Don't throw away all that kid art!

If you have kids, you know that, especially in the early years, they bring home lots of pictures they've sketched or painted or colored with crayons. Over a few years, it can overwhelm your storage capacity. The temptation is to throw away the earliest -- the crudest, depicting you, the mom, as some kind of long-necked monster with claws for fingers, or you, the dad, way too big and with a head the size of the moon -- but I caution you not to.

When our kids are just starting out in life, they don't know that only a few of them will become artists. In the beginning, they're ALL artists. They love colors and they love the tools they're given -- the crayons, the chalks, the paints -- and they put down on paper or canvas what they see of the world. It's a view we've all lost as we've grown to adulthood, a view we can never capture again.

Save this stuff!

One way to do it is to keep a big cardboard box with each kid's name, and the dates: Kate, from 7/17/07 to whatever date you close it up. That kid, that Kate, will be able to come back later and recover childhood memories. And really, how much space does that box take in a basement or on a garage shelf? Yes, you may end up with multiple boxes over the span of a childhood, but sooner of later, that kid is going to re-claim those boxes. And what else were you going to use that space for anyway? Tools? Old video tapes? Get real.

But the main reason for saving kids' art isn't just to preserve it for them. Kid art is often quite arresting. And I've noticed that, as my kids got older and more interesting, so did their art. (Just for the record, none of my children are artists.) Some pieces that they did later, into their teens, are actually pretty damned good. As the old saying goes, I don't know art, but I know what I like. And I do like some of my kids' art. It's primitive, but in the best sense: acute sense of color and line, images I wouldn't have thought of myself. Good stuff, some of it. Worth putting on a wall, somewhere in the house.

In fact, our walls are lined these days with a combination of "real" art and kid art, and I suspect many of our visitors can't tell the difference. (If you frame them the same, it's hard to tell, especially if you're into abstract/expressionist pieces.)

When our childen are young, their depictions of a grandpa, a dog, a snow storm, may be just right and should be saved, not just for them but for the family record. This is what it looked like to us, the kids, the Kates. Her depiction of the family or the event may prove to be more accurate than the event itself, in a way no photo in the family album ever was.

So don't throw away that kid art. Or at least go through it before you throw it away. You may find something valuable. A piece that brings back childhood memories. A piece you need to keep for yourself. And ask your kids before you toss it.

You'll thank yourself later, and so will they.