What to do with your child’s artwork
Children love to create and in a Montessori classroom, a work of art is about the process more than the end result – sometimes your child might come home with something that is precious to them and other times children might not feel any connection to their creation. Whatever the outcome of the creative process, there is a practical question that requires an answer: where do we put all of this art work? We have some suggestions for you:
- Pinboard – this is the easiest way to display artwork as you can rotate the display, replacing older pieces with newer ones. But the question remains: what do you do with the artwork you’ve removed from the pinboard…
- Photographs – take a photo of your child’s art so that it’s preserved in digital format. This is especially useful for pieces that are sculptural. You could create and print a photobook every year as a keepsake.
- Recycle – this is especially useful for artwork that is not precious to you or your child, or artwork that you’ve already photographed; explaining to your child that you are helping the environment by disposing of their artwork in this manner is an opportunity to make them feel ethically responsible.
- Portfolio/Scrapbook – you can buy a special art portfolio from the shop or create your own one with plastic sleeves as a way of filing artwork that you would like to keep. You could also create an art scrapbook; this is something that your child might like to help you with.
- Frame – children will love seeing their artwork in a frame on the wall, and you can interchange pieces as you like.
- Post to family – grannies and grandpas most especially love their grandchildren’s artwork, especially if they live in another country and perhaps don’t see their family all that often.
- Birthday Cards/Wrapping Paper – paintings and drawings can be used as wrapping paper for size-appropriate gifts. Upscale with ribbon or tissue paper in a bag. You could also make birthday (or other occasion) cards from your child’s art.
- Make a soft toy – there are many online sellers who create soft toys from children’s drawings and creations; this could be something you do with a particularly special piece of art.
- Arts & Crafts it – you could turn pieces of art into other things, like garlands, lanterns, mosaic cut-outs, mobiles, collages etc.
Whilst it might seem easier to sneak discarded art into the bin, fight the urge and include your child in the disposal process – you’ll find that they’re quite reasonable when they understand their options.
Photo by Dragos Gontariu on Unsplash
