End of the school year work binder for kids!

The last couple of weeks Callie's first grade teacher has sent home papers by the truck load. It was getting ridiculous! I mean, I get that she doesn't want them but I don't need 30,435 reminders of first grade work. Also my little peanut has this hoarding problem. She has a rough time letting go of things, any work she did. I used to throw it away after she went to sleep when she was little. One day she got savvy to my ways and found a bunch of her pre-k stuff in the kitchen trash. Hell hath no fury like a four year old that just found out mom trashed her beautiful art work! To ensure this would not happen again. I found a long flat basket and it houses all of her school, church and girl scout work for the year. No tears from her and no guilt for me. Every Friday we go through her Friday folder and she gets to put anything that she wants to save in the basket.

Then at the end of year we go through the basket and put all of her amazing papers into a binder. It is process, but to me it is worth it!

You will need a 1 inch 3 ring binder. I do this on purpose because then it forces Callie to be very selective about the work she keeps. Whatever doesn't fit in the binder doesn't survive.

We also used plastic sheet protectors to put in stuff that is oddly shaped or won't fit

Yikes!! That's a lot of work!

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First we organize, first separate the work into two piles: Keep for the binder and trash.
Next, we separate into three different piles by, beginning of the year, middle of the year and end of the year. That way everything is chronological. ( I am a little OCD, no one wants to see snowmen at the beginning of the year)

Beginning, middle and end of the year!

Then we get to work, trimming and hole punching everything.

Ta-Da! A beautifully organized binder of work! We put birthdays cards and such in the pockets.

Save the back pocket for over sized or weird shaped things.

Slap a label on it and you are done!

Add it to the collection!