Building A Library

I remember once upon a time when our children couldn’t read and were only able to listen as we read books to them. We only had a few books around to keep their interests and imagination soaring. We had enough books to fit in one little cubby but that’s all we needed at that time.

Now, three of them are reading (ages 6, 7 and 9) and actually enjoying it! Part of our curriculum is for them to pick out one of their favorite books and read to the family. We rotate and take turns after our regular school work has been completed.

We recently purchased this bookshelf to start building up our library. I really want them to be encouraged to sit down and read books rather than wanting to sit in front of the television. I knew that if the books were more reachable and organized they would be more likely to grab one even in their free time. It’s been working! 😃 We’ve noticed less racket coming from the room and that’s because they are grabbing books or sitting down to work on a puzzle.

The shelves look pretty empty. When the books were in the small cubby it looked as if we had a lot more! 😄 We came up with an idea that will help us build on our library, a way that includes family and friends being apart of this adventure as well.

Books for Birthdays!

Our family and friends ask us year round what each of our children would want for their Birthday. We always tell them what they’re into at the moment or which toy craze they have gotten hooked on. It’s always nice to see your children receive gifts from their loved ones.

It would be really nice to see them receive new books as gifts! We decided to ask our family and friends to focus on books of interest to help build our family library. We say,

if you want to get one thing we’d prefer a book over a toy. If you were planning to get more then this is what so and so likes at the moment.

We give them both a book and toy option. I know some may think that it’s torture because our kids would rather receive toys before a book but developing and encouraging their reading skills and love for reading is way more important to us. They have soooooo many toys, half that they hardly play with anyway. Toys are fun and great but if you live in my household you will quickly learn they don’t last long. They break and get destroyed so quickly compared to a book that lasts soo much longer and can bring far greater value in the end. Educational toys on the other hand are a different story, they too can bring great value and influence a child’s learning.

So far my parents think it’s a great idea and want to help. My brother and sister-in-law are taking the same approach for their children and will be gifting our children with books as well. It will be so neat seeing our library grow as our children grow. The fun of it is these books will be loved now by the older ones and then when the younger ones are old enough to read they will be loved again. It’s a cycle of love and learning! A goal of mine is to one day pass down these books to our grandchildren so they can enjoy the books their parents grew up reading! 🤗

Current Favorites

My daughter is really loving Peter Rabbit! Her interest in this book came from watching the recent movie. It’s so rewarding seeing her dive into books with bigger words and more reading. She volunteers to read to her siblings in the morning while I fix breakfast.

It’s a beautiful thing for me to see because I remember when she didn’t like to read. There was a time while learning, she got so frustrated and told me she didn’t want to have to read anything. Now you can’t get this girl to stop reading to come eat supper! 😄

This is currently my 6 year old son’s favorite book. As he’s still learning how to blend bigger words the pop up action encourages him to try harder. He wants to figure out the words that go with the fun pictures. Pop up books are really great for keeping young ones engaged and interested.

All of our kids love this book! It’s very intriguing for them because they get to read and learn about so many different things. This book covers people, forests, mountains, desserts and so much more. In the back of the book there are maps of each continent and the types of animals and people you will find there. My kids love to play treasure map so this book is right up their alley.

I’m curious to see what other favorites they will have!

Yay for Bookends!

As I was putting this post together the bookends we ordered online arrived! One thing that would sure frustrate a kid is books falling down every time they grabbed for one. That is exactly what was happening before these bookends were put to use.

It was hard trying to keep them organized and neat because they kept falling over, even sometimes off the shelf. Less frustration and fuss equals more focus on enjoying their books!

We love our little library and look forward to seeing it grow! I’ll now be keeping an eye out for bargain books to grab that I think our kids would be interested in :)

Logo/Banner created by @rigaronib!