Preserving Memories

Every parent knows that almost as soon as your child starts nursery they start bringing home stuff. Artwork, junk models, writing, projects.... it can seem like every week more and more bits come through the front door. All of this is of course potential treasure to keep forever but you can't keep all of it especially when you have more than one child!

We have a small house with limited storage so space is a real issue when it comes to extra bits. My daughter is a hoarder and has tried to keep every single piece of school work she has ever brought home. But even she now realises that the drawer it is stored in is bursting at the seams. 

It is great fun looking back at her work from Reception class and seeing how much her writing and number work have vastly improved! She and I had a real hoot this evening looking back at old Learning Journey books. These are great ways of keeping key bits of work in a compact scrapbook. But its the loose bits that are a pain as they mount up and aren't easy to work out when the work was done. I have asked her to get rid of uninteresting pieces of work and just keep a few key bits that she can look back on.

We also have what seems like a gazillion pieces of artwork from both children that at some point grace the wall but eventually have to come down for another piece to go up. It would be impossible to keep it all so I've decided on a 21st century way to preserve the memory and not take up room. I have started to photograph them instead:

So now my son's straw skeleton can be kept for as long as digital images last and the original I am afraid has been thrown in the bin. I think its a great compromise and I do wish that I had started doing this years ago!

How do you deal with all your children's work?