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BlessedWith3SNP
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged
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My bookshelves are being overtaken by books, but not necessarily good wholesome living books. Many are workbooks that I haven't used, or looked at, in years. I keep them though with the thought of "what if?" in the back of my mind. It's not helping the small space that we live in though.
How do you truly know what should be kept, and what can get donated or tossed? I think I have hoarding tendencies when it comes to school curriculum. I really need to let some stuff go though.
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~Mary, wife to Kenneth and mom to Sean Michael (10/03), Noah Gabriel (11/05), Piper Arwen (10/08), Adam Raphael (4/14)
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SallyT
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 6:56am | IP Logged
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I also tend to hang onto things, because what doesn't fit one kid might fit another. Still, my youngest is 8, and we've aged out of new babies, so I have gradually begun to phase out preschool materials, for example -- things the kids have definitively outgrown that aren't heirloom quality, to hang onto for grandchildren. That is one way to go about it, but it only works if you know you definitely won't have another child coming behind who might use those materials.
Otherwise: I'd be ruthless with workbooks. If you're in a small space, and they're taking up valuable shelf room, I'd toss 'em or donate. Should the need arise for a particular kind of workbook, they're relatively cheap and easy to replace. The only kind of workbook I'd hang onto would be something like an activity book from a museum, though even those are relatively easy to get your hands on online if you just have to have one. That actually has been a very useful standard for me, as I've had to winnow my own books for overseas and other moves: if I got rid of this, and I decided I wanted it again, could I easily buy another?
I even let go a good portion of my collection of old Living Without School newsletters (the John Holt/unschooling publications), because they were totally gathering dust -- I'd read them, and while they truly fed me at a certain stage of our homeschooling, it wasn't quite where we were any more. I kept a small collection, so that I wouldn't totally be without, and then I think I actually sent piles of them to people in this forum who were interested! You'd think that that would be a gold-plated, irreplaceable resource that I'd regret letting go, but I honestly haven't. I didn't need five years' worth of them, at any rate: twenty is enough to give me a shot in the arm when I need an infusion of unschooliness, which isn't that often any more anyway. So that might be another approach: keep a representative copy of anything you think you might *possibly* regret, and let the rest go.
Now I think that if I could find shelf space for *all* my decades of National Geographics, I would be happy!
Good luck with the purge.
Sally
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 11:40am | IP Logged
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what about finding someone who might really need the materials right now? Like HSLDA, I think, helps people get curriculum from donations or whatever. Sometimes it's easier to let things go that "might be useful" if they're ging to someone that really needs it and not just to the thrift store.
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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SallyT
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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Or hold a curriculum swap. I can't tell you how many valuable-to-me resources I've picked up off freebie tables at First Friday gatherings and such.
Sally
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BlessedWith3SNP
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 2:39pm | IP Logged
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All wonderful ideas I hadn't thought of, Thanks!
I had no idea that HSLDA even accepted donations. I'm a member with them so I'll contact them to see what I can do. I have a ton. 
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~Mary, wife to Kenneth and mom to Sean Michael (10/03), Noah Gabriel (11/05), Piper Arwen (10/08), Adam Raphael (4/14)
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Martha
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| Posted: Oct 23 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged
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Or mail them to me and I'll decide which to keep! 
Sigh. If only boxes of books were free. That would be a much cheaper book addict fix for me. 
Really though, if I haven't used it in 2 years, there is probably a reason and it's time to bless it elsewhere.
And at this point, I've mostly gotten a solid grasp of what is reality for practical use in our home school. I just took 3 computer boxes full to donate.
Which makes dh nervous, bc nothing seems to equal a major book purchase faster than getting rid of books or buying a bookcase/shelf.
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Martha
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BlessedWith3SNP
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| Posted: Oct 24 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged
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Martha wrote:
Or mail them to me and I'll decide which to keep!
Sigh. If only boxes of books were free. That would be a much cheaper book addict fix for me.
Really though, if I haven't used it in 2 years, there is probably a reason and it's time to bless it elsewhere.
And at this point, I've mostly gotten a solid grasp of what is reality for practical use in our home school. I just took 3 computer boxes full to donate.
Which makes dh nervous, bc nothing seems to equal a major book purchase faster than getting rid of books or buying a bookcase/shelf. |
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Very true about the last statement!
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~Mary, wife to Kenneth and mom to Sean Michael (10/03), Noah Gabriel (11/05), Piper Arwen (10/08), Adam Raphael (4/14)
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Help me purge books!
