No One Prepared Me For This

Many people attempted to prepare me for Builder Boy going to school.  They told me how sad I would be when I left him there (I was).  They told me how tired, and therefore, crabby Builder Boy would be when he returned home at the end of the day (he has been).  They told me to expect homework even though it's kindergarten (yep, he gets a bit, even though they told us he wouldn't get any!).  Oh yes, we were prepared for all of this, minus one major issue:

 

THE PAPERWORK.  THE PAPERS. PAPERS PAPERS PAPERS.

Look, I really like to see how Builder Boy is progressing in school.  I do!  But really, is it necessary for the teacher to send home every single stinking time he writes his name.  Throw me a bone here, lady-just send home one a week.  And yes, he is delighted every time he shows me each paper he has colored, each bear he has counted, every art project he has created, but oh my!  Can't some of this be put in a folder for Parent/Teacher Conferences?

OR...GULP...is there a folder there, too???

If you're like me, I have a hard time throwing away anything he creates...while I realize this adds to the clutter issue we have in our house (bordering on hoarding...), I just love to look back on his preschool creations now and compare how far he has come.  But, I will have to come up with some solution to the paper clutter.  I simply cannot keep everything. 

 
So, seasoned mommies, how do you keep up with the kindergarten paper onslaught?

Comments

[Ann Kimmel]

I SO hear you on this one! I am sentimental to a fault, so I ended up with piles and piles of papers everywhere! Finally I instituted this rule of thumb for what to save - anything that shows his size or anything he is very, very attached to/proud of creating I save. For example, if they make a craft with his handprint and the date on it, I save it. If they created a genius art project, I save it. Regular seat work type papers have to g-o. Here's the key - you have to hide papers you throw out! So pick up the trash on top, tuck in the papers back side up, and recover with trash. You could get busted otherwise. Trust me - I know!

[Alexis]

We let the girls decorate the side of the fridge with recent artwork. I've stashed away some of my favorite pieces in a folder for each child. My girls have a 3 ring binder with clear plastic page inserts in which they can slide in papers they've colored. Our Kindergarten worksheets come home once a week in a folder. I throw them all out without going over them with the kids....what a bad mom I am.

[Heidi]

I have been hole punching the pieces and putting them in a binder. It can be a LOT of pieces of paper on some days, but I haven't gotten to the point where I throw things away. Yet.

[bekah]

this what my mom did, every week we went through the things we brought home, and we(the kid) picked the one to keep. the one we thought was the best

[Kori Hudson]

Keep the best of the best, and anything else that it hurts you to part with... Just take a picture of it! Then chunk it and put all the pictures in an album. Call it "Kindergarten Artwork," and tuck a bunch of 4x6's in it of all of the beautiful creations. Much easier to keep up with one tidy album per year than bin after bin of half-glued noodles and pipe cleaner bugs.

Then in the years to come, you will have the albums to look back through, and you can still compare year to year and admire the progress. Perfect! : )

[RenovationGirl]

@Alexis-I knew you'd have an organized plan, my friend! :)

@Heidi-You and I are so alike! A binder is a great idea, too...keeps things neatly in one place as opposed to the current piles all.over.the.house! :)

@Bekah-Thanks for the idea! Not sure Builder Boy has it in him (he's quite attached to every single little thing he creates/owns..gee, I wonder who he gets that from?!) ;)

@Kori-LOVE this idea and will use it. It sounds much more manageable-thank you!