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almamater
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| Posted: March 10 2006 at 10:20pm | IP Logged
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I have a technical question: Do you have all of your children's books available all of the time? I have our books on shelves in a closet, organized, roughly, by category (math, non fiction picture, meteorology, historical eras, etc). In the past we ran it sort of like a library in that once or twice a week we would have a book trade where they could each choose around five books and bring me their trade ins. Now, the children are constantly helping themselves. It is not that I want to discourage their enthusiasm or put out an inspiration, it is just that we end up with way to many books out and about.
I don't want to lock the book closet, for heaven's sake, but...well, how do other's manage the home library?
TIA!
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~jennifer in tx
mommy of ds(11),dd(8),dd(6), dd(3),& ds (6/08)
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Erin
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| Posted: March 11 2006 at 3:20am | IP Logged
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Jennifer,
Are you short on wall space or shelve space?
We have nine book cases spread over two living rooms and each of the bedrooms have a small bookcase in them as well. Due to the large amount of books we have they are grouped by bookcase into subject area, ie. history fiction, Australian books, religious books, one for children another for adults, reference books, nature/science etc. We had a great discussion on the forum some moths ago about colour coding our books like a visual dewey system. I would love to do this, just haven't purchased any stickers.
Books are constantly pulled off shelves and training the children to replace them is a work in progress  Particularly in their bedrooms. I don't know if there is any easy solution to managing a home library, the main thing is to teach our children to respect books, we have a saying in our house passed down from my childhood, "Books are your friends, would you treat you friends like that." It is so funny hearing the children say that to each other. 
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Erin
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mary
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| Posted: March 11 2006 at 6:28am | IP Logged
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we have the same situation as erin, except my shelves are in the basement. the kids put the books back on a coffee table downstairs when they are finished with them. once a week, we reshelve them. i like the kids to learn that our books are arranged similarly to the library's (although they are merely arranged loosely by subject and not with dewey decimal numbering).
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stefoodie
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| Posted: March 11 2006 at 8:29am | IP Logged
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yes, we have our children's books available all the time. when we started homeschooling i was "in denial" LOL and thought we could manage with just 2 bookshelves -- my original plan was to sell things off as we decided we don't need them. so much for that plan. we now have 5 bookcases, but it's still not enough (i don't have nearly as much historical fiction and literature that i believe we'll need). but we try to cull once a year at least to sell off stuff/donate so we don't get too cluttered either (that's easy to say but so difficult to do!). i do like erin and try to reshelve everything at least once a week -- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. sometimes mom's the culprit too, with my many research projects LOL.
our library is organized by subject too, and then within history they're arranged by century -- i got brodart bookcovers and i've color-coded all history books with a pink label and a short code (H8 means History, 8th century).
the kids also have their own shelves in their bedroom where all "consumable paperbacks" (i call them that because once they get too ratty we throw them away or donate them) go. that's where they have all their fun/anytime reading, like spider magazines and those easy-read paperbacks. my 4-yo has her board books and beatrix potter books and ladybug in her toychest/shelf, though she still likes getting "our" books.
i'd LOVE to organize the books using dewey, but i'm afraid i'll find it too much work and give it up halfway through the task.
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stef
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: March 13 2006 at 11:27am | IP Logged
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All of our books are available all of the time to any child who wants to look at them. For me, this is essential. I am of the philosophy that some of our best learning happens due to their "browsing" of the shelves so I want to facilitate that as much as possible. I also strew books that I think they might pick up and run with-which just means leaving it out on the table, couch, wherever for a day or so until someone inevitably picks it up... There is no organizational scheme except that I tend to put the books for younger children on lower shelves so they can reach them better. The kids each also have book shelves in their rooms where they keep personal favorites (as do dh and I ) and books we are currently reading for school are placed on a table in the office/school room or on a coffee table near the couch for easy access. They put the books away pretty well, but at end-of-the-day cleanup time we round up any stragglers.
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Erin
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| Posted: March 14 2006 at 4:30am | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I also strew books that I think they might pick up and run with-which just means leaving it out on the table, couch, wherever for a day or so until someone inevitably picks it up... |
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Theresa,
I was thinking about this subject today. But I was thinking of having a set spot for 'strewing' only in that if I just left it out it could be missed amongst the clutter. 
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Erin
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ALmom
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 9:49am | IP Logged
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We have the loosely arranged shelves too - 11 plus and our books are arranged as described by everyone else. Our children put books back on shelves reasonably well - but not necessarily in the organizational way I had them, thus we often waste time looking for a particular book (or even worse - reorder what I already had). I think we are just going to have to become a library with a rolling shelve and an assigned librarian to reshelve with dewey decimal system in total. I hope to hire a library science graduate this year to help me organize the library (depending on the fee).
Of course, the other option is to get rid of books and I'm not quite that detached yet and our library system never has books I need so we have just given up and ordered everything we think we need.
Janet
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Sarah
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 12:20pm | IP Logged
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Books everywhere!
No, seriously, I don't limit and periodically throughout the day I grab them all and put them back or an older child does it for me. The hard backs on open shelves and the large children's paperbacks in baskets standing up.
Its great to see the kids with their noses in books.
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Six boys ages 16, 14, 11, 7, 5, 2 and one girl age 9
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Karen E.
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| Posted: March 15 2006 at 1:52pm | IP Logged
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Here, too.
We have books grouped loosely by categories, but they do get mixed up, as books are used and read so much around here.
The kids have shelves in their rooms, we have shelves in the family room, living room, and one in the dining room that I couldn't seem to find room for anywhere else.
I rotate or strew things around periodically because even I forget all the treasures we have. 
I also keep a basket in the living room for library books. They end up in the girls' rooms, but at least we have a central gathering place for them, as we usually have quite a load of library books at any given time.
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Karen E.
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Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Book storage/Access to the home library
