3-Ring Binder of Your Child's Artwork
Jun 05 '00
Is Laura Elvin ever going to write another epinion?
I've been a bit busy, lately, but this epinion here kind of goes hand-in-hand with being busy.. a full time working single parent who also owns her own business and tries to be a writer.
In being that kind of busy, I tend to let some things in life slide. Occasionally it's brought to my attention, however, when something I do makes a huge impression on someone else. Here's one of those things.
I was going through a box of papers, trying to make room for all the stuff in my place, and I found a binder I'd made for/with my son two years ago.
It's a plain soft plastic cover 3-ring binder. Inside are those kind of "sheet protectors" that are clear plastic (you can get no-glare, too) that have 3 holes punched beyond the 8.5x11 inch margin, so when you slip your paper in, you don't need to punch holes in your originals.
What I did was take a bright florescent sheet of paper and write on it: "Gabriel Drawings: Age 3" and slipped it into the first pocket. Then I put a bunch of empty sheet protectors in behind it and made another divider: "Gabriel Drawings: Age 4", and so on.
Then, as you can guess, I took pictures my son had drawn at those ages: 3, 4, and 5 and slipped them into the protective pockets. Luckily, I'd been writing (on the back of his pictures) the dates when he drew things so it was easy to divide the sections.
What brought this whole project to mind, though, was as I mentioned... I recently pulled this "art binder" out of a box and said, "Hey, Gabe... remember this?"
Gabriel will be 8 years old this month. Some of those drawings are from 5 years ago. His reaction to seeing this book again took my by surprise.
He sat and flipped through the pages, making comments like: "Wow, I'd forgotten all about this picture." And, "Oh yeah, I remember this one." And, "Man, I was really a good artist even at age 3." He may be immodest, but he's honest.
Then he asked me if he could take the binder to school for show-and-tell. He also asked if we could make a new binder for the drawings he'd done at ages 6 and 7.
We don't, of course, put in ALL the drawings he's done each year. And I actually started the binders to make up for the fact that we needed to clear the house of some clutter. So in exchange for throwing out some of my children's pictures, we give more attention to the ones we are keeping. We decide, mutually, what to keep and what to toss.
These binders are also items that travel well. If you're going to see a relative or if company comes over, it's an easy way to show off some artwork.
I do one other thing for my children's artwork (other than in my other article about making t-shirts!)... I keep two lovely wooden frames hanging in my office and at the start of each month I put into the frames a different picture that my children drew the previous month. It's a daily reminder of how artistic and creative my children are, makes me think of them while I'm at the office, and gives them an absolute thrill when they come visit me at the office and see their own artwork on display.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Lighthouse
|
|
Location: Oakland, CA
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 51 members
About Me:
Jewelry designer, author, researcher, multi-media artist, photographer, journalist, musician
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.