Kids Renaissance: Week 1

It has turned into an annual event. Each year after Christmas, my husband and daughter take off to his parents place and momma gets some sweet, sweet alone time. And during that time (when I'm not deathly ill) a great purge takes place in our home.

For a family of three, we have far too much stuff and I'm sure this is an affliction that many of my fellow bloggers know too well. Most of the time the purge is fairly easy to execute but a wall is always hit when I get to my child's stuff. Sure it's easy to lob the Happy Meal toys and other trash treasures that will never be missed into the garbage bin but one thing I have a really hard time getting rid of is her art work.

The creative energy is strong with my five year old, I say. Always has been and hopefully always will be.
If we kept it all, we would have smothered to death under the weight of paper and be the focus of an upcoming A&E investigative special. But what should we do with the artwork we just can't toss? Currently all her extra special creations are filed away in a series of accordion folders which are only opened quickly once a week when her school file comes home, laden with more 'keepsakes'. But even those deemed special enough to keep are threatening to take over far too much precious shelf space. This begs the question: 

For my daughter's inevitable therapy sessions, how much of her artwork should I keep in order to avoid any future discussions with regards to how awful a parent I was by not cherishing all her creative endeavors?

Right after I asked myself that exact question last week, I came up with this idea: why not showcase it here? I know that almost every parent thinks their child is a talented and creative artist -- because despite what anyone else says: THEY ARE -- and why not share it with the world? Kids are incredibly creative and there is something very humbling about the simplicity of a child's perspective of their world.

So here it begins on the first Monday of 2011, a piece from my daughter's gallery entitled 'Butterfly'.

By Gigi, Age 5. Medium: Markers and Paper.

Please do the same at your blog, create a virtual corner for your child's artwork before it's tossed -- I mean filed away -- and share a link in the comments below. I promise I will drop by and tell you that you are also raising a member of the future renaissance, because you probably are.

Come on now, share. Make these blog posts a virtual fridge gallery for the world to enjoy.