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Anne McD
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| Posted: Feb 01 2008 at 8:35pm | IP Logged
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I have a couple of questions for those of you who have color coded your books:
- what categories did you break them up into?
- did you do all books, even the very littles?
- in retrospect, did it work well for you?
- are you glad you did it, or are you sick of looking at bright colors on your beautiful books? 
(you can see I'm a little aprehensive here)
I just want some sort of order to our growing library, and I want it to be easy-peasy for the kiddos to put things away, but I'm a bit into aestetics, too.
Thanks for your input!!
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Anne
Wife to Jon
Mommy to Alex 9
James 8
Katie 6
William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
and baby on the way! 10/14
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stefoodie
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Yellow - Religion, with separate shelves for Saints (biographies are in the appropriate century in the history section, collections are on the Saints shelf) and Liturgical Year, Apologetics and Catechism. Might be needing separate shelves soon for Lent/Easter, Advent/Christmas and Ordinary Time.
History - Pink, with the century, so H14 would be History, 14th century.
Science - Green -- I'd like to subcategorize into disciplines, but for now we just do it by shelf
The other books: Math, Foreign Language, Art, Music, etc. just have their own shelves.
And we don't do the picture books.
This is working well for us EXCEPT that the little one (6) keeps on taking History books off the shelves and does not put them back in order or does not put them back at all. :( I'm teaching her now.
hth,
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stef
mom to five
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Maddie
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| Posted: Feb 01 2008 at 10:02pm | IP Logged
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Yellow ~ Religion
Green~ Science
Purple~ History
White w/ green dot~ Readers
White w/ blue dot~ Favorite children's books like Jan Brett, Billy and Blaze, etc
Math~ White w/ yellow dot
That's as far as I got. If I had to do it again I would use only colored duct tape rather than stickers. I have to put tape over the sticker to keep it stuck on the book. Cheaper too. I am so glad I did it, it makes tidying up so much easier. It's glaringly obvious when a book is not shelved right. Even my little guys can find the right shelf.
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~Maddie~
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 01 2008 at 10:03pm | IP Logged
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is this like taping the who;e spine with color? or just putting little colored dots or tags on them? like the library?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Maddie
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 1:14pm | IP Logged
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The duct tape is maybe 1.5" by 3" long and I wrap around the lower spine of the book like you see at the library. For the ones with the colored dots I first put a white mailing label on the book, a circle sticker, and then a strip or two of tape. It is much more time consuming and expensive. The duct tape is much easier and there are so many colors to chose from.
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 1:27pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Maddie, that makes sense..
Do you do anything about level of the book? like I have some books that are on the same topic but different levels (like in history) or would you just maybe note the level on the book but still have it only color coded for History etc?
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Willa
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Red-- Religion
Burgundy -- History
Brown -- Geography
Green -- Science and Nature Study
Blue -- Literature (Fiction)
Turquoise -- Art, Music
Light purple -- Activity books like Where's Waldo, puzzle books and activity/hands on
Olive -- books that are for my personal reference -- teacher's resources and the like
White -- for fictional series.
I started double-coding some of them -- historical fiction with bands of blue and burgundy -- but it was too complicated and unnecessary for us.
I don't bother with age ranges because usually I can get a working idea just from the thickness of the book. I keep picture books separate from the others for the most part.
I used colored duct tape (tore strips in half lengthwise, and the strip is across the spine at the bottom). I knew colored dots wouldn't last long in our family. And I didn't want huge broad bands across the bottom of the books. But the thin (half-inch) strips have held up well.
I choose colored duct tape that I liked the color of -- darker colors for the most part. They blend in OK. Many of our books are second-hand library editions so they often have labels across the spine anyway. It was just a matter of covering the label.
I didn't have the heart to put tape on our collectible nice editions but I usually keep these separate from the rest anyway and encourage the children to treat them with special care.
In general I am glad I did the taping because it saves me several mental steps when I'm sorting through them or trying to put them away, and it makes it easier for the kids to see the relaxed logic of the filing system 
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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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chicken lady
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 5:15pm | IP Logged
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I like your color choices Willa!
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Anne McD
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 5:32pm | IP Logged
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This all sounds good-- thank you!
I think I'm just apprehensive about taking the time to do a project only to wish I hadn't bothered to afterwards (can you tell I've done that before? )
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Anne
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Mommy to Alex 9
James 8
Katie 6
William 3 1/2
Benedict Joseph 1
and baby on the way! 10/14
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
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I know just what you mean Anne.. I think I need more bookcases so I can have more in the house that needs sorting before I worry too much about it.. but then it would be easier to start while the piles are smaller
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Maddie
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| Posted: Feb 02 2008 at 5:53pm | IP Logged
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Willa wrote:
I don't bother with age ranges because usually I can get a working idea just from the thickness of the book. |
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Same here.
My children have actually labeled most of the books. I pulled out a few stacks of science books in one sitting and we watched a movie and labeled books.
I think I need to reaarange my books at least once a month. The children seem to "rediscover" books while we are working with them. 
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: organizing books
