Organization Ideas for DD's School Papers?

[Indianamom2]

What do you ladies (and men!) do with your kids' papers/artwork from school?

DD brings home a pocket folder full of papers each week from school. This is in addition to all the artwork. I want to keep the stuff (for now) so I can track her progress, but I need it be organized. Paperwork is drowning me!

Give me some creative ideas for storing this stuff, pretty please!

[niccig]

Ok, so I'm still working out my system.


Art stuff - I had an underbed box that I would put them, then when I go through to purge, I put the kept ones in a big art portfolio that I bought. 3D pieces get put on display for a little while.

I have an expanding file that I keep things in like school handbook, class list with phone numbers/address. This is reference paperwork, and its stored in a cabinet in the kitchen


I have this fridge file on a magnetic noticeboard from ikea ($14 I think) on the wall by the cabinet that has all my household files, and the school file above. I have one section for soccer, one section for upcoming events like flyer to return to school on picture day, one section is notes from teachers I might need to keep - eg their daily and weekly schedule is in there, so I cna easily find it.
http://orgjunkie.com/2010/06/the-fridge-file-helps-you-organize-life.html

[larig]

The ones that are legal sized or smaller I am scanning and tossing (mostly, except the exceptional ones). I am going to make a "coffee table book" of DS's artwork someday using blurb or some other photobook service.

[bubbaray]

I came up with this after having to re-org last year's fiasco this summer.

Get a clear bin (I like these Sterilite (http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=603&ProductCategory=252&section=1)ones). Label it with child's name, grade and year (ie., DD#1, Grade 1, 2010-2011). Put handouts, homework that comes home, projects in the bin as they come home. The "year" will be there, in reverse chronological order. At the end of the year, I do the school year book. All the stuff that comes home will not fit, so at the end of the year, I just pop in the report cards, photos, etc. The bulky stuff stays in the bin.

[bnme]

I came up with this after having to re-org last year's fiasco this summer.

Get a clear bin (I like these Sterilite (http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=603&ProductCategory=252&section=1)ones). Label it with child's name, grade and year (ie., DD#1, Grade 1, 2010-2011). Put handouts, homework that comes home, projects in the bin as they come home. The "year" will be there, in reverse chronological order. At the end of the year, I do the school year book. All the stuff that comes home will not fit, so at the end of the year, I just pop in the report cards, photos, etc. The bulky stuff stays in the bin.

I do this. Except I then had a couple of bins for each kid pretty quickly (I was saving just about everything). So over the summer I went through everything and made a binder for each kid (using the plastic sleeves) with samples of schoolwork, projects, class pictures, notes from teacher, etc. I did not throw out the bins with everything else yet....but I plan to "one day". This year I am still using a bin but I am saving MUCH less and plan to be proactive and pull stuff for the binder every month ot 2.

[egoldber]

I put all papers in a white Sterilite bin. About once a quarter, I go through and purge everything except what I want to save, which is generally tests/assessments and writing projects.

Older DD does not bring home much artwork anymore. They work on fewer projects in art over a longer period of time. In K and even 1st she was coloring something almost every day and that got annoying very fast ( :o ) and I started freely (but discretely) discarding those practically as soon as she walked in the door.

[KrisM]

I save it in a drawer for each kid in my desk. When the drawer is full, the child and I sit and go through it together to decide what to keep. So far, DS is pretty good at getting rid of stuff and I actually pick to keep some things he'd discard :). My plan is to put it in a binder, but that hasn't happened yet.

[salsah]

i'll be following this thread closely. now that both dd1 and dd1 are bring home papers from school (and now dd1 brings home stuff from sunday school too), i need a better system.

so far, i have magazine files (labeled for each dc, dd1 has two -- one for regular school, one for sunday school) that school work goes into. when it's full, we sort thru them. what we keep, goes in a box. informational/reference papers (school handbook, calendar, etc.) go into an accordion/expanding folder. forms that need my immediate attention go on the desk by the mail.

[egoldber]

Reference items I keep in two magazine files on my desk, one file for each kid. I put things like: school handbook, class directory, report cards, etc.

The school calendars I put with our family calendar because we refer to them often.

[o_mom]

I have started a new system for DS1 since he is going everyday now. I have a stacking paper tray set with three trays. One is for stuff I know will not be saved - mainly worksheets, fill in the blank, etc. stuff that doesn't have any 'original' work to it. The second is for stuff that is more creative and things that we might save (he doesn't have real tests yet, but those might go there later). Third one is all the class informational stuff specific to his class (not the general school stuff that applies to both kids).

The first one will get recycled when full - probably taking the bottom half at a time so that I always have a month or so worth of stuff if we need it for some reason. The second doesn't look like it will get full anytime soon, so I'm figuring it will get sorted and stored at the end of the year. Third one will probably get a quick look-through when full and recycled.

Artwork we have a separate box for and when full I go through and take pictures of everything, then pick a few pieces to keep in a large portfolio.

[wimama]

I came up with this after having to re-org last year's fiasco this summer.

Get a clear bin (I like these Sterilite (http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=603&ProductCategory=252&section=1)ones). Label it with child's name, grade and year (ie., DD#1, Grade 1, 2010-2011). Put handouts, homework that comes home, projects in the bin as they come home. The "year" will be there, in reverse chronological order. At the end of the year, I do the school year book. All the stuff that comes home will not fit, so at the end of the year, I just pop in the report cards, photos, etc. The bulky stuff stays in the bin.

I like this idea. What size did you get? The 33 quart one?

[bubbaray]

I like this idea. What size did you get? The 33 quart one?


I think it was the 15Q one. ETA -- yes, just checked, I got the 15Q one, #1753N

[wimama]

Thanks for checking for me.

I wound up running to Target tonight and I didn't like the storage totes they had. They were all too tall and not wide enough. I went with a piece of art to test them out. He has lots of wide and long pieces of art. I remembered my MIL had some that seemed like a good size, so I ran to Ace Hardware (where she usually shops) and picked up the brand that she had.

I wound up getting an Iris 44 qt one. Overkill probably, both wide enough and long enough to fit the art without folding it all several times. I will be able to fit a ton of art and memorabilia in there. Today the kid came home with a large construction paper cut out of himself, 2 other pieces of art, a tissue paper chefs hat, art from after school care, and two completed assignments.:eek:

So, I am thinking I will use the 44 qt one for this K4 year and another one next year for K5. Hopefully he becomes a little less prolific of an artist by 1st grade and then I can size down to a smaller container. I thought he brought home a bunch of art from daycare, but WOW! Kindergarden is crazy with what he brings home.