My kids got out of school last week and the insanity of having three at home all the time is creeping into my head. I’m learning that there isn’t much I can do to alleviate the chaos of that many little people. I have discovered something I can do with the chaos of all the projects they bring home on the last day of school!
Do you wind up with piles of schoolwork and projects that you want to save? What do you do with them?
One year I tried putting everything into each of the kids’ albums. I was completely unhappy with the results. There is too much and it takes over the album.
Next, I bought each of my kids an accordion file and stuffed everything into those. Aside from the fact that they filled up quickly, viewing their work was a chore, not a pleasure. It was a horrible idea. I want their projects viewable.
Finally, I’ve found the solution that works for me: alter a file-folder and turn it into a viewable book of schoolwork!
My daughter loves her book. And my nine-year-old son keeps asking me where his is. Time to start on Blake’s pile.
To create the cover, I use the same method I gave for the Father’s Day minibook. Because file folders are not as strong as chipboard, you may also want to layer Modge Podge over your altered front (before you add ribbon) to seal it and make it sturdy.
Create sections for your child’s schoolwork. The section topics will vary with your child’s age and school. Trinity’s book has the following sections:
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic: This is for her basic schoolwork. I compared her name-writing from the first day to the last and showed some math. Don’t be afraid to crop schoolwork down the way we crop photos. If you can crop excess off a picture, you can do it off of schoolwork! Crop down to the most important parts you want to highlight and adhere them to cardstock.
To keep the book from over-filling, and to create interest, I made the book interactive by stapling smaller pieces of work over larger ones and adding lift-tabs to the top pieces. There is a lot of lifting and pulling to see what is underneath or inside.
I also made a pocket for her report card at the end of this section.
Artwork: Some of Trinity’s artwork had funny stories behind them so those were the ones I highlighted. For example, after spending a few days reading, learning, and creating projects about pirates, Trinity asked me if pirates were now extinct.
For artwork with stories, I cut them out, adhered them to cardstock, and added my journaling.
I created a pocket for the rest of the artwork to fit into.
Writing/books: My kids’ school has what they call, Writer’s Workshop, everyday where they spend a lot of time writing their own stories and poems. They create books out of their stories and every year they come home with a pile of completed books that they’ve “published.” In the first two years, the books are just folded and stapled papers; small books.
I punched holes into them and added them straight to the file folder in their own section.
Be creative with your section dividers. I used some extra pieces of decorative transparencies that I had leftover from previous projects. They were about 6 or 7 inches wide and I cut the length down from 12 inches to 11 to fit into the altered file folder. I stapled tags or ribbon to the outside edge to use as pull-tabs. I titled each section by adding sticker letters to the fronts of the transperancies.
If you look carefully at the second and third photos, you can see the transparency dividers.
By adding all kinds of pull tabs and ribbons extending past the front cover, you create a lot of mystery and visual interest; it makes a person want to open the book to see what’s inside.
Wouldn’t you have loved this as a child? Knowing that Mom wanted to create something beautiful to contain all your creations would build confidence.
Creating a book like this shows how much you value all that they did the previous year. It’s the perfect summer-time project.
