How do you keep your readers stocked with books?

[rafiki]

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[Ellie]

Do you let them pick their own? School related book basket? What lists do you use as your guide for selecting wholesome books? How often do you go to the library? How do you keep track of what you have requested, out, when they are due back, etc.? How do you decide what to own and what to borrow?

 

We went to the library weekly. Dc could check out as many (or as few) books as they wanted; all books were returned the following week, whether they had been read or not. (That was the only way I was able to avoid overdue fines:001_rolleyes: ) I looked through their books briefly, but they were allowed to check out pretty much anything they wanted to, and I don't think I ever disallowed any of their choices.

 

I chose books to read aloud to them--books I had read and enjoyed when I was growing up, or new ones I discovered while searching the shelves, or books I knew about from...wherever...that I thought sounded good. I don't think I ever requested any books; I just went to different libraries myself and looked. Reading aloud was how I was sure the dc were getting really good books into their minds :)

 

I bought books that I considered to be classic, or books that we enjoyed so much that we would read again and again, and only hardcover books (I have been known to read the covers off some favorite books, lol).

[happy2homeschool]

We buy the Sonlight books and Newberry award books because they will be read again and again in our house. I try to get as many as I can through ebay or paperbackswap.com, but I bought most of them through Sonlight or Amazon.com. If I could get them at the library I would, but our library is very small and limited in selection.

 

I have used book lists found in these books: WTM, Sonlight catalog, Well Educated Child (William Bennett), Books to Build On (E.D. Hirsch), and Honey for a Child's Heart (Hunt). Many times a child will like a book and then we look for others that the author has written -- for example, one son loved By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman. We found about ten other books wrote and we got them on www.paperbackswap.com. I have also found many books recommended in this forum when others write in about lists for a 5th grader.

[Jenny in Atl]

We do a little of each, they can pick free time reading, they have reading that goes along with the history we are studying, as well as any other subjects that might have reading. We go to the library about once every two weeks, sometimes more, like in the summer. I have on-line accts with the two libraries we use, so I know what I have out, what's on hold, and any requests I have made. We also go twice a year to the local Scholastic Warehouse sale and stock-up of many great finds there. Most of the bks we buy are ones we know we will want to read again, the SL readers and read-alouds that I will use twice with both kids, and classics that I feel any good home library should have.

[angela in ohio]

I made a list of all of the books I would like dc to read. I use this list to stock up at used book sales, to buy for holidays, etc. They can always pick a book from our library of books. We also check out quite a few non-fiction books at the library, and they can also choose books from my list at the library if we don't own them.

[PeterPan]

By giving blood to amazon, VP, and used vendors regularly. :)

 

We have them around and she reads them, no system or magic. Take that back, history gets post-it notes labeling each VP card# so she knows what to read next. Everything is organized by subject (ancient greece, ancient rome, etc.) so she can go back and reread ones she enjoyed. She's currently rereading the Roman Mysteries series, even though we're studying the Middle Ages.

 

No library books. Dh told me not too, as I never manage to get them back on time. There's supposed to be a library elf service online that will help. If you do that, keep them all in one bag or laundry basket obviously.

[KIN]

I purchase lots of children's books. I use the list from the Highland Latin School's summer reading list as well as from the Hand that Rocks the Cradle - Good Books to Read Aloud to Chilren by Nathaniel Bluedorn. I watch used sites frequently, I stop at garage sales, anytime I'm in an area with a used bookstore I stop, etc. I LOVE that my boys can just go grab a wonderful book anytime they wish from our shelf. Any book they choose here will not be fluff. :) We do go to the library once a week or so and there is where my boys pick "fluff". They are allowed a few of those a week, but mostly they read our home library books. I feel it is a great investment in their education!

[Basketmaker Amy]

How do you keep track of what you have requested, out, when they are due back, etc.?

 

I just started using Library Elf. It is wonderful! It sends me e-mails reminding me when items are due or when my holds are ready. I think the website is http://www.libraryelf.com or you can just google it!

 

I have a great library which I use a lot. It has saved me lots of money! I also LOVE being able to search the online catalog and select my books! I am even able to have them sent to the library branch that is only a couple of miles away.

 

:)

[Chris in VA]

We go to the library and check out a big stack--Dd is into Nancy Drew (only the classic ones) and Boxcar Children, so that is her "fluff"--still wholesome, but kinda junky, imo. We don't do any other series (wellll, we did do Magic Treehouse, but she read them all in less than a year, so that's done!).

Our library emails us when our books are about 4 days from being due. I generally renew everything when I get a reminder, and so rarely do I have any overdue. We usually go once a week, but never the same day. We keep a basket (a BIG rectangular basket that holds 30 books) by the couch, and only put library books in it. Nancy Drews can sleep with dd.

 

I pick our read alouds. I just reread some I read as a kid, pick what I know is good literature, and use lists. I've been reading lots of picture books lately to correspond with SOTW 2. This year, there are a lot of folk tales, so that's pretty easy (fun, too) to find at the library.

 

I buy some books--I bought and swapped several to be ready for Winter Promise's American History 1, and I buy really nice hardbacks to build dd's library (in her room), such as the Little House books and so on.

[Mary in NJ]

I use the 1000 great books website. Library sales are great for getting some of these classics for a little money. I put them on the shelf in the "free reading" section. Occassionally I take the old ones off and re-supply with new books. This keeps them interested and reading!

 

Mary

[Cindyg]

I go to the library once a week. I take a suitcase on wheels. I fill that suitcase with books that I don't object to. I don't pre-read these. (I couldn't possibly!) But I do a quick, spot evaluation based on the synopsis.

 

At home, library books get their own shelf -- separate from our books. DS is welcome to choose or reject any or all of the library books. After he reads a book, it goes to a different shelf, which we call the "read" shelf.

 

I use the library's online catalog to manage the books. The day that I go to the library, I check online. Anything that will be due before my next trip to the library, I renew. If a book won't renew, read or not, it has to go back. I gather those books (if any) plus everything from the read shelf, put all those on my wheeled suitcase, and I'm off for my next suitcase full of books.

 

I've been doing this for many years, and we've never lost a single book. Come to think of it, I don't think we've ever turned one in late. We did once step on a library CD and break it and have to pay for it. Oh well. Think of all the free books we read! It must be thousands of books by now! Let's just do a quick guestimate: 20 books a week x 52 weeks x 9 years -- that's over 9,000 books!

[Novafan]

We go to the library at least twice a week and we use two different libraries. We buy a ton of books too. :)

[prairiegirl]

I buy alot of our books so my kids usually choose what they would like to read. I use the Sonlight catalogue as well as AO and the RR catalogue for my booklists. We live in a very small town. The library does not carry very good books, so I ILL all of my books. We go to the library once a week so the kids can choose some twaddle and then I pick up the books that I have ordered.

 

I have to be very organized when I am ordering the books from ILL. That is why it is easier for me to buy our free reading books. I make a list of the books that I want to order and I order at the fifteenth of the month so that I will get them usually at the beginning of the next month. Having that schedule helps.

 

 

Julia

mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[dangermom]

We have a lot of books around the house; it helps a lot that we can rifle through the library donation table and my mom does too. We get a lot of free or very cheap books, one way and another. My mom has a huge collection of folk/fairy tales, classic childrens' lit, and so on, too, and I'm not too shabby in that dept. either.

 

We check a lot of books out of the library--I currently have 83 checked out--and since I work for the library I don't pay fines (whew!). (Being a volunteer will frequently get you out of fines too! Even just once a month!) I do keep track of them online and we have a ~monthly Book Hunt where we track down every single library book and account for all of them.

 

Also my daughter is willing to re-read a lot, which helps. I don't even know how many times she's read the Little House books, but she's probably got them memorized.

 

When I started library school my husband said that he thought it would help us in raising our family. We had not thought of homeschooling at that time. Boy was he right. ;)

[Aubrey]

I just started using Library Elf. It is wonderful! It sends me e-mails reminding me when items are due or when my holds are ready. I think the website is www.libraryelf.com or you can just google it!

 

I do this, too. I have 4 baskets by the sofa: science books to read (I think we actually own all of these), hist books to read (library, mainly), fun books to read (mixed), & library books to return.

 

Ds reads a book, writes its title (& often a narration, too), then puts it either back on the shelf (we have a single shelf designated for this yr's hist & sc) or in the to-be-returned basket.

 

Lib Elf emails me 2 days before the books are due back, if I haven't already returned them. Unless I'm going *that* day, I renew them online, just to ward off the late fees. So far, I've never renewed a book more than once. And for the first time in my life, I'm using the library responsibly!:D

 

As far as what to buy...I'm not sure you're asking in the right place. Most of us are addicts. We know how to convert other pieces of furniture into bookshelves, how to stack double-deep, & rotate the collection. There are even jokes running round about bathtub storage of books.

 

We've cut back painfully since coming to seminary, obviously, although we had a better library before (& no late fees!). We also have a pathetic 1/2 price books here, so that helps curb the instinct.

 

I guess a good rule of thumb is a) how often will it be read? b) how much does it cost? c) how good does it make me look to have it on the shelf?;) (this is where you classify Plato, etc, if nowhere else) d) how good does it look on the shelf (i.e., if it's pretty ratty, hold out for something better, unless it qualifies under one of the previous points) e) is there room? (as in, empty bookshelves look lonely; there's no such thing as "full"--think Mary Poppins--that's how dh says I treat the bookshelves--although, come to think of it, he says the same thing about the trunk of the car, & if that were true, he could quit complaining that I always want to buy more bookshelves) and finally, the all-important f) do I already own it? (not that this is nec. a deterrant, but a guide--owning more than one copy of certain books is necessary, I tell dh.)

 

Does that help? :D

[Guest Lorna]

Do you let them pick their own? School related book basket? What lists do you use as your guide for selecting wholesome books? How often do you go to the library? How do you keep track of what you have requested, out, when they are due back, etc.? How do you decide what to own and what to borrow?

 

I let my children chose their own books. I learned early on that my daughter knew way more about books than me. For every book she reads she generally comes up with a list of others she needs. She writes down the title and the author's name and I buy the book on Amazon if I know we can't get it at the library. I have started to be a bit more careful about checking the books are 'suitable'. For us this means not depressing, not too much 'social realism' and nothing disturbing or prejudice. I also buy her books from 'The Well Trained Mind', 'Sonlight' lists, recommendations from her pen pal (who is an avid reader of the same age as dd, and whose father is an English teacher). Recently she has been reading an online literary magazine written by home educated young adults called 'Sparrow Tree Square' she has been choosing books recommended in there for her lists. For example, she read the first three chapters of 'Don Quixote' there and decided she wanted to try it for herself.

We go to the library once a week. The children choose between five and twenty books each. They generally all get read but if they are not we simply renew all the books, if they still want to read them.

Sometimes I suggest they don't get certain books, again if they look disturbing or unsuitable. They have usually chosen so many that they don't mind.

I buy a lot of books second-hand if that is the only way to get a hold of them. Often we either then pass them onto charity or resell a few. The best ones are kept to be reread. The occasional book, for example 'The Well Trained Mind' or any spine we are using will always be bought and kept.

[profmom]

I do something similiar to Cindyg. We go to the library every Tuesday after guitar lessons. On Tuesday mornings, I pull up the library's site and see which books are due. Our library also allows us to renew the books for an additional 3 weeks immediately -- so I can come home with books, renew them online, and have them for 6 weeks. Now I renew everything on Tuesdays when I check the account.

 

I used to have a more elaborate system. I'd come home from the library, renew them, and then set up a calendar reminder in Outlook for the due date. I would also check all the remaining due dates to make sure they were entered into the calendar each time I added one. This worked for us for a few years, but just checking my account on Tuesdays before going to the library (having the weekly date) is much easier.

 

Thanks for the thread! I'll be checking out some of the book lists too! (I go through times of assigning some reading and some where I let them choose.)

[Jenny in Florida]

I assign lots of books related to our history theme for that year. (In our house, "lots" means 30-40 per child per year.) Those I purchase, on the cheap when possible, and they sit on a specific shelf until the week when my lesson plans say it's time to read them. They go back on the shelf when they are finished. At the end of the year, I allow the student who read them to "claim" any they really liked for their personal shelves. The rest get moved to a storage shelf in the schoolroom closet or donated to a thrift shop if I think we won't need them again.

 

For personal, leisure-time reading, we still buy a lot of books. It's my one big vice, and I seem to have passed it along to the kids. They each have multiple bookshelves in their rooms and love adding to their libraries. This is something of an investment, since they both enjoy re-reading favorites. It's mostly just a personal choice, though. When I was a kid, I was "encouraged" to go through my bookshelf now and then and get rid of "things I was done with," and I still mourn the loss of some of those books. So, I indulge myself and my kids in this regard.

 

We have gone through phases when we use the public library quite a bit, but I am not terribly good at staying on top of returning things, and we've ended up twice owing overdue fines that would have allowed us to buy books for two or three months.

 

I take a pretty light hand in terms of guiding them to appropriate fun reading. We try to steer them away from total junk, and I watch the content for specific concerns that vary for the two kids. If we're at the bookstore and my son wants a book I've never heard of, I read the blurbs and skim a few pages. If I can't make a decision on that basis, I write down the title and author and check for online reviews when I get home. If I decide it's okay, he can pick it up next time.

 

Because we're trying to cut back a bit on our spending (having sent one off to college and needing to keep the other in dance classes as well as books), we've been using the library more again this year. Usually, I just hop online and request home delivery of specific titles we're interested in reading. Library books sit on a specific shelf in the dining room when they are not being read, and once every couple of weeks I gather up everything we've finished and make a return run, usually while my son is in choir or dance class. I tend to panic every now and then, though, when I realize I can't remember when I last returned a batch and start to worry about those darned fines.

 

So, we've recently been experimenting with the idea of making a library trip part of our routine. My son takes classes at the science museum that meet two Wednesdays a month, and I've planned his schoolwork this year so that he has every Wednesday off to accomodate those classes and any extra reading or projects he might want to do. He has enthusiastically embraced the idea of going to the library on his "off" Wednesdays, which I think will help me get and stay in the groove of returning books on time (and, hopefully, cut back on the number of books we need to buy).

 

As I remind myself (and my husband), there are certainly worse problems one could have!

 

--Jenny

[rafiki]

nt

[ArwenA]

I let my kids pick their own books for free reading and sometimes for school. There are some books which I will not let my kids check out of the library but for the most part they can get the books they want.

Library Elf is a HUGE help with keeping track of all the books.

Each dc has a basket for their school books for today and there is also a communal basket for read alouds and the like.

Free reading books are kept in the kids rooms on their bookshelf.

We spend lots of time reading aloud and I let the kids help me with choosing the books for this.

If I can't get a book from the library I'll buy it, used if possible. I've been buying lots recently because our library is locked up and I feel like the house is exploding with books and kids! lol

I find that when I show my kids good books and we read good books together thins makes them more eager to read good books rather than junk.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I just signed up for Library Elf--it's awesome!

[hsmom]

I am a book junkie. I buy books all the time and we go to the library regularly. If there is a book sale or even not a sale I am there, so at my house there is not a shortage of books by any means.