Artwork

I keep a few around all the time.

I use them for everything!

My mom clued me in.

Bonus: It keeps it all organized, too.

You’ll never have to throw out one of their masterpieces again.

A favorite travel destination inspired many pieces of this personality-packed gallery wall.

It'll basically turn their drawings into what looks like textured wallpaper!

The end result looks so much more expensive than it actually was.

Hey, Maxwell, I heard that when you were a teacher you kept a box of your students’ artwork for twenty years. Is that true? What happened to it? LukeDear Anon,It is true! Back in January of 2000, I was in my second to last year of teaching elementary school. As my class and I crossed the millennium mark and all the fears of Y2K subsided, I had the idea of asking my class to write down where they would be in 20 years, 2020, when I would call them up to come back to school for a reunion.

My daughter wants to make over her room. She wants to hang wallpaper. Should I do it? MeghanDear Meghan,I admire your daughter for her adventurous spirit, and I also understand your hesitancy. Wallpaper can seem like a big commitment and with children changing their minds all the time it doesn’t always make a lot of sense. Here’s what I would say: go for it by transforming ONE wall and don’t do traditional wallpaper!

I am confronting an empty nest and finally have time to go through all those stashes of art. I’m ready to let go, but HOW? A Viking burial pyre of burning art? We seem to have gone through a heavy phase of paint-your-own pottery, with some hideous results … (but as soon as I think of smashing them, it’s like “Ooh! Then we could make a mosaic with the pieces!” and there’s a whole new thing to not be able to throw away).

This piece was created for Cubby, our weekly newsletter for families at home. Want more? Sign up here for a weekly splash of fun and good ideas for families with kids. As a mom with a whole closet dedicated to fabric, paper, and 14 hot glue guns, few things bring me more joy than watching my boys harnessing their own creative genius. I beam whenever they excitedly hand me their newest “masterpiece.

I’ve got two daughters, one in first grade and the other in third, and they are prolific artists. It’s all over the kitchen walls and filling up corners of every room. I love it all, don’t want to throw anything away but I don’t know how to keep up with it all. What should I keep? What’s the best place to store it all? NadiaDear Nadia,I have very firm opinions on this and kids’ clutter in general, which is far less special than their original art. Here we go.

As my son gets older I’d like to give him a birthday present that’s also a keepsake and marks this special time that’s moving so fast. Any good ideas? YasminDear Yasmin,I remember when my daughter was smaller, I’d bump into other dads and they’d all say the same thing, “They grow up so quick, don’t they? I just don’t know where the time has gone.