Parents leaving past crafts in bag

Hi everybody! This is my first time posting, but I've been reading your posts for a couple of months trying to take in some lessons before I start up my new daycare. I am currently caring for my niece along with my two boys. My niece is 1 1/2 yrs old. We do crafts and colouring a few times a week. I know when you do crafts with one so young most is lost on them and we end up doing a lot ourselves, however she always sits with my oldest son (3 1/2 yrs) and looks interested in what he's doing so I've always included her.
Today I accidentally knocked over the bag that goes home everyday and noticed that a couple of crafts from last week and the week before fell out as well as a page she coloured last week. So my question is should I continue to do these with her? I do ones that she always can do some part herself (colouring mostly) or it's one of her hand or footprints so that her parents can enjoy the crafts as well and keep them as I do with my own childrens'.
When I first starting watching her and doing crafts with her, her parents would always love seeing what she'd done that day and would tell me how others would loved what we did, so they were showing them to others and I guess enjoyed what we had done. So know I don't know what I should do going forward. Any suggestions? Sorry it's so long!

The crafts are for the kids so I would keep doing them with her if she enjoys doing them. If the parents don't appreciate their daughters art work that is really too bad :no:, so I would stick with what this dcg enjoys doing as it builds fine motor skills, pride and confidence.

Can you display some of his work at your home? We have a clothes line thingy where I hang stuff up. Or send stuff home in a separate bag sometimes, I honestly just don't see things in bags

I agree completely with mimi. The art is for the child and if the parents don't appreciate that than it is their loss. Don't punish the child just because her parents don't care. Keep doing art with her! :) Like mimi said, art teaches so many valuable lessons that the child needs to learn for school anyways.

I do art with all my dc kids and at one time, I had an 8 and 10 month old and even they did art! There is plenty for them to do without an adult doing it for them. I had one of the parents(a dad) question me how much their child was actually doing, he was about 9 months at the time. I videotaped him doing art one day and the dad was shocked and apologized LOL. The younger they start, the easier it is because they learn so much quicker!

I would suggest doing what I do (if you want too of course lol). I tape their artwork up on my wall. When the wall gets full I take them down and place them in individual folders. When the folder is full I send home a whack of art work. I send home holiday stuff sooner so that the parents can display it in their home.

I agree that art is for the kids but it still irks me!! LOL. I have had kids come to daycare crying because their parent has thrown out their artwork. Then there is the other girl I had who eventually got the attitude that her work was no big deal because it was just going to go in the garbage anyways. Sigh... do what you do and don't worry about it.

At the same time I wonder sometimes how much the children really do enjoy the art and how much is just because we are interacting with them. I gave them pumpkin cut outs today and faces and we made silly ones and put mouths at the top and eyes instead of ears and laughed our heads off and then it all went back in the bin so we can repeat the activity which is important for the age group we have. It wasn't considered art because we didn't glue the pieces down and send it home but for all intents and purposes we did the same thing.

Because of having mixed ages I do far more of this kind of activity than I do of crafts. As a parent I know how much I hated the big painted pictures the kids brought home from kindergarten and only kept a few reflective pieces but eventually the paint dries out and cracks off anyways. A lot of parents honestly don't look in the diaper bags just assuming it is ready for the next day unless they see child in a different outfit at pick up. I tend to post stuff on the back of the door so parents see it when leaving and at least take it with them. What they do after that isn't my problem.

Yes, Definitely have to just make it about the experience and the process, not the product or what is done with it afterwards. When I was teaching I would spend weeks having the kids work on hands-on projects, just to have them throw them in the garbage right in the classroom once they were graded. They didn't even give the parents a chance to see them...or atleast wait until they get home to throw it out. And I did cool things too, like having them create a cereal box that was all about a province - like "Alberta-O's". *sigh* I thought it was cool and interesting, anyway! LOL!

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Originally Posted by playfelt

At the same time I wonder sometimes how much the children really do enjoy the art and how much is just because we are interacting with them. I gave them pumpkin cut outs today and faces and we made silly ones and put mouths at the top and eyes instead of ears and laughed our heads off and then it all went back in the bin so we can repeat the activity which is important for the age group we have. It wasn't considered art because we didn't glue the pieces down and send it home but for all intents and purposes we did the same thing.

Because of having mixed ages I do far more of this kind of activity than I do of crafts. As a parent I know how much I hated the big painted pictures the kids brought home from kindergarten and only kept a few reflective pieces but eventually the paint dries out and cracks off anyways. A lot of parents honestly don't look in the diaper bags just assuming it is ready for the next day unless they see child in a different outfit at pick up. I tend to post stuff on the back of the door so parents see it when leaving and at least take it with them. What they do after that isn't my problem.

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I have definitely thrown out a bunch of my daughter's art from preschool and what she has done with me, I keep a couple but I care more about the process and can't possibly keep everything.

I have a couple of Mom's that take pictures of the artwork and put into an album. Some of the really special pieces they do keep. This way they have a memory album parents and kids can look back on and they don't suffer the aghast when they eventually throw the art work away.

Playfelt, that is a good idea to do things like that. I did the same idea with a christmas felt tree and ornaments and the kids enjoyed it last year. Never thought to do it with a pumpkin...duh!! lol

It all depends on your group but I have found most kids enjoy doing art (there is a difference between art and crafts) and enjoy using the different materials.

I can honestly say that my kids enjoy art and do most (if not all) the work themselves! The older kids like crafts but I don't do crafts that often.

If your daycare child seems to enjoy it, then I would continue. If you find yourself doing a majority of the "craft" for them, and he/she is bored; I would re-evaluate the activity (or activities).
I hear your frustration, though. I see our "special" projects sit for days, sometimes weeks, on end in the kids bin before mom/dad finally shove it into the bag to take home. Ah, well. What can you do?

When my kids were in preschool I just didn't have the heart to throw away their art work. But then again I am a packrat.

I find it sad that parents don't appreciate what their kids do a little more. As far as keeping arts and crafts, I have always tought my son that we can't keep EVERYTHING. So he helps me pick the most special crafts, we hang them up for a few weeks and when we've got to replace them with newer crafts, if we still think the craft is extra special it goes in a "memories box" where we keep them forever :D