Including how to manage when they want to keep it all. Broken down by age.
This morning I was getting something out of the dining room sideboard and noticed my 13yo’s wood sculpture that she was working on last week. I brought it into the kitchen and said, “Hey, are you done with this? I’m going to take it apart now, recycle what I can and save the rest for another gluing session another day.”
She asked if I took any pics of it. I said yes.
She shrugged. “Cool, go ahead.”
And I did.
It got me thinking about how we mostly handled this the same way when she was 4, 8 and 10. My other two kids were makers too. They built with blocks, made clay sculptures, painted massive murals, etc.
And I got rid of or repurposed most of it.
I’m a big believer in not keeping it all. Not in a sneak-it-into-the-trash-after-bedtime way, but in a the-making-already-happened way because kids create more freely when they aren’t preoccupied with the outcome. And when we are constantly saving and hanging and fawning over everything they make, they lose some of their ability to make for making’s sake.
(Altho I am not going to lie? I definitely still sneak some stuff in the trash without asking or giving it a second thought.)
Some of my favorite home decor in our house was made by my kids over the years, so I don’t want to give off the vibe that I don’t keep any of their work because you’d open my front door and call me a liar the second you walked into my kitchen. There’s a stick in my den that we worked on for years. A wall of clay sculptures. Their drawings taped up next to the framed Etsy print and the newspaper clippings. I wrote more about a home that feels like a warm hug here.
Back to the kid art and what to do with it all…
Did I just have more flexible kids than most? No, I did not. (well one of them was but definitely not the other two.) So, if you have the kid who wants to keep every scrap, and is looking for praise and feedback for each and every piece they create, I got you. Keep reading.
For Paid Subscribers: Let’s break this down by age and stage so you can start today.
How I talked to them about their work from toddlers through teens, including what I said when something went in the recycling
The saving drawer in our art cart, and what happens when it’s full
The window we used as an art gallery, one drawer per kid, and what I say when they insist they’re not done
