Organizing School Work - Going Paperless?

Do you ever stop to think about how much paper we consume, 

in this technology driven, semi-paperless world?

I do, I think about it every day in my job, as I am surrounded by piles and piles of paper, even though my role is with electronic medical records. There is nothing paperless about that system...

Nor is there anything paperless about our school system.

(and preschool program!)

I love love love the projects and the papers that come home. 

I do. 

Something new every single day. 

 From Hailey To Rob? Hilarious! I love when she writes us notes. And using our real names...ah, this is the stuff life is made out of you guys. It really is. From Hailey To Rob. I. love. this!

 Wouldn't it be great if we could keep every single one of these little gems? Safely tucked away in a quaint little box or bin somewhere to pull out and look at later?

 Some of these come to the office, some go into a special keepsake box, but the reality is, if I were to keep all of these, I'd probably have, oh, about 200 dozen giant rubber maid totes full by now. 

So, some of these get

 ::gasp::

 recycled. 

I know. I know. 

 The truth is though, my kids know I recycle them. You see, we have a system in our house. We snap pictures of the awesome projects and art work - and then, if something happens to said picture - you know, the dog steps on it, a glass of water tips over on it, it hits the recycle bin before it's time...

We have a record of it.

What on earth would one do with all of these pictures of said projects and drawings and artwork?

Well, use one of those handy dandy photo book making websites and create a nice, compact, beautiful coffee table book of said artwork, that's what!

I have yet to put the actual book together myself, but I have created a few volumes of blog books and I think whipping up all of these pictures into a chronological order book of say, 

'Hailey - Kindergarten 2011-2012

is pretty genius if you ask me!

Every Monday in kindy they write 'weekend news' in their own words.

I went to the Minnesota Wild Game and went to the fundraiser.

I had a play date with Madison.

I went to the school carnival and I went to Markeese Birthday and played laser tag with Kaitlyn and it was fun.

 We've got quite the little artist on our hands. I want to remember these moments forever.

 But stuffing a pile of papers into a giant tote box and tucking it away in some basement corner or attic crawlspace somehow doesn't seem to do this justice.

 Drawings AND photos of said drawings, by the 6 year old herself! YAY!

As the school year draws to a close, all of these pictures will be dumped into my favorite photo sharing software and organized into a neat little hardcover book. 

I think it will be amazing to flip through this book and see project after project, all in one place.

One neat, tidy little place.

How do you store your child's school and art work?

Do you keep it all or do you pick and choose?

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