FOR MY FELLOW NON-SCRAPBOOKERS

This is probably one of the only posts you will see from me on creative ideas.  I am sure you are all thankful for that!  I do not scrapbook.  I wouldn't even know where to begin.  I am also not very creative when it comes to organizing my pictures.  My kids will probably be disappointed that they don't have picture documentation of their lives all wrapped up in beautiful handmade scrapbooks.   Oh well.  I guess they will just have to deal with that. 

Along with pictures comes artwork & school work.  When my kids started school the collection of every single picture they ever drew and every school worksheet they ever completed started to pile up.  I couldn't bear to throw any of their work away nor did I know how to organize it.  Then an idea came to me - pseudo scrapbook!  Not cute and homemade, but functional enough.  It has helped me weed through all their papers to find the ones that were special and also document activities we do as a family.  They each get one pseudo scrapbook a year (since they started school) and once the year is completed and the binders are finished they keep them in their closets.  I often find them sitting in their rooms looking back at their old stuff in those books.  They love it!  They don't care that the pseudo scrapbooks are not cutesy.

I bought four plastic drawers that I keep on a shelf in my pantry.  Everyday when the kids get home from school and we go through their folders I pull out all of their worksheets and artwork.  I tuck it into their assigned drawer in the pantry.  My intention is to go through it every couple of weeks and choose only the best stuff for the binder, but that doesn't always happen.  Sometimes it is only two or three times a year that I get to it.  The best thing about it is that all the paperwork is basically in date order so it is easy to organize.

Above the drawers I keep a 3 inch binder for each child with the appropriate school year listed on the spine of the binder.  Inside the binder I have empty sheet protectors.

I put their school picture in the front cover of the binder.

Inside the binder I usually make some sort of sign with their current grade.  Then I begin inserting their artwork and school papers in some semblance of date order in the clear plastic sheet protectors that are in the binder. 

If they played a sport that year, I will usually put the team photo in as well.  If we did an activity as a family (like the Cards game in the below example) I will put a the ticket stub or a picture of the activity.

I put their best school work and art pictures in too.

If there is a big event or news story that happened, like when the Cards won the World Series, I will put a newspaper clipping in the binder.

My kids all love to draw so some of my most favorite inserts are pictures they drew about things they are interested in.  My son is fascinated with the Titanic, and he loves to draw pictures of it.  I love, love, love this picture!

There you have it - simple and functional.  I am sure you could make yours much more visually appealing on the outside than mine.  The point is that the important stuff is saved on the inside and the kids love them.  The best part is that all their school papers are not sitting in piles all around my house!  Of course my OCD likes that!

From This Side of Disaster,
Cyndi