Oh yes, it is now late February and I am slowly trying to tackle all of those New Year's Resolutions that are ever so patiently pending my completion. I pride myself in being organized and on top of things, it is one of my strong points....well most of the time. Since expanding our family a few months back I have felt like I have been slowly drowning in this area of daily life. Piles of papers and magazines are a plenty at our house. My once organized life, home and work have now taken a blow. In a splendid, happy, positive way.
The other day I decided enough is enough I needed to start checking off my list of resolutions and start the organization showdown. If any of you have young children you will completely relate with this particular resolution that I have made: to organize and edit all of those fun art projects that come home in your little ones backpacks. Daily doses of Kindergarten excellence! I remember as a child that my mother had collected and stored many of my projects and kept them in a box in our attic. I never knew why until one day I decided to dig through that box. WOW what memories come back. Now I understand. And now it is my turn to create this memory for my little ones.
I decided to tackle my organization by being simple, colorful and economical. Using standard 3 ring binders and sheet protectors I collected the bevy of art projects and quickly began my quest. I organized the projects by the time of year/month they were created. I teetered back and forth trying to come up with a creative way that I could label the binders so that I would know what year the projects were completed. Using scrapbook paper and stickers I simply created a label for the spine of the binder spelling out "art projects" and the year they were completed.
I ran into a snag though. Once I started 2012 I quickly realized that I would have projects that were created in different school years, Preschool and Kindergarten. I wanted to differentiate between the advancement in technique and curriculum, so I started a binder specifically for Kindergarten. I plan on creating binders that correlate with the grade in which they were created and not by the calendar year. What a fun way to showcase my little one's artwork without it cluttering up a dark shelf deep in the gallows of the closet.
Sadly I think that I will only be making and filling these type of "art project" binders for the next few years. Once Junior High comes I'm fairly certain that I will not be the recipient of many "cotton ball Santa beards" any more.
xo T.
