paperWORK

School starting means that the paperwork is starting. SOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY papers will go in and out my doors for the next 10 months... incredible really. So we have systems to make the paper work instead of making me work. Of course, this is how the paper works at my house, you may have it working differently, but if you are still working the paper, these tips may help.

Tip #1 No piles, just places.
Don't pile up the papers. Go through them as quickly as you can (most of it can be recycled immediately) and then put the remaining papers in their places. We have these handy dandy slots for each child right by the door (still don't have their names on them) and the kids can fit homework, library books, papers of all sorts and sizes inside. I also used magnetic paint so if there are papers that need immediate attention or forms/notes to be brought back to school I can use a magnet and put it right on that child's slot.
Tip #2 Select the Savers
Most people either save too much or too little. It's a very personal opinion of how much, if any, of your children's art and school work you choose to save. My kids have the option to shred or hang their artwork. Occasionally I intervene, but they're pretty good at making the choice. Sometimes after things are hung they are done with them too... and we can mail them to Grandmas or recycle.
Tip #3 Organize What You Keep
Again, you want the paper working, not you. I have three stackable bins (need to find a fourth still) where I throw papers and school work that "may be keepers." These are then gone through at the end of the school year and organized into their school books (which I'll go through later). Each child has a bin, and I quickly date the papers if they aren't already and toss them in (or have the kids do it).

I have a "home organizer" binder with tabs for important items that I keep in my kitchen with the cookbooks. One section is "school info" and I keep important documents, class lists, teacher contact info, and those parent homework helps under this tab and in a section for each child. This is an easy place to go to for those items and they don't risk having something spilled on them on the counter or refrigerator. However you choose to do it, organize what you keep.



Tip #4 Put your children in charge of their memory keeping
Finally, the school books that I use to store all the children's report cards, class pictures, and random pieces of art and school work. I've seen so many ideas of how to do this, but the key component for me had to be that I could put the method to work and my children could be the ones to keep it up. It felt like a monumental task, and slowly its become quite manageable. I bought those big white binders that are on sale at school shopping time and also a bunch of page protectors and dividers. So far, we've been able to get four grades/years out of one binder. I have a few different "interview" or "favorites" pages that I have the kids fill in or sit with me to answer, they get to scrapbook (or simply paste together) a page with their class picture and current picture and spelling of their name, and then we sort through the pile from the stackable bin and choose items to put in page protectors. This is where time is your friend, and artwork or tests that used to seem worth keeping forever have usually lost a lot of their charm! Leaving this job to the end of the year is a great way to look back, but also means that less is saved. The dividers separate the grades and also have pockets for report cards or random items. It's not a perfect system, but it works and the paper and the kids do most of the working. (At some point we should put their names, grades on the outsides of the binders!)



Good luck this year! And share any and all tips you may have to help us all out as well.