Does it seem like you are bombarded with paper once the school year starts?  It does for me.  It seems like every year the kids bring home tons (and I do mean tons) of ‘priceless’ memories.  I’m pretty sure we’ve cut down our own rain forest with the amount of papers we get each year.

From artwork and school work; to special drawings and creations I find myself in a mound of paperwork.   I always feel guilty when I don’t keep every little of piece of school work that comes home (the guilt often comes from the author of the so-called work).  So I would usually keep it and put it in a box.  Then it would pile up next to other papers until there were MOUNTAINS of school memories.

Last year I decided I had better figure out a better system.  So now, at the beginning of each year, the kids each get a binder.  They each get to put 25 sheet protectors into their binder.

They each fill out an All About Me page that goes in the first sheet protector.  This page is full of favorite facts that always seem to change from one year to the next.  These facts include:  age, weight, height, who their teacher and friends are, favorite foods, books, songs, color and most importantly what they want to be when they grow up.  Then they fill the margins with stickers and sign their name, so cute!

We make handprints and footprints.  I also take a picture of each of them or use a recent one.  This paper becomes the cover of the binder (I use the ones that have a clear cover so I can slip in a cover sheet).  So each year we get new handprints and footprints that have grown bigger since the last year.

Then, throughout the year the kids choose (and they learn pretty fast to be selective since they only have room for 50 pages) what to keep and what to throw away.  Once in a while I choose things to keep which I slip in there myself.  I try to make sure the papers have a name and date so I can see the growth throughout the year.  At the end of the year they get to put their final report card in the pocket at the front of the binder.

It’s fun to see how they change and I love to see the growth they make over the year.

This was such a fun activity, the kids loved creating their own tiny rock village!  We collected varying sizes of river rock, washed them and painted them with acrylic paint.

Mimicking those cute miniature Christmas villages, we had our own little Christmas in July.  The kids came up with a city hall, barber shop, skyscraper, post office, candy shoppe, cars, school buses, cozy little homes surrounded by trees, a person and even a stoplight.

I helped them draw the “structures” and they painted them (after the paint dried I went over them with a sharpie to define the buildings).

I helped them draw the “structures” and they painted them (after the paint dried I went over them with a sharpie to define the buildings).

Kids love experimenting with sand.

Because it is naturally tactile, sand is a perfect way for children explore colors and patterns, of course they don’t care about that, they just want to have fun! 

 Here is an easy art project the kids love…in the back yard (hint, hint).  To introduce the activity we watched this video, she is amazing!! 

Then I let the kids loose to scoop, pour, mix and create.  I have bags of colored sand I got from a craft store that we use in our crafts, but you can make your own with beach sand or salt.  Below is a simple way to make colored sand.

Colored Sand or Salt

Put 2-3 cups of salt or beach sand into a large zip lock baggie.  Add a couple of drops of food coloring (the more food coloring you add the darker and brighter the color gets).  Close the baggie and start mixing with your fingers. Shake the sand around until all the sand or salt is colored.