3-D Art Projects

I know some people who photograph the projects very close up, maybe take a few from different angles and then make photo books out of them on the photo websites like Snapfish, etc. It might be just as fun for him to be involved in that sort of project and won't be as sad to see them go!

I agree with the photograph idea. As a professional organizer and mom, this is the best route I've found to capture the experience and eliminate the mess! You can create a photo book, use a photo box for him to keep the photos in, or get an inexpensive album and one-hour prints for your son to create his own keepsake album. Good luck!

I love the photo idea!

I give each of my boys an area for their projects. My youngest is particularly artsy and is always making masterpieces either at school or on his own. Anyway, they each have a shelf. If the project fits on the shelf, they can keep it. If not, they have to make room for it or throw it away/recycle. They can find something else on the shelf to throw away to make room for the new item. That way it's in their hands, not mine. It helps teach them to make decisions and gives them some control as well.

Don't know about science projects - my DDs are allowed certain hang space in their rooms for 2-D art (one has a bulletin board, one has a "clothes line"), and if it doesn't fit, it's gone. Personally, I'm not terribly sentimental about these things, so if there's too much clutter, I throw it. I have taken pictures in the past of some really cool things, or first letters, first stick figures, etc.

I agree about having a space for 3-D things; my DD has some space on one dresser for 3-D.

One failsafe for this family is Grandma. Shes' told me multiple times that she is going to save ALL of the art she gets from the kids in labeled boxes which the kids will get when they are 18 yrs old. If there's something I feel should probably be kept but don't want to keep it myself...to Grandma's it goes! :-)

Good luck!
T.

Dear J.,
I tend to save things. Too many, I'm sure but my 24 year old daughter certainly appreciates some of her more stellar projects still being around. Little by little I give them to her to take home to her own house for safe keeping. I'm the same way with my son who is 14. He's made some pretty awesome stuff. Find a way to put shelving in your son's room or hang things if possible.
I am a complete sentimental sap, but even I toss out the slime, goop and things like that. Yes our children made it and yes it was wonderful and fun, but there is a compromise that comes with it. My son has made 3-D things showing a cross section of the different layers of the earth, etc. We still have those. One of his history projects was so awesome he lent it for display at the school and shares it, but it has a permanent home in his room and always will.
It's not possible to display every single thing all the time, but you can certainly rotate things. As he gets older, you will certainly have to be selective about the things you save permanently, but maybe have a big rubbermaid box to store things in and at the end of each school year, go through them, let him relive making them, and find a couple of things from before that he might not care too much about saving. I tried to save at least a few things from each of my kids years in school. Be it artwork, a poem, a project. I still have little things they made for me for the holidays and bring them out.
But, like I said, never did get sentimental about slime. lol

Stuff like that, keep it for a week, let him play with it and then it's bye bye slime. Besides, he knows how to make more if the urgent need ever arises.

Best wishes!

take photos of it all... then put them in a nice photo book... like the one's from Costco or Kodak www.kodakgallery.com
and be sure to put the date he made it on the piece/photo... and what it is for, and what grade level.

That is what i do.

good luck,
Susan