How to Record All Books Child Has Read?

[daysaregifts]

I feel sure there are many posts on this, but I'm not sure how to search for it!

 

I'm wanting to record the book, author, how the child liked it, maybe a synopsis. Then I need library call numbers, topic, fiction/nonfiction, etc. Do you guys do it in Excel or something, where if you want to find that book again you can find the record of it quickly? Or do you just make a form and file all the papers somehow.

 

Any help appreciated!

[...................]

Maybe I am in the minority...BUt...

 

For my 5 years of homeschooling, I have always used a lined loose-leaf paper, and a pen. I just write the name of the book and the last name of the author. I even stopped numbering them two years ago. Heck, sometimes I don't even write the author's name. :tongue_smilie:

 

THis works fine. If I want to get ideas from my son's old lists to use for my dd, I just grab that year's binder, and look at the list. (I just stick my hand written list in the front of each year's binder before our evaluations.)

[Kathryn]

Can I piggyback? I've been wondering about when to start. And what to include. DS is just 1st grade. Do I include things like Magic School Bus books that he reads on his own? Or just when he reads chapter books? Just "literature"-type books or Star Wars drivel also?

[Julie Smith]

I have been keeping track of all the chapter books I read to my kids. The "Notes" column has information about the thoughts on the book.

 

To get on my list a book has to be 1 hour long in read aloud time. That is what I qualify as a "chapter book".

[Kathleen.]

I just have a generic 70 page spiral bound notebook. I have a separate page for each kid and I list the titles by month and date with the authors and call number, if from the library.

I started doing it so I could actually see how much/little we were reading. I noticed right away that my 5yo was getting way more story time - she has more home time than my 7yo (soon to be 8). My kids are both in school so I don't beat myself up if we slack, but I do make sure I read a chapter to book with whatever we're studying plus our bedtime stories.

[Canadianmumof5]

Start a blog :lol:

[boscopup]

I just can't even imagine trying to keep up with that...

 

This summer, we participated in a summer reading program put on by one of my homeschool groups. I had such a hard time just keeping up with page numbers! Didn't even have to record the name of the book (though I did so I could multiply the ones he read more than once - they counted that). I know I didn't catch all the books he had read (and he had most pages read for his age group, btw :D).

 

I know what literature I have assigned, since I bought about 15 for the year and have them in a stack on a shelf. The read ones go in a different stack. We're about halfway through the stack now. But the books he reads for history or science or that we check out from the library or he pulls off our shelves at home... There is no way I could keep up with those. :tongue_smilie:

[ScoutTN]

I use a page from Donna Young for a Reading List, but notebook paper would serve just as well. :)

 

If I were going to do it on the computer I would use Excel.

[Meriwether]

I thought I would do something like that, but I couldn't keep up with it.

[Cynful]

My printer has a scanner/copier on it. I copy the front of the book and write the date finished on the paper and put it in a binder. I've done this since they started reading and I keep one for read-alouds. It's a lot of fun to look through them and talk about the books, favorites, etc. If it's a history book, I scan it in, print it out small and put it on our timeline. It works great.

 

Good luck,

[...................]

I just record chapter books and longer non fiction books...I don't bother with picture books, but sometimes if my dd reads 20 picture books I might jot down "lots of picture books" and one or two of her favorite titles.

 

Really...my kids get 40 books from the library every two weeks. Times that by 52 weeks in the year, divided by half. There's no way I could track everything they read. There would also be no point.

 

But, it's a good question. So.. I say just get a piece of paper and write down the chapter books and longer non-fiction books on one side, and then write "Mom's Read Alouds" on the other side, and write the books you read aloud there.

[curlygirlzx2]

I just keep track of what my dd reads in a word doc. I have a separate list for free reading, history, and sience.

[Moonbeam Jones]

I made an account on LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) for my ds. I don't know if it can be as detailed as you are looking for, but I think you can set up categories for the books. I honestly haven't gotten past adding books, which is really easy.

[nov05mama]

I use Goodreads for DS...similar to LibraryThing. It works perfectly and it's super easy! I have different categories as well!

[JessReplanted]

This is something we have to include in our portfolio.

 

I just keep a word document on my desktop computer that has a running list of the books read (title & author).

[antsam]

I have saved lists by SOTW chapter on our library website. I can print out this list for each chapter to keep in a notebook (it has a small pic of the book cover and all of the other information). I write the date and RA or IR when the book gets read by my boys.

 

Our library website also has a tab that lists all of the books that we have checked out. I'll print this out and keep in a notebook with the history lists. This picks up the titles of all of the science and "for fun" books that they are reading.

 

Jodie

[J'etudie]

I use the reading log in Homeschool Tracker Plus. I'm not sure there's a place for synopsis or notes about the book, but I think it includes everything else you mentioned. You enter the ISBN and the author, publisher, call number, etc. pop up for you. I add the number of pages and the start/end dates. The nice thing about HST is it creates a database, and it's really easy when the next child in line reads the book.

[regentrude]

I'm wanting to record the book, author, how the child liked it, maybe a synopsis. Then I need library call numbers, topic, fiction/nonfiction, etc. Do you guys do it in Excel or something, where if you want to find that book again you can find the record of it quickly? Or do you just make a form and file all the papers somehow.

 

 

Why on earth do you want a synopsis for every book your child reads?

When my kids were younger, they went through several dozen books each month. Now it is less since the books are more substantial.

Why library call numbers? If you have the title, you can always find them if you should need them for anything.

 

I keep a word document for each child and semester. I list title and author. I split into two categories, assigned reading for school, and recreational.

I am sure I don't catch every book. Don't see why I should bother.

 

I guess doing a simple list in excel would make it easy to sort by author or title. I personally don't, since I do not see the need.

[shukriyya]

This might be what you're looking for. It will keep track of everything you listed and provide an opportunity for the kids to give their own review.

[courtney.byrum]

I use http://www.librarything.com

 

I set up a 'collection' for each kid's free reading for the year, books read for school(and then I also tag those with what subject), and read alouds (which I always forget to put in).

 

The kids just always give me the books they've completed on their own and I of course know the ones read for school. It's quite interesting to see how many books they've read since February when I started keeping track. When they read it multiple times I just add that in the comment field so I can see my daughter has read some of her favorite books 5 times!!

 

It also offers up suggestions and has series for that series loving kid of mine. If she insists on reading certain series I try to find books she at least hasn't read yet - she's still obsessively working her way through the Rainbow Magic books though she can read one of them in 15 mins.

 

pm me if you want to check out a list to see how it works

[Grover]

Gosh, I can't imagine managing to keep up with everything DS reads. I've always wanted to track my own reading though :lol: I like the idea of the LibraryThing collections - we have one of our home library so for those ones I could just tag them as read by X I guess. hmm... I may have to go and play.

[Just Robyn]

I made an account on LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) for my ds. I don't know if it can be as detailed as you are looking for, but I think you can set up categories for the books. I honestly haven't gotten past adding books, which is really easy.

 

I use Goodreads for DS...similar to LibraryThing. It works perfectly and it's super easy! I have different categories as well!

 

And add Shelfari to the options which is what I started tracking my children's reading on about 6 months ago using tags to record what grade they were in when they read each book.

[Julie Smith]

Why on earth do you want a synopsis for every book your child reads?

 

I keep a excel spreadsheet. I have columns for various things. The ones that I always use are "title", "year first read", and "number of times read". I try to copy and paste the blurp from amazon into the "description" column. In my mind that way in the future if I was thinking, "What was that book we read, about some kids on a boat" I could do a search of the spreadsheet for the keyword, "boat".

 

If I wanted to do it 'right', I would have a column for "key words" and list character names and other key words from the book. But I don't spend more then a minute entering the information. - so I know I would never keep up with a "key words" column.

 

As it is I have had to create a new column for "Read by Eldest" So I can keep the books he reads to himself separate from the ones I read out loud.

[Momto2girls]

I made an account on LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) for my ds. I don't know if it can be as detailed as you are looking for, but I think you can set up categories for the books. I honestly haven't gotten past adding books, which is really easy.

 

I have done the same for DD.

[boscopup]

I use Goodreads for DS...similar to LibraryThing. It works perfectly and it's super easy! I have different categories as well!

 

And if you have a smart phone or other device with a bar code scanner, there is an app to get your books into Goodreads (free). I have all of the books we own in Goodreads because of that app. You can set it to scan multiple books at once, and just go through the stack real quick.

[MeganW]

Homeschool Tracker - you just go into the "library" and input the ISBN (10 or 13 digit number from the back of the book) and it looks up and provides the full title (including series of applicable), author, publisher, call number, etc.

 

I ended up setting up a separate "school" just for this so I didn't mingle reading books with math texts and so on. I'm sure there is a way to easily segregate, but I couldn't find it quickly.

[jennsmile]

Wow! I don't keep track but don't care. I know they are reading books as my house is littered with them. I do know which of their sonlight lists they have read.

[In the Rain]

I keep a running list on my computer of the titles and authors for most books my dds read. Each year I put the old list in their yearbook and start a new list. I only include chapter books, and any especially good nonfiction or picture books I may want to find again. I list read alouds separately.

 

The hardest year was definitely kindergarten. Dd read hundreds and hundreds of books. If the books were from a series, my entries looked like this

 

Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner (75 books)

 

Even with that format, I think she had 3 or 4 typed pages of books. As the books got longer and more challenging, the number of individual titles decreased dramatically.

 

One year I grouped them roughly by genre, but I actually prefer the list in the order they read them. It is fun to see the change from the start of the year to the end.

[MeaganS]

I keep a list of all the read alouds we've done on Shelfari.

[LolaT]

I've been using Shelfari.comhttp://www.shelfari.com as well for about a year. At first for read alouds, now for books she reads herself. You cant track all the things on your list on this site. it has a nice visual user interface and you can print out reports. I'm hoping eventually my DD will be able to maintain it herself. We'll see. I thought it would at least be nice to have a record of those first books she read.

 

It also helps to keep track of which books you have in your home library when your shopping for books.

[MeganW]

I use the reading log in Homeschool Tracker Plus. I'm not sure there's a place for synopsis or notes about the book, but I think it includes everything else you mentioned. You enter the ISBN and the author, publisher, call number, etc. pop up for you. I add the number of pages and the start/end dates. The nice thing about HST is it creates a database, and it's really easy when the next child in line reads the book.

 

They do have a "custom" tab and a "notes" tab in the library. I use custom to categorize - all the Anatomy books in one bin and so on - I can easily print my library by category to figure out what is supposed to be in each bin. As I have time, I copy the description from Amazon or type my own description into the "notes" tab. Also as I have time, I look up the reading level & interest level on the Scholastic website and add that to the "notes" tab.

[helena]

I'm not sure if this reading log has been mentioned: http://www.thehomeschoolshop.com/sh-reading.htm

 

Good quality, simple format-

[Chloe]

My dh made me a spreadsheet where I record the date (month and year), title, author and genre/subject of each book my dc read in a particular school year. At the end of the year I sort the list by subject and print out each subject list separately so that I can file it in my dc's portfolio under individual subjects. It's neat to see all the subjects that have been covered just by reading. I save the list and then change the dates on the spreadsheet to begin a new year, starting the list over again. My dh made the spreadsheet years ago when my oldest started reading independently and we've been using it ever since. As far as recording my dc's opinions of the books, I just tell them to let me know if a book is particularly good and I put a * next to the name of the book in the title column. I suppose I could add a separate column and have them give each book a rating, but the * has worked well just to make certain books stand out from the rest.

[NapLover]

And if you have a smart phone or other device with a bar code scanner, there is an app to get your books into Goodreads (free). I have all of the books we own in Goodreads because of that app. You can set it to scan multiple books at once, and just go through the stack real quick.

 

I do this! It's fun. I started doing it because my children go to PS and have to turn in reading lists every month. It is very quick and we don't forget any that way.

[arliemaria]

I haven't started doing this, my child is little (2.5yo), but this has definitely given me some ideas. When I homeschooled my sister we used the Simply Charlotte Mason CM Organizer. It was difficult to use sometimes, but had a lot of possibilities.

[Bloggermom]

I made each of my kids an account on Goodreads.com so they can keep track of what they read and when. They can even give their own review.

[4littleones]

We use librarything too. I have an account for each of the children, even the 5.5 emergent reader.