My mom saved a ton of stuff when I was in elementary. Then her filing cabinet got full and she weeded it down with my help (I was maybe middle school age). So now I have maybe an inch-high stack of school papers/art projects, and I think that's more than plenty. (I also have my old yearbooks, pictures etc, but I don't think they fall into a "stuff to be weeded" pile.) As for your questions: "First, should I merge all of these mini-piles into one room?" I wouldn't. I can't ever manage to sit down and go through a mountain of papers. I'd rather grab one mini-pile, sort through it, and then put it away. "Do I go through these piles/papers first and divide them into two (one pertaining to each child?) " I would think that it should be divided by child so that they can easily be passed on to them years from now. "Or, as I handle each paper, do I decide "School" vs "Non-School" and then break it down to each child? " No. Why would you? Are you going to store it seperately? Ideally, you'd have only the most important keepsakes and there wouldn't be many so it'd be easy to go through later and find all "nonschool" stuff if need be. "Or, do I decide "Keep" or "Toss" as I go through these piles? And if I do it this way, does the "Keep" pile get sorted?" Just Keep or Toss for now. If it really bugs you later, you can always sort it later. "I'm thinking that then I will separate each kid's stuff into the elementary school years, the middle school years, and then the high school years. ...Should I create folders for each grade and then put school and non-school items in those folders? " Wow, it sounds like you're keeping a lot more than one sample per year!! Even if there's say 3 papers with with "thoughtful comments" on it, that's a maximum of 24 pieces of paper for all of elementary school! I just think you're making an overly complex system. Go through the piles, pick out the best stuff. Write the child's name and grade on each piece of paper if it's not on there already. Stick it in a box, label the box, and call it done! The benefits of a simple system are: 1) Better chance of actually doing it 2) if you really really feel the urge to subdivide the keepsakes by year, it can be easily done. But honestly I think that if you need to do that then you've kept too much.

For my final in my Yearbook class, my class has been assigned to do a ten page yearbook about ourselves. And so we can choose between putting it together by hand (scrap-booking, etc) or by using Adobe ID. I NEED your help. Finals are due in three weeks! Thank you. Sincerely, Keisha

I have mine and I bought some of my dad!s and mom's books on eBay. After my mom died, I gave them to one of her high school friends, who in turn gave them to the geaneology department of our hometown library. I need to contact the library and offer my dad's books, although I'm not quite ready to give them up. I saw photos of my dad I'd never seen and an ad in my dad's senior yearbook for my grandpa's luggage store. I was in the copy department for all my yearbooks and editor my senior year. Fun reading after all these years. I bought a yearbook on eBay from my high school 26 years before I graduated and was astounded to see how many of the faculty that I knew were on staff back then.

I didnt mind my children's school 100th day. The walked 100 steps, did 100 jumping jacks, 100 toe touches, etc... I do loathe many of the special days, my children usually opted to say they forgot. When they got to HS they loved spirit week, in which each day there is a different theme, not only in clothing but there is usually a skit, or debate, or song sort of performance competition. It is between the classes. By tradition the seniors always win, and the interest is in who will come in second place. My personal favorite is 'look like a teacher day' it has to be a teacher in the school and the contest is to see who does the best job, the costumed students and the replicated teachers all go up on the stage and the students vote for the best duo. My least favorite EVER was grandparents day in one of our schools, G 2 - 4. We have no grandparents anywhere nearby, and even though the school said , in small print, or any older special friend, when your kids have no grandparents available it is torture. I complained repeatedly for years and then just kept my kids home that day to spare the tears.