paper, paper and MORE paper...

It comes every year...

That time when I have to rip out my heart from my chest, lay it aside and ignore the attachments I have to every single piece of paper my children have touched.  

It's portfolio time.

Yep, as a homeschool mommy, I have lots and LOTS of papers.  Completed schoolwork, handwriting practice, drawings, paintings the kids did on their own accord.  If I didn't make myself have a heart of stone and throw some of it out, I would drown in paper.  

So, once a year I get a 1 1/2 inch binder, sheet protectors and go through the years work.  I pick out the good days we had...and the not so good.  We like to keep it real around here.  When I get to the artwork, that's when I grab the tissues and my camera.  I justify being able to throw away anything that doesn't make it into the binder by taking a picture of it.  I know.  It's pathetic.  

After it's all nice and neat I find a picture I LOVE of my boys from that year, print it out and slap it in the front of the binder and there ya go!  Portfolio (aka PROOF) that we completed another year of homeschool!!! :)

Here's the photos I used for their 1st and 2nd grade binders:

Aren't they just the cutest?!?!?!  

Not only does this serve a way to organize, but it's so sweet to watch the boys go through their binders and see the progression of what they have learned.  They truly enjoy looking through the binders from years past.  They ask me to get them down at least twice a year.  

So to conclude this post, I wanted to share the pictures of the portfolios I did for the boys' kindergarten and 1st grade.  I actually took these photos many moons ago - October of 2011 to be exact.  I was INTENDING to write a post about how I do these binders back then but got caught up in life.  So here they are now.  I hope this helps some of y'all organize the paper waves we homeschool mamma's get every year.