Do you keep a record of all books read?

[Damselfly]

I recently created various forms that I plan to use throughout the school year. One was made with the intention of recording each and every book DS reads (including read-alouds), both for school purposes and for pleasure reading. It sounds great in theory, but I sat down to start recording some of the titles and I can already tell this is something I WILL NOT keep up with. It's the kind of thing where I'll start off strong, but will only end up doing it for a short while, sporadically at best. :tongue_smilie:

 

Do any of you keep track of the books you read, and if so, HOW do you go about doing so? What has worked best for you? What is the most time-efficient method? :bigear:

[Jen500]

I just use a notebook. I list the books by week, with title and author. While the kids are reading to themselves in the evening, I jot down what they've read that day. It's just turned into a habit and takes a minute or two.

[vanmeterk4]

I keep a journal at our school desk. I write down which books we read from each day and manage to keep it up pretty well. I don't write down the free-reading books (bedtime reads, etc.).

 

I only have one child homeschooling, however, so there is much less to keep track of than if I had all three kids at home.

 

-Kim in Iowa

[Anne/Ankara]

I've kept track of all the books my kids have read since they started school (now going into our ninth year). I keep a running "Independent Reading" list, and a list separated by subject area (once they got into middle school). At the end of each year I print it out and put it into the portfolio. Works great, and is not too time-consuming!

 

But here's a warning-- the list can get long. To paraphrase Wanda Gag, you might be faced with "hundred of books, thousands of books, millions

and billions and trillions of books!"

 

It's a source of pride and accomplishment for my kids!

[sagira]

I will have to, for the state. Thanks for the ideas and the encouragement. I was wondering about this myself.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[Patricia in WA]

No. Like you I start things like this witht he best intentions and it just gets forgotten. We take pride in walking into Barnes and Noble and scanning the shelves for all the things we have read. It works well enough for us.

Now once they get into high school years, I will keep detailed records of every little thing they do because now I will have to report that to someone eventually (college admissions). But with no state reporting requirements, why bother now other than to get into the habit. I do keep records for my purpose just not that deep. :-)

 

HTHs,

[Nestof3]

Yes, I have a history list, a science list, a read-aloud list, and an independent reading list (what the boys read on their own).

[Greta]

As part of my curriculum planning, I made a list of the books that I will read aloud to my dd, and those that she will read aloud to me. Those are already on "the plan" so I just check them off as we complete them. But I also have some time set aside every day for "SSR" -- that's a term they used at my elementary school when I was a kid, it stands for "Silent Sustained Reading" -- in other words, time for her to just read quietly to herself. I used a form I downloaded from donnayoung where she records the author, title, date completed, and a simple number rating of how well she liked the book, for all the books she reads during SSR.

[Damselfly]

Thank you all for your replies. I like the idea of just using a notebook to record as we go along. But I also like the idea of having a nice computerized printout to put into DS's portfolio at the end of the year. You've given me a lot to think about :).

[LisaKinVA]

Well, sort of...

 

I have a small notebook for my 1st grader and my 4th grader. They log their own books. I sign off on the reading. I don't track my Ker's reading, though (how many times can he read... If you give a mouse a cookie? Still counting!)

[Parrothead]

Not for independent reading. I am thinking of the train idea someone mentioned in another thread so dd can keep up with her books. At the end of the year I can just go down the line and enter the books.

[paula j]

I do! I have a form I found a a free disc someone sent me with all sorts of forms on it. It has a place for title, author, and our opinion of the book. I have been using these for the past 3 years and ds averages between 40 and 60 books a year usually.

[Saille]

Weeell...

 

I have over a thousand books in my home collection, so we don't log those, but I can provide a list of books I own on demand, b/c I've got (most of them :rolleyes:) entered on LibraryThing.

 

I keep track of our library books the same way. I have tags on LibraryThing for "library books" and "past library books". I got a $10 cuecat for Christmas last year, so I can enter books by scanning the barcodes. When I bring books home from the library, I sit down and scan them before they scatter.

 

LibraryThing has several different styles of printable book lists, so it's easy to print out just the books tagged "past library books", and that goes in my hs binder.

 

My dh also downloads stories from Story Nory and other free audio sites, and burns a bunch of them onto a CD, which our kids then listen to at bedtime. I periodically have him print out the playlists for me, and I keep those, too.

[LaxMom]

We do, using Homeschool Tracker +. You can populate the book information with their ISBN lookup feature, which makes it really easy, either as a resource (part of your curriculum) or under the student reading log.

 

At the end of the year, we just print out the list to include it in our year-end review.

[Homeschooling6]

Yes, I just write them down when they finish. Also if we are using SL, WP or MFW I'll highlight the books we read that year and date it. THis way I don't have to write it all out.

[sweetbaby]

We use the Homeschool Tracker. I enter the books as they complete them.

 

[TXMomof2]

I started a list during my child's 1st year. Somewhere after 500 I stopped recording, but admit that I need to continue the list. It does help refresh my memory of 'good reads' now that I have another little one. I keep author, title, month & year.

 

As someone else posted, it is a great since of accomplishment & pride to watch the list grow.

[WTMindy]

I recently created various forms that I plan to use throughout the school year. One was made with the intention of recording each and every book DS reads (including read-alouds), both for school purposes and for pleasure reading. It sounds great in theory, but I sat down to start recording some of the titles and I can already tell this is something I WILL NOT keep up with. It's the kind of thing where I'll start off strong, but will only end up doing it for a short while, sporadically at best. :tongue_smilie:

 

Do any of you keep track of the books you read, and if so, HOW do you go about doing so? What has worked best for you? What is the most time-efficient method? :bigear:

 

I have a reading blog that no one actually sees but me, and I keep track of all the books we have read. The only thing that works for me is that I have trained the kids to put every book they finish on the table by my computer. This lets me know that I need to record it. My son got out of the habit and I missed a bunch, so I just recently reminded him that he needs to do this.

 

I don't think there is anything wonderful or magical about having this list, but I do having it.

[Paula in PA]

I keep track of everything read for school using HST+. I don't do anything for her free reading since she really just started doing this more consistantly.

[GreenKitty]

I log them into the Homeschool Tracker.

[HootyTooty]

When my ds was just learning how to read I would keep a paper log, but now since he is reading more and we are using more books I'm logging everything with Homeschool Tracker. I may upgrade soon to the Plus version though.

[DeeDeeMarie0]

I also keep a video log that lists all of the educational videos that we watch. Fortunately, our library has a history of your account on-line and if I don't keep up weekly, I can go back and look at what I have missed.

[workingmom]

DS 6.5 yo logs in his independent reading chapter books on a word table. Its mostly just so he gets a sense of accomplishment. But he's an avid reader we've nearly done 70 books in 4 months. I don't log in all the library books we get for unit studies (like we just finished senses and he read two of them and I read one outloud) Nor do I log in all the books I check out for unit studies, quirky stuff. Its overkill for me, I may not even continue to do his book logs if it gets too much later on. I do keep a log of unit studies and just log in the topics we did that month, but no details about which websites, or books we used for it.

 

I have a box downstairs that I stock with library books twice a week on either just short nonfiction, unit study extras or skills books. They read through those while waiting for meals or just hanging out in the family room. We have another stack of books in his bedroom that he reads during his independent reading which are the books he's logging in.

[Raini]

Ditto :)

[jen210]

No, but now I wish I had after reading this post. My boys will be 4th and 5th grade and LOVE to read. I have no idea of how many books we've read. It would be so great to show them and grandparents, etc. what all they've done over the years.

 

Jennifer

[Chloe]

my dh set up for me in excel. It has one "page" per child. I list the title of the book, author and genre of the book (literature, science, history, etc.) I also put a star (*) next to the title of the books my dc especially liked. When my dc finish a book, they place it on a shelf next to the computer. At the end of the week I sit down and record the books they read that week. It only takes about 5-10 minutes. At the end of the year I print out the book list for each dc and place it into their portfolio. I usually sort the list by genre first and print each list separately. That way I can easily see how much reading we did for history vs science and put those lists in the history and science sections of the portfolio, etc. We start a new spreadsheet each year.

 

I should add that I only do this for the books the dc actually read themselves. I don't record our read alouds or audio books we've listened to. However, I have a list of books (that spans all grade levels) that I plan to read aloud or get audios for and I check each off as we do them.

[keptwoman]

We do, using Homeschool Tracker +. You can populate the book information with their ISBN lookup feature, which makes it really easy, either as a resource (part of your curriculum) or under the student reading log.

 

At the end of the year, we just print out the list to include it in our year-end review.

Me too, and the kids are very proud of their reading lists as they get longer.

[runningirl71]

I recently created various forms that I plan to use throughout the school year. One was made with the intention of recording each and every book DS reads (including read-alouds), both for school purposes and for pleasure reading. It sounds great in theory, but I sat down to start recording some of the titles and I can already tell this is something I WILL NOT keep up with. It's the kind of thing where I'll start off strong, but will only end up doing it for a short while, sporadically at best. :tongue_smilie:

 

Do any of you keep track of the books you read, and if so, HOW do you go about doing so? What has worked best for you? What is the most time-efficient method? :bigear:

 

I have not read the other posts but thought I would mention that I use Edu-Track. I love it b/c it will collate a page that I can print out and put ina portfolio. Nice! I put in the book title, author, and number of pages. At the end of the year I could view how many pages my kids read. Neat.

 

The easiest way I find to do this is keeping on top of it. As soon as I finish a read aloud or they finish a book, I take the book over to the computer and immediately enter it into the system or I leave it right by the computer so I know I need to do it later. It really only takes a minute to enter in the data . . .

 

Good luck!:)

[hsing1]

Yes. I create a simple spreadsheet on Excel. I just list the books by month (I add to the list as time allows). I sort each month by title and print it out at the end of the year to keep with that years school records.

 

It's amazing to see all the books read over time.

[Patricia in WA]

Thanks for chiming in! I was starting to feel lonely. :D