how I catalog my child’s artwork

My four-year-old finished his first year of preschool in May, and can you guess what surprised me most about the year? Not how much he learned, not how much his social skills improved (though both were impressive), but how much artwork we’ve accumulated through the course of the year. The amount, dear readers, was staggering. And I know I’m not the only mom looking for a solution.

Enter a Shutterfly coupon code, a whole afternoon photographing and editing photos, and we got this….

This? This has definitely been one of my brighter moments as a mom.  🙂

I uploaded all the photos to Shutterfly (though there are many sites to choose from-Blurb is another that I want to try out), chose a cover photo, and had this keepsake ordered within minutes. You can choose the “custom path” or “simple path”…the simple path instantly organizes your photos in the book, but if you are looking to place them in chronological order, the custom path is the way to go.

We did, obviously, choose to keep some of his art. I use a file box from Target, to keep pieces that I want to hold on to, and I also let him choose some pieces to keep and display. Otherwise, though, I didn’t feel bad about not saving every single piece that came home with him over the year, and we have a keepsake that we love to look through and I know we’ll cherish for years to come!

So, this begs the question, what’s YOUR children’s artwork storage solution? Would love to know.