class photos among the project photos, matching them with the grades she did the projects in, and a photo of the school, perhaps.
You could scan in written reports, or you could transcribe them (there are layouts of "journaling" pages).
I'm really hoping you choose to do this! My mother seemed to have a 2-second record of "papers on the desk" direct to the trash without asking if I wanted to keep those things (and it wasn't like I was a messy slob!). What I wouldn't give today to be able to reread some of my creative writing projects!
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