On Sunday my husband strolled thoughtfully through our house, looking at all of the over-full bookshelves and boxes of books. Then he announced that we were going to get three new bookcases for Christmas. That statement got very little response from the kids?who were probably reading books?but it made me cringe. You see, I?ve been planning to go through our books but it?s such a big job I keep putting it off.
Come Monday, however, we forgot all about those bookshelves and just concentrated on schoolwork. The children worked diligently at their learning, writing, calculating, and more, achieving some major goals.
Miss 10 managed to type 26 words per minute, quite an accomplishment even if it was on a test she took at least a dozen times. Her long division with decimals is progressing beautifully.
Finally Miss 8 seems to understand fractions! What?s more, her reading is becoming fluent although she occasionally still reads words that ?should be there? but aren?t.
Besides studying hard, Miss 13 has decided to try out a whole list of new gluten-free cookie recipes, and she and her little sisters have been baking a lot. Several times I?ve woken up from my afternoon nap to the delicious smell of cookies.
Mr. 15 of Teen Geek received the Microsoft Community Contributor award for his volunteer work on the Microsoft Answers forums. He also finished the in-class component of Driver?s Ed this week and started practicing the organ again.
Meanwhile, Miss 17 visited the Dutch Delta Works and watched ships sail up and down the Rhine in Germany.
So, what about the bookshelves? Well, on Friday morning my husband announced he was planning to pick up the family Christmas presents that day: three bookshelves. This time the children paid attention, especially when they found out that the new shelves would be put in their bedrooms, two of which are already full of books. They all panicked?except for Miss 17 who was travelling in a Dutch snowstorm at the time.
?Mom, let?s de-junk the bookshelves! Now!? Well, that was the end of this week?s schoolwork! Methodically the children went through shelf after shelf of our books, bringing me all the ones they wanted to get rid of. Of course, many of the books went right back onto the shelf, but we did find three boxes of books that we had outgrown, or that would always be available in the library. We are very proud of our new, neat look, and hope to finish de-junking and reorganizing our shelves in the holidays.
So now I have two boxes to donate to the Bibles for Missions thrift shop, and I plan to drop them off this morning. Selling books, on the other hand, can be a big project and I?m willing to share the profits with a consignment shop to minimize my work. Dropping them off without buying more books will be a big enough challenge for our family!
To see what other families have been up to, visit Canada Girl and Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
I really, really, really need to dejunk our bookcases too!
Congratulations! You might be able to get rid of some of them on paperbackswap.com. I recently boxed up all of our “kid books”, but our shelves are still overflowing. My next plan is line our front porch (enclosed) with bookshelves. It may look a little strange to people coming to our front door, but it will prepare them for what’s inside.
Janet W
http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/
Lining your front porch with bookshelves would be so cool! 🙂
I checked out paperbackswap.com, but it seems to be only for the US. I’m going to see if there is such a program in Canada.
Annie Kate
I can’t imagine where you would find room in your house for three more book shelves!! I don’t know another home that has quite as many as yours (although a friend is getting close and she lends freely so that’s really nice.) But you can never have too many good books, right?
Well, there is room in three of the bedrooms….
LOL That’s our house! We NEED LOTS of bookcases! We have piles and piles of books…and some STILL packed from when we moved 5 years ago! LOL Where to find the space though…
Jessy
http://oursideofthemtn.blogspot.com
We have lots of our books packed away in the garage. No room for more book shelves, yet we don’t want to get rid of the books either. We rent so we are always thinking maybe we’ll have more room if we ever move. Hope your bookshelves fit nicely. 🙂
JoAnn
I need to go through mine. I am going to sell or swap some of my personal books that I can reference at the library. I’m glad I don’t have to get rid of any children’s books for a long time! That would be difficult. Good job to you and your children!
I need to “de-junk” the bookshelf as well. Maybe after Christmas!
Ohhh boy do I NEED to go through the book shelves ! I was thinking of doing that in the coming week or two. It always is a treat to go through the books and re discover what we DO have. *grin* I would love to make room for some more. [0= Sounds like there is tons of fun and learning going on in your home as usual.
Blessings and ((HUGS))
In Him<
-Mary
I love reading your posts:) I want more books! I am a “thrower-outer” and have given away many of my old favorite books, etc. As I get older, I find myself wanting to keep more:)
I hope you all enjoy your new bookshelves, it sounds like you need them!
This is too funny! I am an unpackrat who has the opposite problem, though I am improving. I found out about your blog from the Homeschool Showcase, love it, and am now your latest subscriber!
This is amazing! I did not realize that so many of us homeschooling moms had a book ‘problem’.
I pray that we may all be good stewards of our books and that our children may benefit from free access to good reading material. May the books stored in each of our homes contribute to God’s glory and to the benefit of our families and communities.
Blessings to you all!
Annie Kate
I can remember a time when our daughter had over 500 books in her room alone. I had a hard time giving up any book. Now, however, I can much more brutal about clearing them out. Especially the novels since I don’t read many of them. I don’t have an consignment shop to takes books, but I do resell on Amazon.
This is my first visit to your blog and I’m enjoying all your posts.