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 Many families have a
proliferation of children's paperwork. There is homework papers from
school, art work, invitations, and programs. How do you get your
children's paperwork organized? What should be kept and what should be
discarded? How much is enough? Where and how should it
stored?
May
I suggest that you set up a simple, systemized way to deal with children's
important papers. Soon after a child is born, purchase and prepare an
8-1/2" x 11" binder (a different color for each child of your
family) with twenty dividers, labeled with the current year and the succeeding
nineteen years. Purchase a ream of 68-pound card stock (available at
office supply stores), some plastic sheet protectors, an archival glue stick,
and photo corners. Also purchase a plastic binder pencil holder.
Keep your glue stick and photo corners, along with a writing pen, in the pencil
holder (at the front of your binder) for convenience in updating the
journals. Punch a stack of the card stock and put it in the rear of the
binder along with the plastic sheet protectors. Now you are ready! When you decide a paper is worth keeping, three-hold
punch it, and put it in the binder behind the appropriate year. If the
paper is too small to punch and put in the binder, say a newspaper article
announcing the birth of your child, glue it to a piece of cardstock, write any
comments you deem necessary, and place the cardstock in the child's binder
behind the first divider. You can add other small items to this same sheet
of cardstock as desired. Some items, like certificates, might better be
saved using photo corners. If you don't have alot of time right when a
piece of paper need storing, slip it into a plastic sheet protector and put it
behind the appropriate divider until you have extra minutes to properly preserve
it. As one binder is
filled, another is purchased (of the same color), the remaining labeled dividers
and supplies are put into it, and you are ready for more paperwork. For
most children, about six-eight binders will be enough to hold all their
important "paper" journal items until they are finished with high
school. They will enjoy immensely going through their journals as they
grow, looking at their past, more rudimentary artwork and their simplistic
handwriting. Most
children's art work can safely be saved by punching and putting it in the
binder, as can homework. However, remember you only need so many original
drawings from a particular season of the child's life to represent their
artistic interests for that period, so select carefully what you save.
Children will bring home far more school paperwork that you will want to
keep. It is wise to set it aside in a "TO FILE" folder for a
month or so before permanently putting in the journal. This allows some
seasoning to take place before final decisions are made. Also, children
don't want to remember anything but the best of their school work, so only save
100% spelling tests, near perfect science, math and history tests, and any
papers with positive teach comments. Be sure to save everything
autobiographical that the child writes! It will become priceless as time
passes. School projects
which are too large for keeping in the binder might best be displayed in the
home for a month or so. Then, as the season for display wanes, take a
picture of the child and their project, and hold a "project"
funeral. The photos can be saved without the hassle and volume of large
science projects, drama scenery, and three-dimensional crafts gathering dust in
the home, yet the memories are secure. (This excludes any items which
might be reused for younger sibling's needs. Many a science project has
seen an appropriate re-use to save parents time and trouble.) Each child can also have a sturdy storage box for their
bulkier treasures, one box per child. Encourage them to draw on their
treasure box to personalize it and then use it to keep their valuables in.
This helps confine messes that would otherwise spill out into their bedrooms and
sometimes other areas of the house. Good luck! Keep what is important, keep it neatly
in a binder, and enjoy your children's journals for many years to come. It
takes only minutes to find the right child's binder, punch paperwork, and put it
behind the right divider once you have your system set up. Find more helpful
home organization ideas in the "House
of Order" Handbook.
Also see: Files, Paperwork, Photograph
Albums, and Paperwork. |
