One of the many things I love about Princeton is the curriculum (if there can be such a thing for not-quite-two-year-olds) that is offered. Every week has a theme. Along with that theme comes games, activities and lessons. And daily art projects. Which means we now have piles, seriously piles, of Jackson's artwork in various locations around the house. And I, along with many mothers before me, am faced with the dilemma of what to do with all the art.
It is impossible to display it all. Besides, as much of an uber-organized and anti-clutter person as I am, covering every square inch of the refrigerator or tacking glue and glitter filled pieces of paper to the walls just isn't going to work for this mama.
Yet I want to display his work. I am proud of it and I want him to be, too. And how could I possibly bring myself to throw *gasp* in the trash my baby's masterful works of art?
My first find, was this frame from Lil'DaVinci. It comes in 2 sizes and has space to store up to 50 pieces of art. Not only can you display your child's latest masterpiece for all to see, but you can also store the previous pieces out of site. Brilliant!
My second find is a bit less organized, but fun none the less. Simply fashion a clothes line of sorts (either a purchased curtain rod as shown or something as simple as a string tied to hooks) and display away!
Last, I found this collage. A little techy since it requires digital images of the art and some layout into one larger image, but very clean looking and quite cool if you ask me.In the next couple of months I hope to transform a little section of our dog/mud/storage room into a playroom for Jack. I have plans to incorporate some of the above items in the space, but for the time being I've turned to the digital age to help me de-clutter the piles of art.
A few weeks ago I found a black piece of fabric to use as a backdrop and took photos of all of the pieces of art Jackson has brought home to date. I then threw away (guilt-free since I have a digital record of it) those that were torn or bent or especially messy or just not my favorite. I chose a handful to save for future display and to keep forever as keepsakes. You know, cuz moms do that.
Wanna see?
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| Farm Week #1 |
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| Farm Week #2 |
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| Outer Space Week |
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| Colors Week, I believe |
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| Kansas Week |
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| Not sure what this one was, I just like it. |
And there you have it. My guilt-free method for balancing the desire to save everysinglething my son creates with my inherent need for organization.
How about you? Any other ideas for storing, displaying or documenting your children's works of art? Do tell!
3 comments:
A great idea I read somewhere is to take a digital photograph of everything (and toss the originals...) and save them to your computer. then, create a screensaver that will display these in random order on your desktop, laptop, what have you. Eliminates clutter, and keeps them top-of-mind. Of course, this is a dad's perspective, and i've not had luck implementing this in our home, but it sounded like a good idea at the time!
Take care,
Neuty
This is a great idea, Eric! And I'm halfway there since I already have digital pics of most of his stuff. Thanks!
PS - You should do it, too. :)
I had what we called save boxes ( bins that went under beds)when the bin got full we go through it together and throw some away making room for more. Was fun going back and looking at changes This went on thru highschool ( play programs corsages cub scout projects etc.) When they moved out was surprising what was taken with them.
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