Organizing School Memories...I Wish I Did It Sooner

For each of my kids, I complete a movie that encompasses their kindergarten through 8th grade experience as a gift for their graduation. It's something I started when my oldest was a 2020 pandemic graduate. I was looking for something to make it special, and well, we were home and had the time, so I sorted through all her old schoolwork, watched videos, sorted through my extensive photo library, and the completed project is one of my favorite videos to watch and reminisce.

I admit I probably saved too much of their stuff. I love all the little projects, pictures, letters, stories, etc... I am guilty of setting items aside, thinking they will get organized another day. I am now working on video number three, and there are organizational steps I wish I had done better when my kids were growing. I hope I can help someone with the process of organizing school memories. So, if I could do it again, these are the things I would do differently.

1. Write on the back of papers/artwork my child's name (if not already included) and the date, including the year. You think you will remember it because it was so darn cute and memorable then. You won't remember them all. Trust me. If you have multiple kids, start file folders or storage bins labeled with their names and school years included.

2. At the end of each school year, go through your treasures and choose to keep the physical copy, take a picture to capture the memory, or maybe...gasp... toss it because it doesn't seem as memorable as it once was. I found countless papers from preschool days with a few crayon markings. I don't think I needed to keep all of those.

3. Go through your photo library and videos and create albums for each of your children. Photos build up quickly, so I recommend sorting these at least once a month to update any school albums you created. These will come in handy for multiple reasons down the road. You might choose to create a montage at certain milestones or graduations. You might also get your 8th grader needing a picture of themselves from kindergarten tomorrow. Junior high loves to do projects with old photos!

The time spent capturing these memories and organizing them will be worth it. The older my kids get, the more sentimental they are about looking at their early school days. It is really handy to have everything easy to find.