Artwork at daycare

At daycare, at least a couple of times per week they do some form of artwork. I think this is great, he's getting messy and having fun and I don't have to clean it up[1]. He's exercising his creativity and imagination, blah blah good for him blah blah.

Except, here's the thing... they always give me the artwork to bring home. This was cute the first couple of months when he was so new and it was so amazing (my baby SMEARED paint around in this wonderful DESIGN! And it's in COLOR! On construction PAPER!) and I would take them home and file them[2]. This was also during the phase when I would take home every sheet with "When did he nap, when did he eat and how much, when did he get his diaper changed and what were the contents" and file them away in folders organized per-month. I told myself I wanted to keep track of his trends, see if he was eating more, sleeping more and whether or not he was a consistent pooper. Never did though, and around six months I realized that I wasn't doing anything with the paper and started throwing them away as soon as we got home (or really, as soon as we got in the car).

So at least a couple of times per week they give me a piece of paper with some random scribbles on it. Not even scribbles, really - I don't think he understands exactly what's going on (i.e. creating works of art). I used to leave them at daycare as long as possible, pretend I didn't notice them in our cubby ("oh, is this for us to keep?"). But they don't let me play that game for long, and push them into my hands at the end of a couple of weeks. So I take those papers, make appropriate oohing an ahhing noises and then throw them away when we get home.

Am I the only one who does this?

I do keep a few. They made pet rocks by painting rocks and then the teachers put yarn hair and eyeballs on them. It's adorable and I kept it. They also made a laminated flower with a handprint in the middle and a magnet on the back that I kept; I stuck it to the filing cabinet where I was filing the other artwork for those few months. But how many pieces of paper with random splotches of color on it do I need to keep in order to be considered 'A Good Mother'?

[1] Well, I still have to clean him up. There was a couple of weeks last year where he had an orange paint stain the size of a yarmulke on his head through four baths.
[2] We own quite possibly the world's dumbest fridge. It's not magnetic. Wha-huh?? While researching it we discovered that they actually did work to make it not magnetic. They squeezed the magnetism out of it. It was certainly not designed by parents.

Comments

[Missy]

Ah... We've all been through this one! I did what you're doing - tossed most of them, and saved a few. Bryce is now 11, and I have two boxes (almost full) of saved artwork and class papers (they're the plastic boxes that fit under a bed). I usually save three or four art projects a year, plus all of her journals, and a few good homework assignments or tests. We pull the boxes out once a year or so and she goes through them to see how much she's changed over the years.

You can't save everything, but it is nice to save some things. As the years progress, you'll find you save just the most important things.

When Jared is a little older, you'll find that you can't toss everything immediately - he'll notice. So then you save things (somewhere where he can see them) for a few weeks, then pick out one special one to save and toss the rest. There doesn't always *have* to be a special one you save, but it's always nice to be able to show them that you think their work is important enough to save.

BTW, I know you're a Good Mother. :)

[Michelle]

Our brilliant solution? Stick a couple weeks worth of those suckers into a padded envelope and send 'em to the Grandmas (or other distant relative/friend/lonelyheart!) You get to experience the joy of giving, as well as a lovely, clutter-free home. And you can still keep the best stuff for yourself: win, win, win!