One of the most fun learning experiences for children is creating works of art. Not only does making something bring with it a huge sense of achievement and pride, but they also have a masterpiece to look at and enjoy. You can proudly display your kids’ artwork on walls, fridge doors, or even your desk at work, but if you have friends and family who live far away you might wish you could share your children’s artwork with them. Thanks to modern technology, this is not only possible but easy, and many resources are completely free. Below are some tech tips for moms to help you find the best way to store and share your kids’ beautiful creations.
While you can just send out ad hoc emails to family and friends with scans of your children’s artwork, it’s easier to organize if you use a dedicated tool. For inspiration, check out these great free online resources to get you started:
Flickr and Photobucket are the best known as photo sharing sites, but there’s nothing stopping you from using it for your kid’s creations. In fact, there are groups already established for just that purpose. Having your kids’ artwork on a photo sharing site also means it’s accessible wherever you are and you can share a link to an album with family and friends so they can browse at their leisure and enjoy the artwork wherever they are.
One of the most useful things today’s technology can help with in terms of our kids’ arty creations is storage. It’s lovely to think this doesn’t matter because you’ll physically save every creation, but you could soon run out of space; and what about art which can’t be stored, such as the amazing snowman your children made last winter or the miniature living garden your child made at school? Thanks to technology these types of creations can be recorded forever so they can be looked back on at any time. Here’s a good way to store your children’s artwork:
- Scan in what can be scanned, and photograph other items.
- Name files with the date and a description for ease of searching.
- Save the files in a folder with your child’s name; use subfolders for the year and month of creation, or if you prefer, use subfolders for the type of art—collages, sketches, paintings, three dimensional, etc. Remember, there’s no limit on how many subfolders you can have, so organize it in a way that feels right for you.
Once you’ve got your kids’ artwork onto your own computer you can easily share it using the resources above, and another thing I would strongly suggest is creating backups just in case something happens with your PC. If you don’t already back up your important files, it’s a good habit to get into. You can use a USB drive, external hard drive, CDs, or DVDs. Cloud storage is another method of backing up files and has the added advantage of being accessible through any device with an internet connection.
Some great sites offering cloud storage include Dropbox, ADrive, and Microsoft’s Skydrive. Photo/image sharing sites like Photobucket and Flickr mentioned above also double as cloud storage resources, as they store your files for you.
It may sound cumbersome setting up a system to digitally store and share your kids’ artwork, but once you’ve gotten into the habit, you’ll find maintaining your system takes very little time. And consider the benefits of having a digital copy of every cherished creation that can be viewed whenever you desire and shared with family around the world at the click of a button!
More Organizing Ideas:
