For years, we have had issues with artwork piling up around here.  Ariel can produce some piece of art in just a few minutes – which translates to a lot of pieces in a single day – and many of them are not that great (as compared to her own work; not just as compared to art in general).  We have had difficulty figuring out how to help her sort through them to figure out what’s worth keeping and what isn’t.  Until last week.

First, we had a short discussion about art.  Sometimes a piece is created just for the fun of creating, and it may or may not produce a really beautiful end result.  If it doesn’t, we don’t necessarily need to keep that piece – since the point was to have fun during its creation, it has already served its purpose.  Other times, we create very carefully, with an eye toward a specific end result.

Then we set about working through a very (very, VERY) large box of artwork to sort through it and figure out how Ariel can best do this on her own.  After a little while, we had come up with three questions that actually worked!

1. Twenty years from now, would I be really sad if I didn’t have this? Ariel is seven. With a slightly younger child, you might have to just say, “When I’m a grown-up…”  With a much younger child, I doubt these concepts would really be grasped.  And you have to ask the question this way.  “Twenty years from now, will I want this?” doesn’t work nearly as well.

2. Is this some of my very best work? I thought we might find her saying nearly everything was her best work, but she was surprisingly honest – and accurate.  For the most part, the ones she called her best work were the same ones I would have called her best work.  I did have to rescue a couple from several years ago, though, as she didn’t recognize pictures as being some of her very best work as a three-year-old.  This brings us to our last question.

3. Would Mama have a special reason to want to keep this? (It was important schoolwork, it shows my hands as a toddler, etc.)  This one didn’t get much effective use, but it did make a difference in one or two instances.  It also made sure that a few “not sure about this one” items were kept long enough to ask Mama about them.  🙂  This question can, of course, be omitted if Mama is actually present and part of the process, as Mama can specify whether she has a particular reason to keep something.

We went through one moderately-sized stack of papers together, with me asking the questions and Ariel answering them, tweaking our questions (to end up with what you just read) as we went.  Then I set her loose with a huge box we had moved from the last house, that spanned several years.  She ended up saving few enough pictures to fit in a folder, and throwing away an entire kitchen trash bag full!  All on her own!  She saved a few that I think she will decide in a few years she doesn’t need, after all, but for the most part, I think her decisions were very well made.

So give these a try, and let me know if they work as well for you as they work for us. 🙂