Storing all that school memorabilia
By Doreen Nagle
Gannett News Service
I know what happened on the last day of this school year: Your little students waddled off the bus loaded down with arms full of all manner of papers and projects they proudly worked on all year.
With big smiles on their cheery faces, they handed over their hard work to you, figuring that you'll know exactly how to organize it in perpetuity so that your children's great-grandchildren will be able to admire these projects as well.
Meanwhile, you dreaded this day. How can you possibly throw any of your children's precious work away — yet how you can you possibly keep it all?
Below are some compromises and systems, which have been tested by parents just like you.
One of my favorite compromises is the photo memory. This technique is especially perfect for the enormous map of the world project equally as well as a painting of last summer's family vacation.
As friends and family come by for barbecues, be sure to give them a tour. This concept also works well year 'round, so by the end of next school year you should have only a few projects that need to be displayed.
Don't toss irreplaceable projects, the ones that melt your heart and bring a tear to your eye.
These are the ones you will want to look at from time to time over your child's school years— as well as his adult years. One of the most convenient ways to do this is to purchase clear plastic containers and write the school year and grade on the outside of the container in permanent marker. Pile a new container in the garage at the beginning of each school year, waiting to be filled on a weekly or monthly basis. When your child is ready to leave home for his own grown-up home, he can take his school history with him!
Also keep papers that would be hard for you to replicate, such as report cards, standardized test results plus notes from teachers regarding your child's performance. You never know when these will come in handy — perhaps during college application time.
As your child matures, you may want to purchase a small file cabinet for his room, or assign a drawer from the file cabinet in the family home office. Buy file folders and dividers so that your child can file papers by subject throughout the year.
No file cabinet? Then buy your child a binder with dividers that she can keep her papers in all school year.
