Now that my boys are going back to school this week for the second part of the school year, I plan to better organize all those notes, newsletters, drawings, schoolwork, and all other miscellaneous items. I am a bit sentimental ~ a mushy-mush, as one friend calls me ~ so I want to keep some of their best work to help me remember when they are grown and what they were like when they were young. They (or their future spouses) may want to look through it for their own nostalgic reasons too. But we certainly don't have room to keep every assignment they bring home, and it's hard to tell at the beginning of the year what it going to be truly impressive, original, or special.
My simple solution is that I won't sort it until we get to the very end of the school year. I will keep two stacking boxes on my kitchen counter, one for each child. Each time a school assignment comes home for me to see, I will look at it, show it to my husband, then drop it in the box and forget about it. At the end of the year, I will sort through all of it and keep only about 20% of what we've accumulated. It will likely take about an hour for me to go through all the papers for both boys and determine what to keep and what to toss into our recycling bin. The kept papers will have to meet the following criteria:
Cuteness -
One of my sons drew a picture of the sun and wrote. "This is the sun. It is like my mom." I'm not really sure what that means, but I've decided it means I light up his world. Awwwww! That's a keeper!
Pride -
Notes praising my children or schoolwork with messages from the teacher raving about their answers pass my muster.
Nostalgia -
Many teachers start Monday by having their students write about their weekends. Not only does it remind me of what we did throughout the year but it also tells me what my boys really value. Anything that covers a page front and back will certainly be noteworthy.
Creativity -
Extraordinary drawings or interesting spellings qualify. When asked how plants make food, my son wrote, "Photo cinfisis." Yup, I will keep it.
Oprah -
OK, so Oprah doesn't have a talk show anymore but someone will. If my son becomes a famous author, the storybook he made titled "Rattlesnake vs. Python" will have the entire audience giggling.
The final step is to put the paper into storage. Each child will have a file box with 14 hanging folders (Pre-K through 12th grade). The keepsakes go into its proper folder and I will have all their best work to peruse at my leisure. Voila!
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