Got a little artist in the family?
Worried about the enormous usage of paper? If you're one of those
parents with boxes and boxes filled with nothing but drawings,
paintings and such, you have good reason to be concerned. Child
artists often go through 25 or more sheets of drawing paper a day.
It's not exactly a green hobby, is it? Plus, where do you store all
that stuff? Is there anything you can do to get kids to green up
their art?
Captain obvious says, get a white
board or a chalk board.
It'll cut down on paper use in a big
way. While you don't like to think of your kids' drawings as
wasteful, you have to admit, this solution certainly makes them less
so. If your kids still want to save their drawings, you can always
take a picture and save it on the computer for posterity, right?
Then, just wipe the slate clean and start over.
You don't want to limit creativity.
How about some different creative
outlets? For instance, you could get them their own camera or cell
phone so they can take up photography. The nice thing about this
hobby is that they only print out the very nicest of their pictures.
The rest may take up space on their computer, but at least they don't
waste paper.
Digital sharing
Kids can easily e-mail photos or photos
of their art to relatives. They can post them on Facebook if they're
old enough to have an account. That way, the whole family gets to see
their work without making tons of copies and wasting more paper.
Friends and relatives can pull up the art anytime on their computer
so there's no need for them to use paper to print them unless they
choose to.
Getting more creative
While your kids are on the computer,
why not download some applications that will help them as artists?
There are plenty of instructional videos they can watch. Plus, they
can learn to edit their work, make collages and calendars and more.
Even though this is likely to encourage more drawing, painting and
such, they still have the option of only printing their best work.
