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Borrowing or buying books


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Do you mostly buy or borrow books?  

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  1. 1. Do you mostly buy or borrow books for kids reading?

    • Mostly borrow books from the library.
      43
    • Mostly buy books
      44
    • Some and some.
      41


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Borrow: novels, fluff reading, and nonfiction materials of passing interest

 

Buy: Texts to be used year-round, quality children's literature, and beautifully-illustrated references that my kids will want to look at again and again, or that are high enough quality to be re-visited when we come around to discussing a topic again.

 

Example: Last year we studied Ancient History. I borrowed some storybook about a Crocodile on the Nile, and a children's novel about an Egyptian boy. I bought things like the Story of the World Volume 1, D'Auraille's book of Greek Myths, and beautifully illustrated book set retelling the Epic of Gilgamesh. The purchased items are items we will revisit in years to come, while the borrowed items were topical but only for the ages they were that particular year.

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We mostly buy because our local library is horrible and I don't have the time for ILL with all the kids. I buy used and we had a large library beforehand, mostly acquired for free or for less than $1 each. I try to be careful about what we buy with an eye to using over the long haul. If I had a good library I'd buy less.

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How many kids do you have? If you have young kids you know will use them too, I'd be much more inclined to buy as many as I could.

 

That said, purchase the solid spines at minimum. Then add as much good literature as you can afford, especially on the ones that are on favorite topics.

 

When my older kids were younger I was a very heavy library user, and we had some *great* times. Truly. But treasures had to be given back. My only regret is not buying more of the truly good books. There's value in reading a beloved favorite over and over again. One DD would often sit under the bookdrop at the library so she could read her literature books just one. more. time. before she had to give it back. Now my fifth DC will be ready for the first grade literature, and I barely own any of them. We'll buy the lot of them this time. She'll get more enjoyment, and they'll be here for her little brother when he's ready.

Edited by SilverMoon
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Borrow: Whatever they've got

 

Buy: Whatever they don't, anything I plan to use for more than a couple of months

 

I also will buy the kids books they just want, because I know that owning the book, or having it on their Kindle, is a thing that gets them to read and feel good about themselves.

 

On the whole, we borrow a LOT more than we buy. But we buy a good bit.

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If money were no object then I would probably buy most. BUT, then I'd have tons of books and no great place to keep them. Unless it's something specifically for school (we're doing Sonlight), I only buy books that have been borrowed from the library multiple times and the kids always love them. OR if our library system doesn't have them and it's one I really think we need.

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I used to borrow most things, but the library is a half hour away, and I hate killing so much time to go there. Also, it's a small branch, so I had to time it such that the books would get from the other branches when I needed them. Then I also ran into other folks having books out that I needed.

 

So now I buy the main books I want to definitely read during the year, and we check out extra books - just whatever is on the shelf.

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I don't go to the library because: 1. I have a lot of little kids who like to run around and pull books off the shelf, and 2. the library is full of crappy books. My kids always pick up the pinkalicious-unicorn-princess-crapola if they see one and beg to bring the horrid thing home, and then proceed to beg me to READ it over and over and over! :svengo: So I buy lots of good books to have here at home.

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I buy spines, books we'll use for a while, others that I know we'll love, or those that aren't available at our library. We borrow a lot of books from the library. Our library is part of a large system and we can get any book from those libraries easily and quickly as long as no one else has them checked out. I request them online and pick them up/drop them off every Saturday.

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I was thinking more about fun reading. Do your kids past the early reading years re-read books?

 

 

The only books my boys re-read are non-fiction. We buy the classics and borrow everything else. We do have a few good library systems so I could just get my hubby to reserve and he picks up the books I want on the way home.

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We mainly use the library, I only buy favorites and books we will use for more than a month or so. We have an excellent library here. We can browse and reserve books online, so usually I reserve a bunch on Sunday so they'll be there by Friday (our library day). If we're to busy to go to the library, I can just run in and grab my selections off the hold shelf, check them out, and run back out. Our library also has thousands of books available as ebooks that I can download at home with my library card, plus free online foreign language lessons I can access at home. I love, love, love it!

 

I used to be a book junkie before kids. I still love books, but I don't love storing and dusting shelves of books that are rarely re-read. I'd rather support our library. I can keep a list of favorite books on my library account online, which makes it easier for the kids to check them out again later or for me to remember what they like so I can pick up a favorite used.

 

We still own tons of books, but we mainly use the library. I especially avoided buying early readers. Most aren't great, and neither of my kids are big on re-reading books. They just cost money and took up space after the kids read them once or twice.

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Both. I buy the physical spines that we will be using since it isn't practical if you need them for an entire school year. Plus, I know I will have another needing them in a few years. For literature, I try to find it used or free. Between Google Books and Kindle apps, I can find most of the classics and read aloud books for free. I also hit used book stores and thrift stores for cheap "fillers" like autobiographies and reference books the kids can pick up in their free time.

 

Our library is pretty small so I use it for whatever books the kids choose and some reference books. Our library does the free lending through Kindle which is also nice for some extra casual reading material.

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I am finding that borrowing is getting harder to do with all my kids schooling. It is near impossible to get there. So I will be moving to buying all of them.

 

We are poverty level and I buy most of our books. The late fees at libraries kill me and I have so many kids that want to borrow books! lol

 

Plus everything I buy will be used multiple times.

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I buy books if they'll be used for a semester+ (I can keep library books 3 months if no one else requests them) but that's about it. I generally have 30-60 books out from the library at any given time. Some are packed away for a couple weeks waiting for the next history/science unit. I go to the library (5 min drive) probably 3 times a week picking up requests. It's sort of nutty but it's so much cheaper than buying.

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We try to borrow first and buy if it's something we love. I also tend to buy a selection of science books each year because I get tired of trying to get the right books at the right time when we are covering a topic in school.

 

 

Me too.

 

I have a simply splendid library so I get almost everything from the library first. If it's a beautifully illustrated picture book and we love then I'll buy it. If it's a reference book that I know we'll want to reference lots then I buy it. Children's classics that we want to read over and over I buy also. I couldn't afford to keep DD, DH, and myself in books. We go through about 35 picture books a week and 10 chapter books. Even if I got them at a good price on amazon that's about $400 a week. I can deal with a lot of library fines before I hit that.

 

Some of those aren't books I'd want to keep either - do we need every Ivy and Bean book written? I focus more on quality over quantity. I'd rather DD have 25 lovely well-written picture books than 100.

 

ETA: I had to go and do a quick count and my numbers might have been slightly off. We probably have well over 100 picture books. They are lovely though! I promise. :)

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It goes in cycles. When I'm on the ball I'll reserve books at the library in time and check them out and then return them on time. Then something will happen and we'll return them late, really really late! At some point it's cheaper for us to just buy the books used than to pay all the library fines.

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I buy my curriculum spines. I was thinking more about fun reading. Do your kids past the early reading years re-read books?

 

Yes! My dd8 is currently re-reading Robin Hood by Pyle and has re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Greek Myths and Norse Myths by D'Aulaire. These books are "fun" reading for her. Isn't that awesome??? I think it is great! I'm so glad I have been picky about the books I have in my home because it is really paying off. Of course it could be that I just have an unusual kid :) Fun doesn't have to equal junk.

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I want to point out that you can recheck books out of the library. I went to the library every week from pretty much birth to discovering boys, and there were books I probably checked out 30 times. It's a lovely feeling to be wandering down a library shelf and see a book you read a year ago and get a little thrill of happy memories. Somehow, if I see the book every day on the shelf I don't ever get quite the same jolt, the "oh, sweetheart, I forgot about YOU! Oh, this will be great!" vibe.

 

Even with my toddler we re-check out board books six weeks later because he interacts with them so differently as he grows. Again, I think there's a value in having the books completely gone and then reappearing so that he has to reassess them.

 

This is not to discourage anyone from buying books, but I don't think 'Will they reread it?" is the only question you should ask. How and when and why they will want to see it again is more important.

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I'm not sure whether I should buy books for my kids or check them out of the library.

 

When we were on a tighter budget for homeschooling, we used the library extensively. However, the girls were Preschool (3), Pre-K (4), and Kindergarten (5) ages at that time, so we read lots of "little" books -- picture books, short non-fiction, easy readers, and so on. It would have cost a fortune to buy them all, and they were the type of books that you read and don't read again (except for some of the picture books). For example, when we studied Human Body, I remember reading one book, maybe it was something like Your Amazing Colon. The entire book might have had five sentences in it, along with pictures of poop -- and the price on the book was $13! :D Waste of paper and ink, if you ask me, but I didn't waste my money on it!

 

I have no regrets that we used the library so much then, because it got us through those leaner years when the girls were really small and saved our money for other things we needed. If we came across a picture book that was a favorite, we could afford to buy at least that book to add to our collection. The girls still affectionately go back to their picture books.

 

All that said, when I was planning it out for this year (2nd grader + K-twins), I decided it would be best to buy everything. You see, once the girls got to where they were readers, around age 4-5, it made more sense to stock a Science Bookshelf or a History Bookshelf and let them read away. They kind of "work out" on those books, then I read them aloud, then the girls go back and tackle the books in a new way. They have read through so many books in this way. We consistently have read alouds in Bible, Literature, Poetry, History, Science, and Nature Study (not all of that every day!). But coordinating the borrowing of so many books all year was going to drain out my batteries, and we want to be in this for the long haul. Also, the library computer system changed, so the hold process was increasingly tedious.

 

My husband one night said, "Could you buy them? I'm sure it would be less expensive than private school tuition for three children!" :)

 

One other consideration we had (and have) is that our public library's collection of materials is almost entirely secular. It was impossible to find many of the books we wanted to read, or any books written from a Biblical, Christian worldview. We did purchase many books that I know I could borrow from the library, but this way, we are building our home library for years to come. So, in a way, it's an investment.

 

Finally, I just got tired of going in there and seeing so many, many dark books set up on display. What is with promoting that genre for pre-teens and children? Demons and death and darkness. It concerned me, all the more as the girls became more aware of their surroundings. So we stopped going to the library, except for Downton Abbey and Signing Time videos. :) HTH.

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I want to point out that you can recheck books out of the library. I went to the library every week from pretty much birth to discovering boys, and there were books I probably checked out 30 times. It's a lovely feeling to be wandering down a library shelf and see a book you read a year ago and get a little thrill of happy memories. Somehow, if I see the book every day on the shelf I don't ever get quite the same jolt, the "oh, sweetheart, I forgot about YOU! Oh, this will be great!" vibe. Even with my toddler we re-check out board books six weeks later because he interacts with them so differently as he grows. Again, I think there's a value in having the books completely gone and then reappearing so that he has to reassess them. This is not to discourage anyone from buying books, but I don't think 'Will they reread it?" is the only question you should ask. How and when and why they will want to see it again is more important.

 

But what if there's that special picture book you just love and it goes out of print and then you forget about it and your grandkids never get to read it. That's my slighly over-dramatic worry. Otherwise I'm a big fan of the library. Norm in Cheers is like aggieamy at the library.

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I have a love-hate relationship with the library. The selection isn't great and I have an extremely hard time putting tons of books on hold and then packing up my three kids every other day to pick up the holds before they re-shelve them. The library also regularly forgets to scan my returned books before they re-shelve them and then charges me late fees (if I point out the error, they're good to fix it, but still). That said, we still borrow a lot; I just get what's on the shelf and try not to let it bother me. I agree about the junky trash books that the kids seem to gravitate toward. Although, DD seems to love Kipling and Harriot and Potter (Beatrix, not Harry) as much as she loves fluff. But when they are allowed to choose, it's Barbie, Disney Princesses, Transformers, Star Wars, and Batman. And I'd actually be ok with the last two if it were the original material and not some awfully written and terribly illustrated trash book. By the way, I'd love to know where everyone is getting their $1 books from!

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I bought good children's literature in hard cover, the ones I think they'll want to read to their own children (or re-read to themselves, because some "children's books" are too good not to read multiple times): The Chronicles of Narnia, Understood Betsy, the Chestry Oak, the LIttle White Horse, Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations, The Borrowers, Anne of Green Gables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Daddy Longlegs, and more.

 

We went to the library weekly, but I rarely looked for a specific title to use for teaching something, although I found many good books with lots of information on stuff. :-)

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Borrow: novels, fluff reading, and nonfiction materials of passing interest

 

Buy: Texts to be used year-round, quality children's literature, and beautifully-illustrated references that my kids will want to look at again and again, or that are high enough quality to be re-visited when we come around to discussing a topic again.

 

Example: Last year we studied Ancient History. I borrowed some storybook about a Crocodile on the Nile, and a children's novel about an Egyptian boy. I bought things like the Story of the World Volume 1, D'Auraille's book of Greek Myths, and beautifully illustrated book set retelling the Epic of Gilgamesh. The purchased items are items we will revisit in years to come, while the borrowed items were topical but only for the ages they were that particular year.

 

Exactly. Really exactly -- Bill & Pete came from public library, while the Zeman books are treasured in out house.

 

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Thanks. Super interesting. I always used the library until I moved to France. I still use the library, but the English selection is extremely limited. I was wondering whether I should buy books or just read them once to my kids off the internet. I do hate reading on the computer. I guess I'll be buying the Classics then. Hopefully, we'll get more than one use out of each. I woke up last night at 2 am to find all the kids awake because my eldest son (6) had turned on the lights to read a book.

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I buy as much as I can. We go to the library almost weekly and it's a wonderful library. I just don't want to HAVE to remember to reserve things in time for us to use it etc. Or risk that it won't be there when I need it because every other homeschooler in town wants it then as well. Apparently I'm just not organized enough =) I tend to make a big list of the books we'll need for the year before all the curriculum sales start happening (soon!) with a note about how much their new price is. I also look a lot on Better World Books.

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I bought good children's literature in hard cover, the ones I think they'll want to read to their own children (or re-read to themselves, because some "children's books" are too good not to read multiple times): The Chronicles of Narnia, Understood Betsy, the Chestry Oak, the LIttle White Horse, Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations, The Borrowers, Anne of Green Gables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Daddy Longlegs, and more.

 

We went to the library weekly, but I rarely looked for a specific title to use for teaching something, although I found many good books with lots of information on stuff. :-)

 

 

A lot of the books you listed are favorite here as well but a few I don't recognize and want to put on DD (and my) to read list. Can you link to Daddy Longlegs? I searched for it and came up with all sorts of options.

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I have a love-hate relationship with the library. The selection isn't great and I have an extremely hard time putting tons of books on hold and then packing up my three kids every other day to pick up the holds before they re-shelve them. The library also regularly forgets to scan my returned books before they re-shelve them and then charges me late fees (if I point out the error, they're good to fix it, but still). That said, we still borrow a lot; I just get what's on the shelf and try not to let it bother me. I agree about the junky trash books that the kids seem to gravitate toward. Although, DD seems to love Kipling and Harriot and Potter (Beatrix, not Harry) as much as she loves fluff. But when they are allowed to choose, it's Barbie, Disney Princesses, Transformers, Star Wars, and Batman. And I'd actually be ok with the last two if it were the original material and not some awfully written and terribly illustrated trash book. By the way, I'd love to know where everyone is getting their $1 books from!

 

 

We had this problem, too, and then we simply got in the habit of watching the check-in process. The front desk staff will say, "Oh, it's okay, you can just leave them there," and we say, "No, thanks, we will wait until they're checked in."

 

I have seen people drop off videos at the return desk, and someone will come along and "swipe" the video before it gets checked in. Of course, we reported this to the front desk staff, but if there are times when you do see it, there might be times when you don't, KWIM? To this day, I swear that I returned Pilates Powerhouse, and they say I didn't. I remember seeing some suspicious activity near the return desk, out of the corner of my eye... can't prove a thing, though. So... we put our stuff down on the counter and STAND THERE. Like we have all day to wait for our books to get checked in. ;)

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I use the library for story-type books, but purchase books that will be used as reference material or might be needed long-term. I have found many great books at a store called Half Price Books. They have a nice clearance section and I have found many good books for $1-2. They also have an online store.

 

Our library also has e-books for free check out and we can read them on the iPad or computer. We can also check books out from many of our neighboring libraries, so if our library doesn't have something we need, there is a good chance one of the other ones will.

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I buy. I'm not organized enough to plan what we will need in advance, reserve it at the library, remember to pick it up, keep track of when they need to go back, find all said books and actually take them back on time. Every time I've checked books out from the library, we are late, or forget to throw one in the car to take back, or one gets lost or ripped or spilled on...and I end up paying fees...and I don't even get to keep anything! Lol. Plus, I have a cRaZy toddler right now, and there is NO WAY I'm taking her into a library lol.

I make do with what I find at the thrift store, used curriculum sales, amazon, thriftbooks, ect. I've found some amazing things at library sales as well. We probably have 2,000 books...most of them for the kids. :-o

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The library also regularly forgets to scan my returned books before they re-shelve them and then charges me late fees (if I point out the error, they're good to fix it, but still).

 

We have had this happen, too. We have a big box you can drop them in or a single automated check-in. Everytime I use that big box, we have a book that isn't checked in. (And then I have to go find it on the shelf for them.) Because of that, we sit and use the automated check-in, even though we have a ton of books and there is always a long line behind us. Mostly, people are pretty patient.

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Like I said earlier I am a huge library user but another reason I like having a nice stockpile of picture books is last week DD was sick and she pulled a bean bag chair into my office and then pulled a huge stack of picture books in too. She laid there for probably two hours just reading favorite picture book after favorite picture book. She had a whole stack of new picture books from the library but she wanted to curl up with cozy favorites.

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We have a fantastic library system, and I always have about 50 books and a few audiobooks checked out and about 25 in the hold queue. If I see that the book will be a keeper (used by multiple children, re-read many times), I buy it.

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We would be beyond broke, if we bought all of the books we use for history and science alone. Plus too, we'd be stuck with the lemons. And seriously, how many times would we really read the old ones when we have so many new ones rolling in the doors. I also find some gems at the library that I probably would have never come across on Amazon. There are some great books only available in library binding, which I would never buy from Amazon because they are just way too expensive in that format. We also are out of shelf space.

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It's pretty hard for us to get to the library on a regular basis.....We read a lot so I find it easier to buy and pass down to younger dc.....then turn over to our Used Bookstore for trade in! Our used books stores have awesome prices and I don't spend too much money and I always seem to find what I need.

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Borrowing for figuring out the quality.

 

We borrowed all of the Beautiful Feet American history books, and found they are awesome, so we're definitely going to be purchasing the set.

 

We borrowed the Beautiful Feet Character books, and I just purchased the Guide. I plan to just borrow the books as needed, as I don't feel I need them on the shelf at this point, even though I have multiple children.

 

We have borrowed many of the recommended books on the HOD website, according to my sons grade level. Some of the books have been a hit, so we'll buy the favorites.

 

Overall, I'd love to own what I can, though I don't have the money to purchase all that I want, but many are worth owning. Especially since we're venturing towards mostly living books, therefore, we will build some sort of library for the kids, so that they may learn whenever they pick up a book in our home!

 

I'm thankful we have a library about a mile from our home! I request books and make a quick run there and back in about 10 minutes to pick up the books. Easy!

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