Parenting Style- School Paper Clutter

I love being a teacher, but I love being a wife and mother more. I wanted to share a parenting style with you. On parenting style posts I will share with you what I do as a parent. This parenting style actually links up with school. It is talking about the dreaded paper clutter. My son has gone to daycare, preschool, and now kindergarten. I love all of his papers and he cares about them so much. We have tried a few things to take care of the paper clutter, but I think I have finally hit on a solution that works for us. Let me first start off with the fails-
First fail was the drawer technique. This sophisticated (not) technique consisted of shoving all the "special" papers in a drawer to go through later. This was a fail because the papers just built up in the drawer until it became overwhelming. This is similar to a special box. This just didn't work for me.

Drawer Technique- Fail for Me

Next came the refrigerator technique. Special papers were put on the refrigerator and once the magnates were all used up you had to take a paper off to replace it. You will be amazed at how many special papers will fit on a fridge. I had to put a kibosh on this when I could no longer open my fridge. You would be surprised how many papers a little magnet can hold and drop when your hands are full with stuff to put in the fridge. I think the magnets conspired against me. They would say.... "wait for it, wait for it.....NOW she is in the most vulnerable position! Make sure you make it under her feet so the paper will make her slip on the tile."

Finally the push pin board. This was actually very promising and worked fairly well. My guy got to keep all the papers he could get on his board and this worked fairly well until he started making 3D projects. Soon the board expanded past all its edges and at a depth of more than six inches. When we first came up with this solution my son put Star War stickers on the board. They were buried beneath papers for eight months and only just barely saw the light of day.

 Now I have found a solution that works for me. As a teacher I like to send my students work home. I do this in hopes that parents will be able to have conversations with their children about what is happening at school and what they are learning. As a parent I got tired of loathing all the papers.

The first thing I did was take all the special papers off of my sons board. I took pictures of all his special pictures and I threw them away, save a few we kept. I had a friend help print vinyl lettering for me. I went to the local hardware store and bought a board. They were even nice enough to cut it the size I needed it. I let my son choose his colors. He wanted black with red letters. I stained the whole board first and let it fully dry. Then I painted it red and let it fully dry. I applied the vinyl letters and painted the whole board black and let it fully dry. Once dry I peeled the letters off and distressed it with sandpaper. I painted clothespins black and let them dry. Once everything was dried and distressed I used wood glue to attach clothespins. I was very thoughtful and only added a few (5). The rule at our house is one paper/clothespin. This has worked really well.

Now my paper clutter was in a digital form. I decided to make a Mixbook. (I get no compensation from this. I just talk about what I like.) I like Mixbook because the format of making a Mixbook is as simple as you want or as complex as you want. I love being able to choose backgrounds, stickers, layouts, text inserts, and so much more. It makes me think of scrapbooking. I also like that I can order the book and it comes bound with all of my guy's work in it. I chose to do the ABC design because that is the level my son is at in his life. 

Now when I go through my son's backpack the conversation is....

"Tell me about this paper." 

What did you learn?"

"Was it fun?"

"Is this a keep or throw away paper?"

"Is this a paper for your wall or a picture paper?"

"If it's for your wall, which paper is coming down?"

I put all his keeps in a manila envelope and snap pictures of them and put them in the book. I was able to insert a whole year's worth of work in three hours (and that was scrapbooking it.) I will add to it throughout the year and then wait until there is a sale on Mixbook. I have signed up for Mixbook's emails and get notice of sales. I have only done a few books with them, but have been very pleased with every project.

I hope this helps give you ideas for the paper clutter.

Happy Parenting!