Kids' Projects

My girls (like every other child alive) love their art materpieces, their doodles, their primary colorings, their school projects, their preschool art,  . . . the piece of scratch paper they wrote their name on, the page they ripped out of the coloring book and it's only half colored, the treat bag with princesses on it they got from a birthday party, the paper umbrella they got in a sandwhich on our last vacation . . . you know - all those little "special" things. 

I try to remember that to them, these pieces of paper are like my wallet, my good make-up brushes, and my cell phone are to me.  Important, precious, and valuable.  However, even with that being said we still cannot keep it all.   

I have a system though, that helps us cope with the loss of such dear items and my girls get to make the decisions on what stays (for now) and what goes. 

Each girl has their own magnet board in their room.  If it's important then they can hang it up on the magnet board.  If it doesn't make the cut for the magnet board, then we all take one last admiring look and it's gone.  If it somehow doesn't make it all the way to their magnet board, then I take one last admiring look and it's gone. 

As the magnet boards get full, then it's one thing up and one old thing down.  Some projects have lasted over a year because they're still very, very cherished.  Others only last a week.  When they come down, we take a picture of the project, take one last long look and it's gone. 

Each girl has their own project picture book.  So I print the picture, we slip it in their book and then are able to preserve the memory of our beloved projects forever. 

I think Addison gets the sytem and realizes we just can't keep everything.  Olivia still needs a little coaxing, but it's only a matter of time now.  And since the magnet boards are hung at just the perfect height, Drew has been helping my cause along.  He makes his way in, pulls everything off and initates an immediate paper evaluation which ends with a few pictures and a cleaner magnet board.