My children have really been on a drawing kick lately. Which is great. I enjoy watching them put so much effort into translating ideas from their brains to ink-on-paper.
There are lots of great things about all the drawing going on.
However. There's one downside.
I noticed, a few months ago, that they were leaving stacks of paper all over the house! A pile of drawings in the bedroom. A pile of drawings in the living room. A pile of drawings in the dining room.
I realized that we didn't really have a "system" for cleaning up the drawings.
When it comes to housekeeping, here is one thing I've learned over the years:
When there is an absence of a system, that basically means this: it all falls on mom.
Whose job is it to pick up and sort through the drawings? The artist.
Who was actually the one picking up and sorting through the drawings? The mom.
Basically, I found myself collecting their drawings & putting them in a stack in the sunroom.
Every week or so, I would flip through the drawings and recycle most of the stack. I would keep some of the ones that stood out to me.
The problem is, to them, EVERY DRAWING was very, very special. If they happened to see a few drawings in the recycle bin, they would flip.
Then we'd have to have a conversation about how we can't keep everything....yada yada.
But try as I might, that lesson was not sinking in very well, because the genesis of the conversation was always the shock and agony (!!) of finding a precious drawing in the recycle bin.
Not good.
One day I came to a very important realization: I am not doing them any favors.
Doing the clean-up work for them? Not doing them any favors.
Making the decisions about keep vs. throw away for them? Not doing them any favors.
I remembered my OWN soapbox about putting the decisions into their hands whenever possible. If it is something that my children CAN POSSIBLY do for themselves, then they should be doing it for themselves.
Part of life is to realize that you have to make decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.
Part of learning about creativity is realizing that, often, you have to produce drafts of an idea before you finally get *it* to look the way you want it to look. (drawing, painting, photograph, writing....the list goes on.)
Subconsciously I'm sure I was thinking something along the lines of "They don't really like to make decisions about what to throw away. If I leave the choice to them, they'll just keep everything. Therefore I'll have to make those decisions for them."
Wrong.
Not doing them any favors.
They need to learn how to make those decisions on their own.
SO: here's what I came up with.
(This "solution" is probably so obvious to anyone reading this post. I'm sorry to say it took me a while to realize we needed a system like this.....)
I bought two plastic containers. One for him. One for her.
I sat them down & talked about how we can't keep everything in life. I told them that ALL their lives they would have to make decisions about getting rid of things. They need to start learning those lessons now.
I showed them the containers. I told them that ANY time they finish a drawing session (no matter where they are in the house), they must do four things
(1) Throw away (or recycle) trash. (paper cuttings, etc)
(2) Put blank, unused paper back in its place.
(3) Recycle any drawings that they don't need to keep.
(4) Store any "keeper" drawings in the plastic container.
I told them that this container is for 2011. They can put as many drawings in it as they want, as long as the lid still closes.
When it's full, it's full. That's it for 2011. You'll have to throw more away if you need more room.
OR: if you really, really want to, I'll let YOU buy a second plastic container with your allowance money.
{...Introducing the concept of storage units at a young age. Ha! It's the American way, right?}
So far, the "drawing boxes", as we now refer to them, have been a big hit.
I think they've even come to enjoy having to make decisions about what to do with what they produce. Also, the drawing boxes have made them slow down and put more thought and detail into each drawing.
It'll be interesting to see how those boxes look at the end of the year....And also interesting to see if they're able to make it on ONE box per person!
