It’s coming to the end of another school year and with it accumulates every report, spelling test and art project your student has completed since last September. How can you keep all those papers and projects year after year without your home bursting at the seams? Here are three ideas for sorting and displaying memorable work for you and your child from the past school year.

1. Keep a limited selection from throughout the year to showcase your child’s efforts and improvement. As you sort through all the achievements your child has made in school, think about selecting a small sample from each season or grading period to keep to show how much your child has steadily learned and improved.

2. Have your child select a few tests, papers and projects that he or she is especially proud of for display and safe keeping. Some school work or projects required extra effort on the part of your child. Did they do an important art project? Maybe they wrote their first research paper this year? Keeping and displaying only the work your child is most proud of is a great way to preserve the memories of the school year.

3. Take photos! Do you have a giant model volcano in your garage from the science fair? Maybe several poster boards featuring different countries, animals or cultures? Large projects like these can take your child a lot of effort and at the end, leave them feeling proud of their work but keeping them can be difficult. Instead, snap photos of your child’s prized projects and keep the memories in a photo album.

In sum, be selective, get your child’s input and use photos as an alternative medium for preserving the work and memories.

How do you organize your student’s school work at the end of the year? We want to know!