How to Preserve Your Child's School Work on Disk

All parents have been there...your child brings home paper after paper from school. We proudly display their work on the refrigerator for awhile, but the papers keep coming. Here's a method I've created to keep the memories and not have to store a single piece of paper. My house would be overflowing with art projects, science projects and test papers by now had I not implemented this fun and simple way to save all of those precious memories. I hope this idea helps you get your paper stack under control.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Scanner
• Blank Disk
• Photos, if desired
• Patience

1. Scan each piece of school work into your computer. Organize your scanned items by grade/age/date. If you have an item too large to scan, take a digital photo of your child's work and upload the photos to the school work folder on your computer.

2. Create a slideshow with the scanned items. At the beginning of each school year section of the slideshow, I include a photo of my child's first day of school, a photo of their school building, and the current grade/date as a "title page" to each section.

3. Burn your slideshow to a CD and store it in a safe place. You may wish to make an extra copy to keep in your safe deposit box. Label the CD appropriately and enjoy the slideshow!

4. Make a separate slideshow/CD for each child. They will be very proud to show off their work - and you will be relieved to have it all in one secure place.

5. After burning the CD and making sure everything works properly, go ahead and recycle the paper. Yes, it's alright to toss that finger painting into the recycle bin! Other ways to recycle school work includes using it as stationery to write a thank you note or make it into unique gift wrap.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't forget to make a copy of the school work CD for all of the grandparents. This makes a fun and treasured gift!
• This method is not only for younger children, older kids enjoy seeing their work as well. Why not scan those sports articles in as well as photos from the science fair?

Resources

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[turtledove]

on 9/29/2009 Oh, what a good idea! I'm going to start right away. I'm going to keep some favorite art projects, though. 5*