Every now and then the boys will ask me to look through their box of artwork. We love to go back and look at some of the adorable things they have made over the years. With school coming to a close it seems like everyday they are bringing home stacks of art, worksheets and papers that require us to make a decision...

do we keep it or do we toss it?

I have tried to get into the habit of managing papers throughout the year as they come in, but for some reason I still end up with a HUGE stack of papers to deal with. Just the other day, I noticed piles of papers in both kids rooms, there was a stack on the piano and another stack in my room. They tend to just take over...

Artwork is a sensitive issue for me. I don't know if it's because I kept very little from my childhood or if I am trying to capture every single moment of their childhood. Either way, if I kept every piece of paper they brought home, we would fill our entire house with papers.  So today the kids and I sat down and sorted through it all...

1. We gathered all the current stacks all over the house and pulled out their box of art work in their rooms.
2. We laid it all out on the bed and began sorting.
3. We sorted into piles: work papers, artwork, awards and certificates and items we might consider tossing.
4. After we laughed and enjoyed the memories from things we created and who we created them with; we carefully put all our "keepers" back into our box and decided that the toss pile was okay to take to the recycling can.

Making the decision to get rid of the toss pile was all them. I felt that they needed to make that choice, not me (although I will note that I did "guide" them to that decision). We discussed that if we keep everything, then nothing is really special.

When I asked my seven year old how he felt about it all he said, "mom, I think it's great to get rid of some of our papers because then we know the ones we have are the best of the best."

Teaching kids to sort and organize is an important skill. They start to understand that you have to manage your things and that to be organized (or as my five year old says... so you can find your stuff) you can find what you are looking for.