Do your kids have bookshelves in their bedrooms?

[plain jane]

I'm undecided if I should have bookshelves in the kids' rooms or not.

 

How about just the older kids, say those reading chapter books and up? Would younger kids benefit from having their board and picture books in their rooms?

 

Where do your kids do most of their reading? Mine seem to read out in common areas more than bedrooms so I'm wondering if I should keep a toy area in each room or a bookshelf? But maybe they'd read more if they had bookshelves in their room? :confused:

[The Girls' Mom]

Mine have always had bookshelves in their rooms. But I have to admit, they were a complete mess 90% of the time up until recently. It was still worth it though. Books are a huge part of our lives, so it made sense that they would have their own. Now my oldest has requested wall to wall bookshelves when she gets her own room...lol.

[MotherGoose]

I needed room for my books in common areas, so my dd 4.5 has a huge bookshelf, and dh is going to build one for the 20 month old. We have a lot of books.

[Carrie12345]

The older 3 have shelves in their rooms. The 3yo has a book bin in his "toy zone". None of them are neat and pretty, but they hold well-loved (read: well-beaten) books!

[Tap]

Always.

 

 

From book case headboards, to short bookcases, to tall bookcases, to shelves added in the closets, they have had them since they were toddlers.

[LisaKinVA]

Nope, they will not have bookshelves in their rooms (well, not big ones). My dd will have a nighstand with a shelf underneath, the little girls will have one wall shelf each to hold a few books, and the boys will also have a nightstand with a shelf on it to hold a few books.

 

Otherwise, the books will be in our multipurpose room... filled with books.

 

I just have a need to contain mess in one area... it spreads as it is, but limiting it to the basement level will be a welcome relief.

[OnTheBrink]

Yes, she has a bookcase headboard and one medium-sized book case for books she likes to read for fun.

[elise1mds]

My kids both have a bookcase. DS's contains chapter books and DD's contains her readers for now, but they are both in there and in use. We also have books on a shelf in the living room, another bookcase in my bedroom, and a bookshelf dedicated to curricula, but the overflow was too much, so we gave the kids their own space. They love it, and they keep them relatively neat. DS actually has his categorized by fiction/nonfiction and the nonfiction by category. He and the Dewey Decimal System are friends.

[LizzyBee]

Yes, all of my kids have bookshelves in their bedrooms.

[Sasharowan]

There is a 6ft. tall, 5 shelf, bookcase in each kid's room (2), shared by all.

[kokotg]

Umm, we have bookshelves in every room of the house, except the bathrooms. The "school" books are in our school room, most grown-up books are in my bedroom, except the nicer hardcover ones, which are in a nice, glass-fronted bookcase in my living room, kid books are mostly in the kids' rooms, with some on an extra shelf in our office/den.

[Tammyla]

Yes, both my kids have them.

[athena1277]

Both my kids have bookshelves. Ds has had one since he was little, but I made sure he only had board books at the time that were hard to destroy. Now that his is able to handle a book properly, we have traded most of the board books for picture books dd has outgrown. He loves to get his books out and "read" them.

[vettechmomof2]

Yes, we have floor to ceiling book shelves in most rooms of the house.

Right now they (they share a room with a divider wall) only have 2 but the plan is to build and put up 5 more. We read a lot.

[sparrow]

Yes, they each have large 5 shelf bookshelves in their rooms. The books travel back and forth between their rooms.

[RahRah]

We have books everywhere - bookshelves in DS's room, bookshelves in the playroom, bookshelves in the home office....stacks of books on the dining room table & credenza (where we do most of our HS'ing), some in the family room, stacks more on our nightstands in our bedroom....I seriously wish I could have a HUGE room of wall-to-wall bookshelves as a library!

 

DS's bookshelves in his bedroom have books that he chooses his bedtime stories from, so they serve a purpose...I rotate the books on and off the shelves every few months.....one's he's outgrown are boxed up and stored since we have another on the way and I really don't want to have to try to buy again - those not worth keeping go off to goodwill.

[QuirkyKapers]

Yep- they have them in their room. :)

[melissel]

DD8 has two medium-sized ones and DD5 has two smaller ones (very few chapter books yet, so she doesn't need too much space). At the time we started this, all our living room bookshelves were full of grown-up books, so we needed space for the picture books. Plus, picture books can get messy and beat up, and both girls love(d) to pull a huge number out to peruse in their spare time, so they ended up tucked away in their rooms. It does contribute to the mess in there, but at least it doesn't contribute to the mess out here :lol: Library books stay in the living room though, or they tend to vanish.

 

We read all over the house. It doesn't seem to make much difference where the books live.

 

HTH!

[rwjx2khsmj]

All our dc have bookshelves in their bedroom with the books they've received as gifts on them. Their bookshelves also hold any books that are shared but age appropriate for them in particular.

[*Inna*]

Yes. We liked this house better than others we were considering buying because every room has great built-in bookshelves. :001_smile:

[mytwomonkeys]

my daughter used too. now both kids have large book baskets instead. we have a "school room" (which isn't where we actually do school), but it houses our bookshelves currently. we have a separate bookshelf in there for ministry/parent books, etc.

[2_girls_mommy]

Yes, we have 2 five shelf bookcases in their rooms. The shelves are organized into our own little library system that we understand. The high shelf has good hardback editions and Bibles that they are not allowed to have down and read themselves. The next shelf has "readers." All Dr. Seuss are together on it, plus the level one paperbacks, plus the small Cheerios books we have collected over the years, all of the Magic Schoolbus together, etc.

The next shelf is a free for all of science, history, and picture books. The next and lowest shelf is full of the toddler books we have kept. I always had the board books on the bottom shelf, so that the younger one could reach those. We keep them now, because there are so many good ones, and she is able to read them herself now. Very bottom shelf is toys. The other shelf has a shelf of chapter books, one of holiday books, magazines, etc.

[Soror]

Yes, for both kids.

[tangomoon]

Yep! I think we actually had bookshelves in the rooms before cribs when we found out that we were expecting. :lol:

[ElizabethB]

My 8 year old has one. She now keeps her school books there, too, and does a better job keeping track of them than I did!

 

My 5 year old used to have one, but it made a big mess. It was removed from his room. He "gets" to have it back when he shows he can keep his room cleaner and can be responsible with books. He wants his bookshelf back, he has been keeping it pretty clean lately!

[ElizaG]

Yes, but we've ended up taking most of the books off them. As a rule of thumb, they're allowed to keep their age in books (5 for the 5 year old, etc.) in their bedroom. If they'd like a different one, they can take one back to the family bookshelves and do a trade.

 

This is working out much better for us, because:

 

1) Our children tend to read too much. If they're holed up in their rooms, I'm less likely to notice and send them outside for fresh air and exercise.

 

2) They don't keep the books tidy if there are too many of them.

 

3) It avoids having classics being stereotyped as "girls' books" or "boys' books."

 

4) Even when the books were shelved neatly, I found that they weren't helping to create a restful atmosphere.

 

This did mean that we lost a lot of shelf space, so we've had to get creative about storing books in the rest of the house: hallways, the dining room, closets, etc. Still, it's been worth it to us.

[Mom-ninja.]

Yes. There is a small bookshelf on one wall and then each boy has a gutter shelf above their beds for a few books.

[LostSurprise]

Yes, but I find that younger children do better with bins. It's much easier for them toss them in bins then it is to replace them correctly on the shelf.

[Murphy101]

Yes. All of them do. Sometimes multiple ones.

[MaMa2005]

DS has a bookcase. He just moved from a twin bed to a double bed and he requested DH to make him another bookcase headboard. It's kind of funny because DS has measured his books and knows exactly how tall he wants each section to be on the headboard. So the headboard is DH's project over Christmas break.

[Starr]

Yes, in their rooms, in the hallways, in the kitchen...

[*~Tina~*]

We do! And love them! If you scroll down to the 5th picture in this post, you'll see the shelves that my dh built for the kids room. Each room has three set up just as pictured.

 

I wanted the books accessible, so they might actually be inclined to read them on their own ;) and I wanted the wall shelves so we didn't take up valuable floor space, lol!

 

http://seasonsoflearning.blogspot.com/2010/01/peek-at-our-school-at-home.html

[gardening momma]

We have a small 2-shelf bookshelf in the girls' room. It has mostly picture books on it. They don't independently read yet (dd7 is starting to, but the books she reads are elsewhere), so the main purpose is to have books handy for bedtime reading (part of our bedtime routine). A secondary purpose to having the bookself there is just to have another place to put books. :)

[mcconnellboys]

All our rooms have bookshelves or tables full of books (save the bathrooms, which aren't big enough, but still have stacks of books or baskets of books....)

[Jen in PA]

They have bookshelves, and still their books spill out into the rest of the house. We have shelves in every room, just more books than shelf space.

[RahRah]

All our rooms have bookshelves or tables full of books (save the bathrooms, which aren't big enough, but still have stacks of books or baskets of books....)

 

DH piles his journals he's reading on the tank top! UGH

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

My kids have always had bookshelves in their room, and I'm pretty sure they always will.

[Pretty in Pink]

Yes, my children have always had bookshelves in their rooms. They aren't always tidy, mind you!

[regentrude]

Of course my kids have bookshelves in their rooms - they do part of their schoolwork there, they read in bed and on the floor, and there are already bookshelves up to the ceiling in the living room and in our bedroom... no way I could fit their books as well.

[RanchGirl]

Yes... One has multiple bookhelves, the other has one shelf and several cloth totes that store books. Most of their toys go in the playroom (where there is also another set of bookshelves!). They read in their rooms each night but they read all over the house during the day.

[dirty ethel rackham]

Yes. I think the only rooms in our house that don't have bookshelves are the bathrooms and the laundry room. I think it is good to promote the idea of book ownership. Plus, we do not have enough room in the rest of the house to store the books we own;D. Our kids have had bookshelves in their rooms since they were infants.

[Tree House Academy]

Yes, both of my kids have book shelves in their rooms. Their Papa (grandpa) built them for the kids a few years ago and they love them!

[Tree House Academy]

Yes. I think the only rooms in our house that don't have bookshelves are the bathrooms and the laundry room. I think it is good to promote the idea of book ownership. Plus, we do not have enough room in the rest of the house to store the books we own;D. Our kids have had bookshelves in their rooms since they were infants.

 

My bathrooms have magazine racks. Does that count?:tongue_smilie:

[Crissy]

Yes. My boys have always had their own book shelves. They tend to rotate books between their own shelves and those in the common areas depending on their current interests.

They also keep one shelf clear of personal books so they can store their library books without getting things mixed up.

[Daisy]

I'm undecided if I should have bookshelves in the kids' rooms or not.

 

How about just the older kids, say those reading chapter books and up? Would younger kids benefit from having their board and picture books in their rooms?

 

Where do your kids do most of their reading? Mine seem to read out in common areas more than bedrooms so I'm wondering if I should keep a toy area in each room or a bookshelf? But maybe they'd read more if they had bookshelves in their room? :confused:

 

We have bookshelves in every room of the house. Both kids have a bookshelf in their rooms where they keep favorite books, books they are currently reading, and books they want to read next.

[TheAutumnOak]

The boys have a bookshelf in their room, but with baskets on it for them to put their "treasures", stuff, etc...The books are kept in another spot...They have a few books at a time in the room on a dresser, and they are rotated...I don't want the books destroyed, so the main books shelf is kept not in their room...

[MelanieM]

Yes. We have bookcases in all the rooms of our house (excluding bathrooms and laundry). We used to live in a smaller space that was one level and it seemed helpful to have the books all in one location (the den). But now that we're more spread out it is preferable to have books in easy reach, which means places to keep them in every room. Otherwise we'd just be dealing with stacks that got carted around and never got put away!

[Medieval Mom]

We have bookcases in every room of the house except the bathrooms. :D

 

ETA: I wrote this before reading all the responses. Looks like we are not alone! :)

Edited December 6, 2010 by Medieval Mom

[K&Rs Mom]

Yes! K got one for her first bday (the kind where the covers face front), and now between the two of them are probably 5 bookshelves in their rooms, plus more space downstairs. They read anywhere, and even when they were smaller they'd look at a book during quiet time or whatever, so we have them all over.

[Jamee]

Yup! Another one with book cases in every room. We just added four more this week.:D I'm not sure why you wouldn't want books in the room. That seems odd to me since we all read before bed.