deleted post

[Maggie2354]

deleted post

Edited April 1, 2021 by Maggie2354

[fairfarmhand]

1 minute ago, Maggie2354 said:

Are you keeping homeschool books after being done with them?  Especially in light of how many books are being banned now, I am torn about whether or not to keep ours.  I have no idea if my kids will homeschool their own children.  Sometimes I think that I shouldn't keep them, as there are always new additions coming out, but then I see a news story about how bad everything is getting and think maybe I should just in case they won't be available to them.  What are your thoughts?

what do you mean by the bolded?

[Maggie2354]

deleted post

Edited April 1, 2021 by Maggie2354

[Katy]

No, when I am done homeschooling I donate the books.  I am not worried about anything being banned (that was fake news), and I'm not worried about things getting worse.

[HS Mom in NC]

I've homeschooled all my kids K-12. Idonated most of my K-6th books to my local homeschool support group when my kids were 23, 20, and 13 because we were moving across the country and downsizing. (We had 10 extra large bookcases of full of books.) When youngest started high school level homeschooling I donated most of the 6th-8th books.  When she graduates in 2 years I'll donate most of the 9th-12th books. I usually keep a few I'm on the fence about to decide on later.

I only keep books I'm likely to read again.  I have 1 bookcase of favorite books we read to the kids or they read. We're part of Read Aloud Culture (toddlers-high school.) I don't assume I'll have grandkids, but if I do those favorites will be what I read to them.  It's not my job to concern myself with how my possible future grandchildren are educated-it's up to their parents to decide.  Even if they do homeschool, there's no way I could know how my kids will want to homeschool them, so I don't keep anything for that purpose. 

The "political correctness/cancel culture" is highly politicized and not something I consider an urgent threat. Understand, I'm married to a business owner, so that's the lens I view this discussion through.  Like Jesus said in the paying the workers in the field parable, "Don't I have a right to do what I want with what I have?" As I understand it, those who own the legal rights to Dr. Seuss made a choice about what they will continue to print and what they won't.  It's the right of ownership and no one else's business what they do with their own property.  Same with Zuckerberg.  He owns FB and can set whatever user agreements he wants, whether it's a good decision or a bad one, because it's his property. Users don't have s constitutional right to use Zuckerberg's property to voice their free speech unless he chooses to agree to that-they have to fund their own "microphone." Thinking that they do is a collectivist idea.

As to taxpayer funded education and public libraries, the secular government funds those through tax dollars, like it or not, and ultimately decides what books that the secular government  will or won't allow.  I'm not the kind of person who would order French food at the Mexican restaurant and then complain about the menu.  If I want French food, I go to a restaurant that does that; I don't try to dictate to the owner what kinds of food they should serve.  If I want my children educated a certain way, I fund it myself and do the educating myself so no one else has a say.

[bluemongoose]

I am not worried about things getting banned, but yes, I am saving stuff. I have a hard time getting rid of it. I have the space to store it and I have been able to act as a kind of local curriculum library for my homeschooling community. I feel like it is my way of giving back. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by bluemongoose

[Murphy101]

I keep only books that are grand babies worthy. Even though I’m not done homeschooling, there’s only some things I’m keeping at this point. There’s 3-5 year gaps before my youngest 3. There’s items I love that I’m sure I’ll want to use for them but I’m not keeping the apologia chemistry for 6 years. I’ll decide what chemistry to get for that kid when I get to them. Sometimes I like to upgrade because the newer version is more teacher friendly or just better overall. I keep a lot of books but the hazard of books well-loved by 12 people over 20+ years is that get really ragged. I’ve sorted so many that have gotten missing pages or whatever and either need replaced or done without. And we take super good care of books here.

[elegantlion]

I'm not worried about books being canceled, but many of the books I used are not as accessible as they once were - granted my son in graduating college this semester, so it's been a while. 

I've kept a lot because I'm a book hoarder. When I am old - which may be happening sooner than later, lol - I want to revisit some of these material, try to master some material myself. I've downsized a large number, but I've kept my favorites. 

[ScoutTN]

I tutor, so many homeschooling books other than literature are useful for me to have. 
 

I’ve culled children’s books as far as I’m going to for now.

 

[HeartString]

Books go out of print all the time.  It is annoying when I've tried to use Build Your Library or some other literature based curriculum and not been able to find what I wanted.  The demand from a tiny group of home schoolers isn't enough, but it does drive up prices on the used market when a popular curriculum provider uses an out of print book.  I figure no book will make or break my children's education.  There are other options.  Hoarding books or anything else out of a sense of fear or persecution doesn't feel like a good way to life live.     

[regentrude]

I saved books while my kids were still home. I am not saving materials for the hypothetical scenario that my children might, some day in the future, want to homeschool hypothetical grandchildren (who will not even be born for the forseeable future)
There will be books available then, and they will make their choices which might also look quite different from mine.
ETA: Not sure what you mean by "books being canceled".  Great literature that has a place in the context of its historical period will survive. Textbooks with racist undertones? Not so much. 
 

2ndETA: Actually, I take it back: we are saving The Art of Problem Solving math books. Because they are so fabulous that I might refer to them at some point again

Edited March 31, 2021 by regentrude

[Shoeless]

Even if your kids decide to homeschool potential future grandchildren, they will probably want to pick out their own books and curriculum, and not use books that are potentially decades old. 

[Ditto]

As a rule, no I don't keep books once we are done with them.  If it is a book we will want to read again then I keep it but there haven't been many of those.

[athena1277]

I’m a book junkie, so I struggle to get rid of books.  This includes curriculum.  I have gotten rid of books and curriculum that I hated, but I have kept the rest.  It has paid off for us because dd4 was born when ds was 8.  Dd4 starts kindergarten in the fall and all I have to buy are a few consumables.  And while we aren’t expecting any more babies, oldest dd is 18, so I will probably hang on to some of it for future grands.  Curriculum itself is about 3 shelves, which is not much in my house.

[Carrie12345]

I love books/curriculum, so I struggle to part with them, but I constantly push myself to. Mostly because I spent years saving after the older kids only for things to be the wrong fit for my younger kids.  I am not devoted to any specific materials.

I intend to keep a few things, like SOTW, the same way we kept special books pre-homeschooling.  If the world were to go mad, I can teach the children of my faction to read and do math to algebra with paper and pen. I assume the rest of their time will be devoted to the uprising.

[Spryte]

I’m not following what you mean by “canceled,” but overall I’m not saving books.  

I save books between kids, but when the youngest is finished with it we donate them. I will save some beloved books, and maybe some very good spines to use as reference books.  But just like I didn’t save baby clothes for my kids to use for their kids someday, I’m not saving curriculum.  If they decide to homeschool, they will have different options and make their own choices after researching.

Also, more and more I’m finding that we enjoy using our kindles, so I’m making a shift to more and more kindle books.  I really like having less tangible items, and obviously those books we will keep.

 

[Kalmia]

I made an effort to find hardback copies of my favorite children's literature, folk tales, poetry, and fairy tales. I have about 100 nice editions, some illustrated. Those I will keep for reading to my grandchildren if I am lucky enough to get any. I have a few such books my mom saved that she read to my sister and I, and I took great pleasure from sharing "mommy's book from when she was a kid" or "auntie's book from when she was little" with my kids, so I figure my kids will feel the same about sharing the exact same volumes they held when they were little. (I am also saving the books my mom read to me so there can be a "grannie's book from when she was a kid"...followed by: "What? Grannie was a KID!!! No way!")

As for curriculum. I am saving:
Warriner's English Grammar and Composition (from my own high school years, also used by my children) 
SWB's The Story of the World and Writing with Ease
The Logic of English teachers edition and phonogram cards 
All of Michael Clay Thompson's books, especially the poetry education books and Ceasar's English+ vocabulary books
The Lost Tools of Writing (mostly because of its excellent section in the books and videos on the invention stage)
Classical Academic Press' The Art of Argument, Latin for Children & Latin Alive, and if they'd been out when my kids were little I would have and keep CAP's Writing and Rhetoric series (love what I have seen of them)
Don and Jenny Killgallon's Worktexts starting with Sentence Composing for Elementary School+ (because it is unique method for looking at sentences)
 

 

[MEmama]

3 hours ago, Maggie2354 said:

Are you keeping homeschool books after being done with them?  Especially in light of how many books are being "canceled."  I am torn about whether or not to keep ours.  I have no idea if my kids will homeschool their own children.  Sometimes I think that I shouldn't keep them, as there are always new editions coming out, but then I second guess myself.  What are your thoughts?

What on earth does the bolded mean?

If books are racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and so on then of course I wouldn’t keep them. That kind of thing belongs in the trash can and would never be donated. The only books we ever had like that were given to us by my MIL and were immediately destroyed. 
 

Our understanding of history and willingness to tell the truth evolves, so in general I think history books aren’t worth keeping. Same goes for science—we are learning so much all the time it makes no sense to keep outdated information. Even English can be problematic if examples aren’t inclusive and modern. Why lose students' interest with ideas that are no longer relevant? 
 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

I love my books and curriculum, but I don't see my kids using most of it in the future.  I know my grandmother passed down my mother's old textbooks to us.  They were used when my mom got them to use in public school, so some were from the 40s.  They apparantly still bought their own textbooks in my mom's public elementary school.  I never have any use for these books.  I don't have teacher's books to make lessons out of them.  We have occasionally used some of them as just reading practice, but they aren't any high quality thing that I need.   As precious as they are to my grandmother who hoped finally someone had some use for them, they just weren't useful to me.  The one thing I liked was my mom's girl scout handbook.  We are girl scouts, so I do find that very interesting to compare to today's materials and to show the girls in the troop. 

I have one friend that is a 2nd generation homeschooler.  Her mom passed down all of their old books to her and her kids.  They never used them.  She stored them forever, thinking she might need them and not wanting to insult her mom.  She felt so free when she got rid of them because she realized she didn't homeschool the same as her mother did.  She enjoyed going to convention and looking at curriculum and picking what works for them. 

So I don't think that my kids will use curriculum that I have on hand, honestly, besides maybe Story of the World because we all enjoy it so much.  But I also don't know how easy it will be for me to get rid of things.  I have full sets of Rod and Staff texts, all grades.  I have used them day in and day out for so many years.  It would be SOO weird to give them up.  But I also would love to gain back space in my house and to get rid of some bookshelves.  

I did keep things forever after my first two.  I did always hope we would have more kiddos.  We had a ten year gap, but I did finally get my bonus baby girls, and we have enjoyed the same books that the olders used.  I love that I have everything on hand.  But it is time to start culling things behind her now.  

It is very sad to me.  I am a book hoarder.  I need help. 

[Junie]

I wish I had kept more books from my own childhood.

My kids love going their great-aunt's house (my husband's aunt) and one of the things they love best are the books.  The same books that I grew up with like Sweet Pickles.  

I am planning to keep a lot of our books so that the grandkids will be able to read the same books their parents read.  (I mean, I guess I might end up with zero grandchildren to share the books with, but with six kids that seems unlikely...)

I can always get rid of the books later, but if I get rid of them and change my mind it will take a lot of effort (and $$) to buy them again.

[Junie]

And as far as curriculum:

I am planning to keep certain things, such as the Saxon Math that I have collected, the Apologia (especially the elementary books that my kids read for fun), Cornerstones of Freedom, some of their favorite early readers -- the ones that are really beat up from being read over and over, Magic School Bus.  I'm not planning to keep everything, but I am planning to keep a lot.

[2_girls_mommy]

5 minutes ago, Junie said:

I wish I had kept more books from my own childhood.

My kids love going their great-aunt's house (my husband's aunt) and one of the things they love best are the books.  The same books that I grew up with like Sweet Pickles.  

I am planning to keep a lot of our books so that the grandkids will be able to read the same books their parents read.  (I mean, I guess I might end up with zero grandchildren to share the books with, but with six kids that seems unlikely...)

I can always get rid of the books later, but if I get rid of them and change my mind it will take a lot of effort (and $$) to buy them again.

I remember the Sweet Pickles.  One of my sisters had them that I read.  I do agree that I will keep some of our favorite children's books.  Everytime I look at my dd's copy of Ping, I think of the old copy I had when I was little that had been my mom's before me.  We don't have anything from when we are kids, and I think it would be nice to have some of our favorites for my kids.  

[Bambam]

I am keeping much of the literature. I've noticed that when the kids come home sometimes, they pick out an old favorite and re-read it.
 
I had given away almost all the picture and board books (which the kids were in favor of), but later (teen years) they said they missed those books and would enjoy revisiting their favorites - so I've started collecting a few of the cherished favorites. 

I am not keeping any curriculum as I figure if my children do elect to homeschool any children they might have, they would want to chose their own curriculum. I'm fine with that! 

[Mona]

6 hours ago, Maggie2354 said:

Are you keeping homeschool books after being done with them?  Especially in light of how many books are being "canceled."  I am torn about whether or not to keep ours.  I have no idea if my kids will homeschool their own children.  Sometimes I think that I shouldn't keep them, as there are always new editions coming out, but then I second guess myself.  What are your thoughts?

I had originally planned on giving our books away after my youngest finished with them, but now I plan on getting some more bookcases and save most of the readers and some of the curricula.

In addition to books being canceled, early last year I saw news reports of schools throwing away the books and it seemed that it was mostly historical fiction in the dumpster. I think this was on the west coast; maybe it was in Washington state. Then I saw a mayor in Chicago giving an outdoor speech about no longer teaching history until it is rewritten. 

[Spryte]

When you all say canceled, do you mean when a book goes out of print?  

We do keep classic and beloved books, but I think most are probably in high demand and not in danger of going OOP. I have a few books by friend-authors which may have gone OOP, and a few others that may go OOP for lack of demand, but I guess we aren’t using rare books so this hasn’t been on my radar.  🤣

 

[fairfarmhand]

3 hours ago, Junie said:

I wish I had kept more books from my own childhood.

My kids love going their great-aunt's house (my husband's aunt) and one of the things they love best are the books.  The same books that I grew up with like Sweet Pickles.  

I am planning to keep a lot of our books so that the grandkids will be able to read the same books their parents read.  (I mean, I guess I might end up with zero grandchildren to share the books with, but with six kids that seems unlikely...)

I can always get rid of the books later, but if I get rid of them and change my mind it will take a lot of effort (and $$) to buy them again.

OH, I have TONS of children's books that I'm keeping. My 19 yo just re-read the Ramona Quimby books 2 weeks ago.

We have many of my dh's childhood books, as well as some of HIS dad's childhood books. I have a handful of my mom's old books too. Those are totally sticking around.

But not homeschool curricula.

[klmama]

Literature and non-fiction books will stay or go depending on if any of us particularly like them.  Maybe grandkids will read them and maybe they won't, but I'm not keeping anything unless someone here really likes it.  I'll keep a few high school textbooks as references and will sell or donate the rest.  I've already sold or donated textbooks from elementary and middle grades.  If my kids have kids and decide to homeschool them, there will be other books available then. 

 

 

[Tanaqui]

 

12 hours ago, Maggie2354 said:

I just mean with all of the things going on in education along with books being "canceled."  😉

 

I just edited my original post for clarity and a misspelled word (editions, not additions).  🙂

 

Repeating yourself is not the same as clarifying. What is "all the things going on in education" that you object to, what do you mean by "canceled", and exactly which books do you worry will fall out of print that are so important to the future of education?

[*****]

All I can say is, I hear ya!  I am going through the same thing myself. Always keeping curricula because it was so good, that I may need it 'someday'.  I am beginning to little, by little, just let it go.  But I will still keep  a few favorites! 

[Hannah]

If my girls do choose to homeschool their future children, they'll make their own decisions on what to use.  I expect  that we'll downsize long before that happens, so there won't be much storage space for stuff.

I've kept one smallish container of favourite picture books and two of early readers and children's books - for sentiment's sake.  All of our curriculum have been donated or sold, but I do still have two containers of South African children's fiction that I just can't get myself to get rid of yet.  Many are out of print and I scoured 2nd hand shops for years.  They're not in our way yet, so I'm hanging on to them.

[Tina]

18 hours ago, bluemongoose said:

I am not worried about things getting banned, but yes, I am saving stuff. I have a hard time getting rid of it. I have the space to store it and I have been able to act as a kind of local curriculum library for my homeschooling community. I feel like it is my way of giving back. 

My plan has always been to have a homeschool lending library.  I have some boxes of books in the garage that were donated for that, and I am finally ready to go through the rest of my books.  Really wish the homeschool community here owned a place to have a library.

Will definitely keep the literature in my personal library.  Dd is in school to be a teacher, and we had a blast finding books from our collection for the various categories she needed each week.  In the end, the only type I didn't have were hispanic.  Fixed that right away! lol

I am ready to start sorting through the rest tho, and getting rid of some homeschool books.  It's only been three years since dd graduated. 😉  

[Jaybee]

I have kept most of our favorite literature, and will as long as we have room.  (The exception is that I sold our whole Famous Five collection, and other Enid Blyton collections when we moved from overseas. They took up so much room, but our girls loved loved loved those books, and I wish I had kept them. They did go to another family who I know enjoyed them.) I have visions of my grandkids coming to visit, and curling up with some of our old favorites. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.

I gave away most of the curriculum, but there are some things I wish I hadn't, because they are more unusual, and I would like to have them for referral if needed (Kilgallon). And some were expensive, but would be nice to have if I wanted to use them for an unusual situation (All About Reading with its letter squares).

One thing I really regret getting rid of, was my old plan books. We had just moved, and I was opening up lots of old boxes and being quickly decisive about what to do with things. So I just chunked them. I wish I had kept them, especially to show my oldest kids who don't remember all the things we did. Yeah, I really want them as proof for how much work I put into their schooling. But alas, they are gone.

So much of it depends on available space, though.

[J-rap]

Nope, I've already gotten rid of all of it!  I know at least one of our children will probably homeschool (if she has children :-)), but I think she'll enjoy getting her own curriculum.

(Good literature books I'm keeping though if it's in good enough condition.)

[Lecka]

I have two categories of things like this.

Category 1:  so dog-eared and ragged that I know it will seem really worn out down the road. 

Category 2:  only a fit for one of my kids, and really long odds against it being useful in the future.  

My kids have asked after some toys that we don't have anymore, and every thing they ask about I can honestly say -- it was in bad shape.  They don't ask about the things that stayed nice -- those were not favorites.  

My daughter gave some nice, special things to a little girl from church, and I think that is something where it could be nice to have stored it, but really she is glad she gave it to a little girl who barely had any toys.  There is no doubt they got played with and it was nice for my daughter to be able to give them to her.  For my sons -- there stuff got really beat up.  They were not very gentle little kids, and I let them take most of their toys outside.  

[MEmama]

I assume this was a troll thread?

Edited April 1, 2021 by MEmama

[Maggie2354]

This is not a troll thread.  I just got some unkind responses and decided to delete my original post.  This is why I rarely post.  I appreciate all advice received. 

Hope that everyone has a blessed day!  🙂

Edited April 1, 2021 by Maggie2354

[JustEm]

15 minutes ago, MEmama said:

I assume this was a troll thread?

I doubt it. OP was likely expecting a very different direction to the thread and when they didn't get it decided to hair flip( try to pretend it didn't happen by deleting.)

As for so called cancelled books, which really just means books no longer being printed because of some issue with them, I'm not intentionally holding on to them. But I'll hold onto them if I actually like the book and the issue at hand can be discussed freely with my kids.

[Tanaqui]

The fact that people would have liked it if you'd carefully defined your terms rather than relying on overly emotional and vague phrasing is not unkind.

[JustEm]

4 minutes ago, Maggie2354 said:

This is not a troll thread.  I just got some unkind responses and decided to delete my original post.  This is why I rarely post.  I appreciate all advice received. 

Hope that everyone has a blessed day!  🙂

But you didn't even participate in the convo you started and when asked for clarity you just restated your original question.  If you think people are unkind ignore them and respect the respectful people who responded but didn't necessarily agree with you or didn't understand what you were asking

[MEmama]

5 minutes ago, Maggie2354 said:

This is not a troll thread.  I just got some unkind responses and decided to delete my original post.  This is why I rarely post.  I appreciate all advice received. 

Hope that everyone has a blessed day!  🙂

What was unkind? 
 

Or is your cancel culture talking point simply not popular (because it’s false)?

[WildflowerMom]

I’m keeping “teach your child to read in 100 lessons” (or something like that) and the books my son loved to read growing up (Judy Blume books, Jean Craighead George books, etc).  IOW, the books that he begged me to read “just one more page, pleeeeaaaase!” every night at bedtime.     

[JustEm]

I'll give an example, I have a collection of books that has The Little Black Sambo in it. The illustrations actually make me angry when I look at them. But I keep the books because I adore the illustrations in the other stories and love reading the stories to my kids. 

We just don't read The Little Black Sambo unless I'm using it as a discussion as to what is wrong with a lot of older literature.

[Sneezyone]

We are keeping picture books that my kids loved and are in great shape. When they were little kids, I bought hard cover versions of beloved classics like “The Monster at the End of This Book” and “The Little Engine That Could”. Those will be kept. So too will my son’s historical graphic novel collection. I don’t see a reason to donate literature that my kids may need in college either. Those remain. I love it when they shop our home library first! Even at DDs high school, it means I don’t have to worry about damaged school copies. Most old curriculum I have/will donate but I will hold on to my Dolciani/Brown Algebra, Geometry and Trig series for a while longer. They are out of print in their original form.

Edited April 1, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Laura Corin]

10 minutes ago, hjffkj said:

I'll give an example, I have a collection of books that has The Little Black Sambo in it. The illustrations actually make me angry when I look at them. But I keep the books because I adore the illustrations in the other stories and love reading the stories to my kids. 

We just don't read The Little Black Sambo unless I'm using it as a discussion as to what is wrong with a lot of older literature.

I had that book as a child. I  threw it away and bought a beautifully illustrated copy of Little Babji instead.

[JustEm]

Just now, Laura Corin said:

I had that book as a child. I  threw it away and bought a beautifully illustrated copy of Little Babji instead.

I keep the book it is in for the other stories in it. I actually believe there are updated editions of the book series but I heard they changed the illustrations of all the stories and not just the problematic ones. So, I keep them for the beauty of the other stories and their illustrations. 

[Pen]

22 hours ago, Maggie2354 said:

deleted post

I am sorry you felt the need to delete.  
 

I think what you keep could depend on circumstances. I am in a damp climate and small house, so in terms of possible grand children, I would not keep things as it seems too remote, too likely that books would be moldy by right time.  Mold happened to some of my own favorite saved childhood books such that it would have, in 20:20 hindsight, have been better to let them delight other children instead of be saved and become moldy garbage.  But in dry conditions that might not happen and if house were lucky enough to have plenty of space a library of children’s materials could be great for some child even if not homeschooling.

 

(ETA: if you are lucky enough to have a “guest room”  children’s books might be great there too. I expect many an adult could enjoy various “homeschooling “ books.) 

In my case, I did keep a lot despite very small house, and have been doing my best to pack it with moisture absorbing kitty litter to avoid mold issue.   I have had the feeling that there will be more foster-adopt or similar type children to do homeschooling with in my own life , in not too distant future, so not a wait till potential grandchildren.  (Though my still single teenage son got a vehicle that has 3 child carrier seat positions, and considers family insurance in potential future careers already.  So, who knows, maybe grandchildren will come sooner than I expect.) 

Children may want to choose their own materials even if they do homeschool the next generation, so if that is the primary goal, I would ask your children what they think should be kept or parted with. 
 

I think if you have books you yourself love that you think might be banned or go out of print that you might consider keeping them just for yourself. There does not need to be a child to justify having some children’s books.

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Pen