Let's see - My daughter is in 5th grade this year and I finally figured out the perfect way to organize her completed school work - DON"T! Year after year I would try to come up with an organizational system to "file" away their completed homework when they brought it home from school. I had files - Artwork, Teacher info, Math, Spelling....you get the picture.
My system was too complex and too time consuming. Since I never had time to "file" - homework would just build up on the counter till I couldn't stand it anymore. Not this year. I decided to implement the "Big Bin" approach.
I told my girls that whenever they had completed homework, art work, or misc. papers - I did NOT want to see it! (Ok - I did want to see them - but I didn't want to be responsible for them!) They were old enough to just come home and plop it into their own bins. This system has worked beautifully! No clutter on the counters (ok - no Homework clutter on the counters) and whenever we need to find additional info on a homework assignment we know right where to go! My only disappointment is that it has taken me 6 years to figure this out!
At the end of the school year - I will go through and sort their papers. I will keep about 10 percent of what you see. I will make a little accordion folder for that year, label it on the outside and stick it in their closets. They can throw it away when they get older but I will feel like I did my job as a mother to keep those special papers!
How do you organize your children's paperwork?
4 comments:
Oh I am supposed to keep their papers? My kids are trained to throw their finished homework in the circular file-the trash! I do save a few cute things though. I still have a box of my papers in my basement that my mother saved for me. Why oh why do I keep it??
I do the same as Robin. However, I have had to dig thru the trash a couple of times to find an assignment I threw out by mistake. So, I will adopt the bin system. I have kept a few art projects and framed them in their rooms. For science projects I have taken a picture of them with the project and then I throw it out when they are at school.
I am so bad. I don't keep their work. They want to keep it, and we only let them keep what will fit in one binder which is housed on a bookshelf. I am too selfish to give up a cabinet for extra papers. Now, I do save some of their things. I know some of the teachers have them keep their history or Bible sheets for the whole year, but those stay at school.
Awesome idea. I still struggle with what to do with everything but this would work for me!
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