What do you do with your kids’ art projects? Keep them all? Toss them when no one’s looking?

Some Parents Advice:
“After drowning in construction-paper creations, I bought each kid a big, plastic storage box. As the artwork arrived home, I either hung it up someplace (fridge, basement, rec room) or tossed it in the storage box. If I chose to hang it, it would replace whatever was hanging at the time, and that piece would go in the box. At the end of the school year, we went through their boxes and kept one or two pieces from that year. The rest hit the curb.”

“We love IKEA’s metal strips that are installed on a wall and come with magnets. They have made it very easy to display papers and rotate things as they come through. I have definitely thrown out many art projects that I did not deem worth keeping, usually by strategically hiding them in the garbage. (Sorry, preschool and Sunday school teachers!) I’ve tried having my children pose with some of their projects and taking a picture as a keepsake. I’ve kept the best/most sentimental in a shirt box or other flat box with the name of the artist and date on the back of the project. Some of the seasonal projects I keep with seasonal decorations and pull them out each year until they fall apart.”—

“When my kids were younger, I used to take the paintings that came home on the large easel paper and use them as wrapping paper for grandparent gifts.”

Use the glass-front cabinets in your kitchen to double as a display case for creations, which also conceals disorder within the cabinet.  When your mugs aren’t beautifully hung and plates aren’t perfectly stacked,  start taping art inside the glass, and the wood frame around the cabinet looks like a big frame.  Have a rotating collection.

For hanging pictures, consider clear frames that close with screws or clips, where you can see through to the wall and don’t have to worry about matting, even if the picture doesn’t fill the frame.

“They’re great because you can pop anything in and out of them,” she said. “Then once a week you can have a curatorial meeting with your children and do the switch-out.”

“For 3-D masterpieces, you can establish collections on shelves. Or buy shadow boxes.  And if you’re crafty, you could make a place mat for the high chair or a floor mat for under the craft table. (Buy clear Con-Tact paper, lay it sticky-side-up on the floor, place a bunch of your kids’ art on top, then top it with more Con-Tact paper, sticky-side-down.)

When the pieces come down from walls, stow them in a large, sturdy artist’s portfolio — sold at office supply stores — and slide it under a bed.

“The most important thing is that the kid feels celebrated.  It’s really hard to take a piece of art and have your kid say, ‘Mommy, I made you this,’ and then throw it in the garbage. It’s like poking the eyes out in a photo; it feels internally wrong.”

My Advice:

Use clothesline and clothespins to stretch it across wall space or the corner of their room and pin up the art work.

Display it on the front glass door from the inside or on front porch glass windows from the inside for all visitors and delivery people to enjoy.  I really like the previous idea of putting the art in the glass doors of your kitchen cabinets!  What a cool display!

If you don’t want it, Grandma does!  Keep all the best artwork for one year and present it to Grandmother.  Take photos (or video) of her as she works her way through the box, smiling, commenting and remembering.  That will be a great memory to pass on to your children when they have their own children!

                                                       GRANDMA IS THE BEST!
Do you have any useful ideas for children’s art?  Tell all of us in the comments area…