Time to organize the mountains of paper your kids have brought home from school.
Image licensed by Ingram Publishing
It’s time to celebrate the end of the school year, but not before you deal with the mountains of paper your kids have brought home. So before you head to the beach or cottage, gather your kids and their papers to organize and purge.
If you don’t have a filing system already set up, create one now. Either a drawer in a filing cabinet or a cardboard file box will work. Designate a file folder for the year and label with your child’s name, year and grade. Your job is to hang on to important things and get rid of non-essentials.
Report Cards. Keep. Kids love to see and read about their progress. Don’t save duplicates.
School Papers. The “keep” pile will depend on your child’s age. For young kids, you’ll want to keep “firsts” and meaningful school papers and projects. Document why it’s meaningful – ask your child to do the printing. For older kids, you can be more selective, letting them pick a few favourites.
School Photos. Keep a single photo of your child and a class photo; they are a fun way to remember the year. Write the names of best friends on the back. If you don’t buy school photos, grab a favourite from your personal stash.
Capture the Year. Search for and keep treasures – handprints, self-portraits, signatures – things that say something about your child’s year and her personality.
Photo Diary: If you are balking about going through the papers, why not make a photo diary of the year instead. Take end of year photos with best friends, or your child holding a stack of notebooks and papers, or in front of a giant project. Capturing the year in this way gives you permission to recycle the pile and still have lots of saved memories.
