An agonizing choice moms face pretty much daily… What should we do with the piles and piles of artwork our kids bring home from school?
Just like you, and other mothers in the throes of it (with little ones in preschool, kindergarten, and after-school art classes), I’m faced with this difficult dilemma virtually every day. I’d like to be able to say this is a concern we’ll outgrown along with our children, but I’ve recently learned that even parents with grown children are not immune.
It begins something like this – a rather beautiful scene, actually: Your child comes in the door with his over-stuffed backpack and begins pulling out his amazing masterpieces. Orange paper decorated with colorful leaves in the fall, hand prints expanded into plump turkeys for Thanksgiving, cotton balls glued into the shape of a snowman in the winter, and painted butterflies and flowers dancing across the canvas in the spring. You rejoice in your child’s amazing talent. He’s sure to be the next Picasso. You praise him, just like the parenting books advise you should, not by saying “You are a good artist,” but with specifics, “Wow, you picked such vibrant colors and made wonderful wide strokes with your paint brush.”
Then he darts outside to climb a tree, leaving you holding this splendid pile of creations. That’s when the anxiety sets in. No, not because he’s too young to be climbing so high. But rather, what am I to do with this artwork now? The refrigerator door is already covered – plus you’re out of magnets. The drawer under the microwave is jammed shut with the artwork from last week and weeks and weeks before that. The plastic container in the basement is completely full with his sister’s Pre-K through 2nd Grade work. You glance at the recycling and trash bins, and the guilt grows.
Here’s the good news: You are not alone! This is a problem for millions of parents all across the U.S., and even the world. What should we do with the artwork that our kids bring home from school? For most of us, tossing it is just not an option. A recent study found that 90% of parents feel guilty throwing their kids’ artwork out. And most parents admit that their children’s artwork, while never sent to the dump, has ended up in a moldy box in the basement or a cobwebby bin in the attic.
So what are we to do? It’s not a problem we can ignore, for experts estimate that the average child produces at least 800 pieces of art by end of her elementary years. Here are our favorite artwork solutions:
Brighten up a playroom or your children’s rooms by attaching their art to a string with colorful clothespins. This makes it easy to change up the art on a regular basis (and you feel less guilty about tossing it after it’s had a moment in the spotlight.)
Frame it and send it to Grandma for her birthday and every other special holiday.
Use it as wrapping paper. The most colorful packages are a combination of 3 or 4 different pieces of art.
Make it into a beautiful coffee table book. Plum Print takes your bin or box, no matter how big, digitizes all the artwork and sends you an amazing book.
Have a cherished drawing made into a stuffed animal. This really allows kids to see their art come alive! sunnylittlestudio.com
If you just can’t bear to part with your children’s art try a creative storage solution. Keepsake Portfolio’s from Lakeshore Learning has colorful dividers so you can organize the by school year or child.
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Ann Matturro Gault, former editor at Family Circle magazine, now freelances full time. She writes about parenting, health, and education for various websites and print publications. She lives in Verona, N.J. with her husband and four children.
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