Creative Kids – Storing the kids artwork?

This is the blog post where I confess that whilst I am not a hoarder, or a keeper of junk or clutter, that there is one thing or many things, that I do keep and treasure…

The artwork my children produce.

I love it, all of it, the sticky, glittery creations, the painted pictures, the drawn pictures, the mysterious sculptures that come home from school, triumphantly presented to me when I arrive to collect them, hand made birthday, Mother’s Day and Christmas cards, the little notes written in that first years “learning to write” stage, and also school work, work books and the like. I have pretty much kept them all.

After my mother died, and we were going through her things, and boxes from the loft, I found a box, which contained all the letters I had ever written to her, whilst I was away at school, all  my school reports, and also a big bundle of artwork and all the cards I had sent her for Mother’s Day, birthdays and various other events. She had kept these things. She wasn’t terribly good at telling me verbally how proud she was of me, although I know that now, she truly was, but to find that she had kept it all, was a very special thing for me, and I have kind of carried it over, to try and keep special memories of the things my children have done, made for me, and created. At some point, they will stop presenting me with sticky, half dried paintings and marvellous models made from loo roll and pasta, so I want to treasure what they make. I don’t keep every single item, but I do put a fair amount of artwork in special folders, which are stored flat, so they don’t take up much space.

I know this is not always practical, and if you have lots of kids, or a lot of artwork coming home, it isn’t always possible to keep everything, but in our house, artwork comes home, is displayed on the fridge or on the wall in my room for a week or two, then usually filed in the special folder I have for each child. As you can see from the photo, the folders are flat, and have sleeves to store things, so they really don’t take up that much space.

I am currently sorting and tidying, and came across some of the first work that Big Girl ever did at nursery, and I will admit, I sat and had a cry, for a few minutes at how big she now is, and how she has grown up. She now writes me little notes, and draws me pictures which impress me with her artistic skill, and I treasure it all.

So, there you have it, I do have a secret, sentimental side, and I do hoard, this one thing, and it’s special, to me.