End of school year.....

[annie0000]

What does everyone do with the crap...sorry, prized work that the kids bring home at the end of the school year? I have 2 school bags filled to the brim with their school work - I tend to bag it and shove it up the loft, but feel that I should probably select a couple of bits from each year and dump the rest.

What does everyone else do with it all?

[arwyn]

I always binned it before the end of the summer holidays, My Son is now 21 years old and I'm sad to say that I'v got no crap from His school days, but I have a very tidy home lol.. So I'd say keep some bits.

[Maydup]

Keep some bits, and give the rest to granny!

[welshlibranr]

I had a box for the 'wonderful offerings' for the first few years, then it got full, so I started another one!...........in the end I had to sort through it, and just keep a couple of things from each year!...........just couldn't find room to store all of it!......the kids don't care, I offered some of it along with some school photos (have hundreds!) as keepsakes for them, they didn't want to know.............lol.............

[annie0000]

I am sure Granny would be chuffed with a pile of maths jotters!! I mean seriously why do they send this stuff home? We go to parents nights, we go along to open days, we see their homework, there is no need for us to see all this stuff and give us a dilemma, they should recycle it themselves!!

[sherrardk]

I look at it, ooh and aah over it a bit and leave it on the side. After a couple of days I chuck it all in the bin and no one notices it has gone. I do keep school reports (and every single birthday card) and if they do a picture that I can tell they really want to put up on the wall then it goes up and tends to stay up.

[annie0000]

welsh, when they have children of their own they'll come looking for all that stuff so you'd better hold on to some things. I have nothing at all from my school days, and I can't say I am particularly mentally scarred - I think I need a skip!!

[albaqwerty]

Kept some arty things on the fridge for a few months, as they became older asked them what to keep and what to throw out.
Both said ' just bin it mum '

[welshlibranr]

Very true annie, but it's so much easier for them to let you do the recycling!................

[annie0000]

I keep all their report cards - they have a fair bit of art on the walls. I think i'll keep a couple of early jotters and the rest is going - might have to be a bit subtle about it though!

[starone]

I went all the way through it, carefully looking at each piece in case i had missed something. Then I would give them an appropriate reward for doing whatever they did. When my adopted grandson brought his first lot to me to see I did the same and discovered from this that the teaching in his school was crap and he had not learned a thing. I did not tell him this of course - I praised him for trying so hard - but I bought some easy childrens books and by the time he went back to school after the summer holidays, he could read. I made a game out of it and gave him a prize each time he mastered a book. He is now 15 and doing well - he never looked back. It only took a little bit of effort on both our parts.

[annie0000]

Awww that's lovely starbuck - well not the poor teaching bit, but the rest is.

[starone]

Thanks Annie. He is a lovely young man and well worth it.

[annie0000]

I m sure he is a credit to caring lovely adopted grandad. Were you a teacher starbuck?

[starone]

I'm a grandma annie. I did do a bit of teaching but only shorthand, typewriting and business studies. I had a bit of practise with my daughter who wanted to go to school but was too young so I taught her to read before she went to school. The Royal Road Reader was the teaching book I used. It was very easy because she was bright and ready to learn.

[mightyWBA]

My nippers is all in the attic along with my school work..It's history innit ;-)

[annie0000]

Oops sorry starbuck - don't know why I thought you were a man! My boys are avid readers, we both read to them a lot as babies and they took to it like ducks to water and haven't had their noses out of books since. We're very lucky.

[B00]

Some of the more colourful paintings, ive framed and put them on the wall, far nicer than any picture you can buy.

[starone]

It's the name annie. I mean - starbuck - what a stupid name for a woman. I did think about changing it but I am used to it, and no-one would know me, so I didn't bother.

[annie0000]

I know B00 - I have stopped short of giving them specific colours to paint in so that it matches the decor........well mostly ;o). The boys go to art classes and have done some really nice stuff but I must admit to being disappointed when they have made some paper mache creation rather than a picture - the pictures are easier to find space for than a 10 inch round paper mache sun dial!! and WBA are you worried that the ceilings will come down some day??

[starone]

I've still got a framed tea-towel with little printed drawings and names all over it (printed by the children in his class) which my grandson had to sell for funds for his school. He is now twenty-two and just finished his university course.