It’s Monday. If your child’s Kita finishes this week or next, you have until Friday.
You’ve probably been meaning to do something with the drawings for a while. Maybe since April, when you noticed how many there were. This is the post for that moment.
Here’s what’s still realistic, in roughly the right order.
Tonight: photograph everything you have at home
Pull out the folder, the box, whatever’s on the fridge. Don’t sort, don’t decide what to keep yet. Just photograph.
You need natural light and a flat surface. Lay each drawing down, hold your phone directly overhead, tap to focus. Thirty seconds per drawing. Put them in a dedicated folder in your camera roll, not mixed in with last weekend’s photos.
For thirty drawings, that’s fifteen minutes. Do it tonight before you’re tired. The weekend brain is coming.
Write on the back of any originals while you still remember: name, age, date, and one sentence about it if you know something. “He worked on this for forty-five minutes.” “She gave it to me when I picked her up.” That sentence will be worth more than the drawing in ten years.
If you want a quick guide on getting the photos right, there’s one on photographing kids’ artwork.
What’s still at the Kita
There is almost certainly art still at the Kita. Work in progress on the wall. Pieces from the big summer project that haven’t come home yet. Maybe a portfolio the educators have been maintaining.
This week, ask. Specifically: is there anything they’re planning to send home, and is there anything on the walls or in their portfolio we could see or photograph before the last day?
Educators are usually glad someone asked. They’ve been watching this work happen for months. They’d rather it go with a family who wanted it than into a bin.
In our Kita in Zürich, the educators had maintained a small portfolio for each child: photos from field trips, observations written down, a few drawings they’d watched being made. We only knew to ask because another parent mentioned it in passing. It was the most specific record of my son’s Kita years we have.
If you want something printed in time
You can still order a book this week and have it in your hands before summer.
The order window is roughly ten to fourteen business days from when you place it. If you upload and order by Wednesday, you’re looking at mid-July delivery.
You need ten to fifteen drawings to make a good book. More is fine, but you don’t need everything. Pick the ones that show who they were at this age: the progression, the funny phases, the drawing they made specifically for someone.
The difference between a snapshot and an art page is background removal. The kitchen table disappears and the drawing appears clean on the page.
Scribbly does this automatically: photograph the art, the app strips the background, you arrange and order. (I built it, for exactly this situation.) Order by Wednesday and you’re in time.
If a physical book isn’t possible this week, a digital album of photographed drawings costs nothing and takes an hour. Less meaningful to hold, but still a real record.
For the full guide on selecting and sequencing a Kita book, there’s more in The Year Your Kid Spent at Kita.
The conversation to have this week
Ask your child what they want to keep. Spread out what you have. Which ones are their favorites?
Children are unsentimental about their own art in a way that is startling and completely right. They’ll choose three and let go of the rest without drama. That’s good. Let them be the editor.
Then ask: what was your favorite thing to make at Kita? Not to keep. Just as a question. The answer is worth writing down.
And if you have a quiet moment with the educators before the last day, ask them the same thing. They’ve watched thousands of small moments. They remember specific things.
“He spent a whole afternoon on the house painting. He couldn’t stop adding windows.” That detail isn’t in the drawing itself.
If a book isn’t going to happen this week
A labeled folder of photographs is a real archive. It’s not a book, it’s not printed, but it’s a complete record and it costs nothing and takes an evening.
Name the folder “Kita 2023-2026” or whatever the years were. Name each photo with the date if you know it. That’s enough. Future you will be grateful.
Don’t let the perfect version stop you from doing the good-enough version. The photos will be there when you’re ready to do something more.
Frequently asked questions
What if Kita ends next week, not this week? You have a few extra days, not a fundamentally different situation. Same steps, same order window. The urgency is real either way.
What if I don’t know which drawings came from Kita and which came from home? It doesn’t matter much. A book of this year’s drawings, wherever they were made, shows who your child was at this age. Context is less important than the specificity.
How many drawings do I need for a book? Ten makes a solid book. Five is thin but meaningful. Once you look around the house, most parents find fifteen to twenty without trying.
Should I involve my child in making the book? Yes. Show them the photos as you select. Ask which ones they like. Give them a veto or two. This is their record as much as yours.
