How long do you keep kids school work?

[Alice]

My kids are little so this isn't much of an issue yet for us. I'm pretty unsentimental and am good at throwing stuff out, so I don't have a huge stack of artwork either. I keep a little but not everything. So I'm not really asking about that kind of storage.

 

I'm more wondering how much you keep of things like workbooks, notebooks of schoolwork, etc. And for how long? I imagine that high school stuff should be kept because might need to be shown someday as a portfolio and I imagine that noone will ever really need to see the ETC Book 1 that we just finished (Right?). If we end up sending our kids to public or private school someday will we need to have samples of all their work going back to K? At what age do you save schoolwork and for how long?

[Snickerdoodle]

Mine are little but I have started a small plastic box for each year. I just try not to go over that amount and fill it with every little thing. I'm not a pack rat at all and I have no problem throwing things out, but I do tend towards the sentimental.

 

Someday when my kids have kids, I will show up at their house with all their memorabilia. Yes, I'm going to be that kind of MIL. haha.

[SkateLeft]

I keep a running stack of stuff for each kid (I use legal size letter trays from the office supply section at Target), and then every couple of weeks, I weed through the stuff in there and pull out the keepers. I stick those in a folder in my filing cabinet. Each child also has a history record book where we keep history narrations, drawings, maps and coloring pages, etc. I take photos of bigger projects and those go into the folders also.

 

At the end of the year, I go through each kid's folder and weed it out again. I try to keep samples that show progression in each subject. I usually have more compositions than things like math papers, etc., though I try to keep a little bit of everything. I scrapbook the photos onto cardstock. Then I have the whole stack (usually 1" - 1.5") comb bound, and I add a cover with the child's name and the school year.

 

So when I'm done, each child ends the year with a history record book (which we save), and a comb bound "portfolio." It doesn't amount to a ton of stuff, and it's fun to go back through sometimes and see what they've done. I suspect that when they're done with school, I'll probably go back through their portfolios and history books and pare them down even further, into one volume.

 

For the first few years, I tended to keep almost everything my kids did. Now I'm much more liberal about throwing things into recycling, and try to keep only the stuff that's most significant. It's easier when they're a little older, I think, because it's harder to get attached to things like spelling tests than it is to, "A picture of me and you, Mommy!" :)

 

I don't keep workbooks or notebooks, but instead pull pages out that are representative samples. I might take one page out of the ETC workbook and throw it in my folder. It would have to be one with writing, rather than the "X the box" pages. I don't keep all their work, and I start in kindergarten with kindergarten portfolios. History record books don't start until 1st grade. For the high school classes my daughter is enrolled in, I do the same thing... just take samples. I've never heard of a school wanting samples all the way back to K. If I wanted to put my oldest in regular school tomorrow, I doubt they'd take anything. The only times we've ever needed work samples (for educational evaluations, etc.), they've just wanted a couple of writing samples. Nobody wants to see my kids work all the way back to K. :D

[kim in ks]

This is to funny! We cleaned out our garage last weekend, and I found my older Kid's boxes of school work, we had so much fun reading all their stories, and journals. I pulled out the special unique drawing and stories and finally after 16+ years threw the rest away! Then we they all got home that evening, they spent it reading and laughing at each other, over the silly misspellings and funny stories, It was a blast

kim

[Hannah]

I use a display folders with 50 pockets to a folder. At the end of the year, I put in a selection of the year's work for each subject and include the daily record book and complete workbooks as well. For grades one and two, both files have ended up about two inches thick.

 

For art, I have a seperate folders. The best pictures make it to the fridge for display and from there into the folder. I take photographs of cardboard "sculptures" and add those to the file too.

 

Dd's pottery goes into a box via the top of the microwave. I have a large wooden chest for all the display folders and pottery boxes.

 

Before starting the filing system, everything was loosely thrown into the chest. When it eventually could not close any more I spent a few evenings purging and getting the filing system set up. It's really easy to maintain now that I have it sorted. There's space for a few more years now!