Comments on: Managing Children’s Art

By: Aimee

Aimee — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:07:28 +0000

I do feel guilty throwing away the kids artwork, just like I do with old pics or duplicates…It must be a mother thing. But I also have 3 kids and so ALOT of art and drawings come home all the time. I do save the holiday themed ones for the sepcific holiday and bring them back for the years to come. I pick out one picture and they pick out one one picture from every month they are in school and I add it to their school age scrapbooks I do for each of them. That way when they look back on it they can laugh about the work they did (they already do laugh and ask me Mom did I really do that?) I also let them decorate the Christmas tree with the Christmas themed ornaments, so with 3 kids, there isn’t a lot of my decorations on the tree, but thats okay. They love doing it and I love to see the excitement in their faces when they remember making the ornament and it usually comes with a story

By: Jaci

Jaci — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:17:34 +0000

LOVE this post!! I’m drowing in paper!!! I have a clotheline along the top wall of one side of my kitchen with cute art work clipped to it, but i don’t change it out often enough. I have EVERYTHING else saved in totes/boxes/bags… love these ideas!

By: Kimber

Kimber — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:16:16 +0000

LOVE your site! Just found it… where have I been? I can’t wait to read everything!! Great ideas for kids’ artwork. Any suggestions on how to tame/organize the piles of schoolwork? Thanks for your thoughts!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:42:17 +0000

Hi Aria,
what a fantastic idea! It’s lots of fun to see the artwork bound in a book.

By: aria

aria — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 08:45:35 +0000

One of the things i have done with my son’s artwork over the years is create a “portfolio” of sorts with it.. every quarter we go through and only pick the “Special Best ones” — He has a say too in this. At the end of the year i take it to one of the Copy places: Office Depot, Staples, Kinkos, etc … and have the “portfolio” laminated and bound. I include a Title Front page (of the year) and a matching page for the back. It allows my son to go back through his work and see it, and show it off… If he did a puppet, a card or something he just loved, i have the story laminate a 8×11 envelope and i cut open the opening so it the special item can slide in and out. and include it as one of the last pages in the binding book.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:51:20 +0000

Hi Heather,

I have a few different ways I store craft supplies, depending upon the age of the child/children. We have a simple plastic rolling cart with 6 drawers that is accessible at all times. The drawers are labeled: crayons, markers, colored pencils, lined paper, blank paper, and colored paper. My children also each have a plastic pencil box that holds a few sharpened pencils, a glue stick, kid scissors, a ruler, and an eraser. If we have a brand new box of crayons that they don’t want to co-mingle with the drawer crayons, that gets put in the pencil box too.

As for playdough, paint, sidewalk chalk, glitter, and real glue, I keep them in the garage. I’ve got one of those plastic bin storage units with a bunch of colored shoe-box sized bins filled with messier art supplies. I keep stickers and recycleable items out there too, for collages and other creations. My girls are currently 5 and 8, and can be trusted to get out one thing at a time, and not put feathers in the paint, etc. If you have younger children, or regularly entertain children who don’t adhere to the family’s rules, I’d definitely put the messier stuff up high and bring it out only when supervised.

As for our garage set up, we’ve got a mini playroom set up out there, because our house is just too small to have an art area set up all the time. I’ve got a super cheap throw rug out there, with some little tables and an easel. It’s nothing fancy, but it keeps the glue and glitter off of the hardwood in the house, and the kids seem to not mind being in the garage.

xoxo steph

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:59:32 +0000

Great ideas. Do you have any ideas for storing art supplies? They get used everyday, but usually end up stuffed under the cupboard or drawers.

By: Tabitha T

Tabitha T — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:47:19 +0000

I recently learned about Artsonia.com . It’s an online art gallery for kids. If your school’s art teacher is interested, any merchandise created with your kids art can earn the school arts program 15%. (I’m not sure if it’s 15% of purchase price or profit. I just found out about it a week ago.)

There are fun extras like Artist of the Week and different contests if your child is really into art. My daughter is prolific so we will put together a CD plus try out this online gallery so out-of-state grandparents can enjoy her many works.

By: Artwork Everywhere | Mommy Points

Artwork Everywhere | Mommy Points — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:24:16 +0000

[...] from Totally Together Journal, recently wrote a post about the same thing. She has an ingenious idea to use cork boards and [...]

By: TIna

TIna — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:12:19 +0000

Yes, yes, yes! I do both of those things and it gives me such a feeling of success! I am very sentimental, but taking pictures of the artwork (sometimes with the kid holding it) makes me feel ok about eventually getting rid of the project itself! And grandparents love to get artwork presents in the mail. I have also made note cards by taking a photo of artwork that my daughter has made using a kit that a friend gave her as a gift, then printing it out, 2/ sheet, cutting them apart and folding into notecards. That made my daughter very proud!