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andibc
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| Posted: July 05 2006 at 8:12am | IP Logged
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have another method. A few months ago someone mentioned putting colored dots on the spine of their books and then again on the bookcase so the children could see "generally" where the books belonged. We are moving our changing our shelving system and I'm rethinking how to organize the books, especially the historical fiction and nonfiction. It would be helpful if the children could tell at a glance where the Civil War books started, for example, and where they ended. What method do those of you with many books use?
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Becky Parker
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We use the dot system (I'm sure I learned about it here!) and I am happy to say that after 2 years, the books are still being put back on the correct shelves! I honestly don't know what I would do without it. Even for myself, it makes the job of finding a specific book much easier. Along with the dots, I also have the books on the "Literature" shelf arranged in alphabetical order. (These are chapter books - my ds reads them and does a good job of putting them back in order...most of the time. The picture books are not in any order.) I have the history books arranged by historical period (sort of). It's not perfect but it sure helps!
Becky
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5athome
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We also do the dot system and have been happy with it. There was a post on the boards a long time ago (and I could not bringit up in a search unfortunately) about moms who had great and inexpensive success using colored electrical tape to organize the spines. I seem to recall that some even had 2 colors on the spines to sub organize them within a category. Perhaps someone else can lay their hands on that posting.
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: July 05 2006 at 11:22am | IP Logged
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5athome wrote:
| There was a post on the boards a long time ago... |
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That thread is here. And you know the posters well enough that you've seen that system first hand.. 
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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BrendaPeter
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The dot system sounds great.
Just to pipe in we've recently re-organized our historical fiction books by using colored stickers with the century in which the book takes place (or when the person lived) written on the sticker. Then we arranged them in chronological order. It looks like a book timeline! I used the Reading Your Way Through History booklist.
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Brenda (mom to 6)
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Willa
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| Posted: July 06 2006 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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Well, I ended up reading that old thread and invested in some colored duct tape. Thanks for reviving the topic! A side bonus is that my boys love duct tape and I'm sure will be interested in the colored variety.
I KNOW I am going to have trouble classifying all these books (and sub-classifying) so any tips on that part of it would be appreciated. Does anyone want to share the "code" they use for marking the books?
EG fiction and non-fiction
different reading levels?
subjects?
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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ALmom
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| Posted: July 06 2006 at 3:36pm | IP Logged
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Willa,
We're on the same project again! My dd recently got duct tape (colored) for the shelves and we labeled shelves as history, literature(fiction), science, historical fiction, children's easy readers and one shelf for the rc history books we will be using this year.
My dd, labeled the historical fiction shelves by U.S. and other (mostly European)and by time period - after this year we'll probably have to add some continents. The historical fiction and history was organized this way. The fiction is organized alphabetically by author's last name. I love how it is organized right now, but with a 3 yo, we'll see how long this lasts  .
Janet
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Kimberly
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Willa,
I'll list out the code we've been using. I would suggest, however, using whatever colors you associate with certain subjects. For me, Science had to be green and history - red, but you may have different colors associated with those subjects.
We use colored duct tape we found at Wal-mart. It's by far the least expensive and they have a wide variety of colors. It also sticks well to the books but doesn't damage them. And, yes, our boys use it for all sorts of projects - such as covering sticks to make light sabers. You can find it in the painting section of the store.
Every subject has it's own main color - this is indicated by a 1 in. strip of that color of duct tape wrapped around the spine of the book at the bottom. For some subjects, we subcategorize by placing a secondary color (about 1/2 in.) right above the main color. Placing the colors at the bottom of the spine has made it easy for even the littlest readers to put books away and also makes the shelves look tidy.
With the Wal-mart duct tape, we are actually able to cut off 1" of duct tape and then cut that in half to use on two books in many cases.
A friend of mine was actually able to label all of her books in one day - the older kids helped a lot. We made stacks of books by subject and then we each had our main color of duct tape and got to work. We went back later in the day and subcategorized and put on the secondary color. It's actually very fun once you get on a roll! Putting the books in stacks by subject is what actually takes the longest.
Here's our color codes: (The main color is in all caps.)
SCIENCE - GREEN
HISTORY - RED
Religious - white (ex. Christ & the Americas, History of Catholic Shrines)
Geography - yellow
SPIRITUAL - WHITE
Christmas - red
Easter - yellow
Bibles & Bible stories - black
Character dev./virtues - blue
Saint stories - purple
Catechesis & Prayer books - green
READING - BLUE
(These levels pertain only to our picture books - we have not yet labeled our chapter books. If a book does not fall under another subject, then it gets put into this subject. The levels help identify books that beginning readers may be able to read - so they don't get frustrated.)
Easy - green (very simple words for beginning readers)
Medium - red (simple words & some difficult words)
Difficult - black (many difficult words)
Written in a foreign language - brown
Pre-school learning books that they cannot read on their own - white (incl. books about the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.)
ART - BLACK
(just black indicates arts & crafts books)
History - red (incl. books about artists)
Music - purple (books about composers)
MISC. - BROWN
Math - purple (reading books teaching math concepts)
English grammar - blue (books teaching grammar concepts)
Joke books (clean jokes of course) - yellow
Poetry books - silver
Foreign lang. - green (books teaching foreign languages)
Listing this out reminds me of setting up files. Everyone has there own way of looking at categories. You can easily customize this to categories and sub-categories that you will best understand. You could also add a flouescent green or some unusual color at the top of books to indicate if it's a classic or FIAR book or just one of your favorites.
My husband and I put this coding system together so that I could find a particular book when I wanted it and so that the kids could put the books back on the shelf in a way that made sense to us. In other words, make it what you want it to be. Hope these ideas help to get you started. Have fun!!
- Kimberly
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Kimberly Kocmoud
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KellyJ
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We started to dot some books that are used for homeschooling -- all one color for a given grade, with the grade number written in permanent marker on the sticker dot. I try to put them on the spine, but some books aren't thick enough for that, so they go on the front cover in the bottom left corner. If the books go for more than one grade, then all of the appropriate dots are used on the spine. We haven't had more than three dots yet. I'm not sure what we'll do if the record might exceed three dots on a book.
My dilemma is where to place these books. So far, I've tried to keep all the "done for now" homeschool books on certain shelves in a lesser used, out of the way bookcase. On the one hand, I want the children to have good books available to them. Yet, I am concerned -- knowing the boys -- that we will lose various books in the house and not be able to find them when needed.
KellyJ
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Erin
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This is so timely, I'm still struggling through organising my library into a more manageable manner.
Does anyone use dots with their picture books? If so what sort of system do you use or if you have a different system what is it? I need help 
Have any of you found the colour dots put children off? What I mean is if the history books have a history code will your child who insists that they don't like history balk at reading those books?
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Betsy
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I am interested in this topic and I am starting to "tape" my books. My question is do you include curriculum books in the categories or just keep these books separate?
Thanks,
Betsy
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Kimberly
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| Posted: July 18 2006 at 8:46am | IP Logged
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Betsy,
You could definitely code your curriculum books with the same system! For me, I have my curriculum books in a different area than the children's books. Since I have fewer curriculum books than children's books for each subject, I found it just as easy to use plastic magazine holders (some big and some small) and label the front with the subject. It's easy for me to see the subject at a glance and I have some different categories from my children's books. Some of the categories include: writing, spelling, physical education, book lists, catalogues, Latin, Catechesis stories and plays, and Bible activities. It has worked great and is easy to pull out the curriculum book I need. Since I am the only one dealing with those books, they get put away in the correct box. The tape system or dot system is necessary for the children's books if you want your kids to put books back in the right subject area.
Erin,
I have not noticed our children avoiding certain subject areas or colors (such as red for history). It may be because I'm not even sure if the younger children know what the colors mean. To them, it seems to be some sort of rainbow and choosing a book from a different color is delightful. Also, I noticed the younger children tend to pick up books from the lower shelves. So if you want them to read more history, put those books on the bottom shelves.
For my older children, they love all books in all different subject areas. If your child is having trouble liking a certain subject (such as history), then the easy solution is to find some great living books in that subject area and read them out loud. You will have your child loving that subject whether they wanted to or not!
Another idea is to have a child who loves the subject (an older child?) read a book from that subject to a child who doesn't like the subject. Hopefully, the enthusiasm from the child who is delighted by the subject will spill over to the one who is not - having living books is a must for this to work!
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Kimberly Kocmoud
homeschooling mother of nine
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: book organization-do you dot or do you
