Skip to main content

For All You Librarian Types

Our books are aranged on set of shelves alphabetically by the author's last name. This is a blessing and a curse, a blessing because I can locate Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel in five seconds and a curse because the books must be returned to their proper place in order for this system to work. It is hard for the little ones to figure out how to reshelve so up 'til now they have taken out books and then returned them to the top of the shelf when they are finished for me to take care of when I have a few minutes.

I grabbed the camera and ran down the hall to record our pile of books to be shelved. Unfortunately, it was not very impressive. Some days I have a towering, leaning stack that threatens to topple and takes forever to put away.

Photobucket

In my forays around the web, I came across an idea from the blog Se7en.org that offered the perfect solution to my dilemma. This is why we painted yesterday. We were making book markers or more accurately book shelf markers.

Photobucket
The idea is this: Every time a child wants to remove a book from the shelf, he must first grab a marker. He pulls out the book and inserts his marker in the book's place. He may only read one book at a time and must return his book to the marked place before he can pull out another book.

Photobucket

Now, instead of the Leaning Tower of Literary, I have a neat basket of color coordinating cards.

Photobucket

I love ideas that contribute to easy organization and independence and this one is surely a winner!

Comments

Unknown said…
They use this in public schools. When I was teaching, I remember my students doing this, although it didn't really sink in what exactly they were doing, and why it was such a great idea, nor that it could be employed at quite effectively at home. GREAT tip! Thanks for the reminder!
tammi said…
VERY cool idea! Very creative. You are so stinkin' smart!!!
Mary@notbefore7 said…
What a GREAT idea! Of course, my books aren't organized at all, but there are days that I think about it. Course, I'd be looking up author's constantly - thank goodness for goo.gle!
What a great idea! And clearly your children are up to the task of creating incredibly cute markers!

Xandra
Sarah said…
These are really neat! I had my books organized like this after I saw yours (several years ago). Then Sunshine and a friend pulled ALL of them off the shelf for a game and I nearly had a stroke. And now they are in book boxes and we can never find exactly what we are looking for.

sem
ocean mommy said…
I LOVE THIS IDEA!!!! I know what we are going to do this afternoon. :)
se7en said…
Hi there your book cards turned out great - I hope they work as well for you as they did for us!!! We did a whole lot more book nook goodies over the weekend and you may like to pop over and see the post:

http://www.se7en.org.za/2009/02/22/the-book-nook-revisited-in-se7en-steps

Have a lovely day!!!

Popular posts from this blog

The Child's Story Bible

I have recommended the following book so frequently that I think a post is in order so that I may recommend it to the world. In the early nineteen hundreds, when my grandparents were growing from children to adults, when they were meeting and marrying and making ends meet during the Depression, Catherine F. Vos was at work. She had been out shopping, looking for the perfect children’s story bible. The Christian bookstores of the day must have had the same unsatisfactory fare for young children that they carry today. Her standards were high as she was the wife of a professor of theology and she could not find what she was looking for. So she started to write. The results of her writing, The Child’s Story Bible was first published in stages between the years of 1934-1936. It’s been republished in every decade since that time. My grandparents had my parents and they met and married and had me and somewhere along the way I acquired a Bible. I read from the book of Proverbs from time to t

Entomology Artwork

Predacious Diving Larva and Beetle by John Lots and Lots of Ladybugs by Claire Mrs. Mosquito by Faith Atlas Fritillary by Lauren

A Sure Foundation

The kids and I have been nibbling our way through the book of Isaiah for months. It's our first venture as a family into the prophets. We wrestle with the message. It's a book for our times. Isaiah wrote to his people, the people of Judah, at the dawn of a long season of international turmoil. Assyria ran rough shod over the Middle East, followed in quick succession by Babylon, Persia and Greece. According to Isaiah, each empire was brought down because of they were quick to gloat over their achievements but failed to give God the time of day. The sin of haughty eyes he calls it. I brown the meat and simmer the stew and slice a crusty loaf of Italian bread but do not bow my head before I eat. It's the little red hen complex. I ground the wheat and kneaded the dough and sliced the carrots. I don't take into account that I didn't make the carrots or the wheat grow. I forget to be thankful that there are groceries in the pantry and healthy children around the table.