Shifting Shelves

I know all about switching books out on shelves according to season, themes, colors, etc etc. You can't be on Instagram/#bookstagram and not see that stuff, honestly. While I understand the concept and appreciate the idea, I just never had time for it. Plus, whenever I switched out my kid's toys, he would immediately ask for the toys I just put away, even though he hadn't touched them for two months prior! So playing the same game with his books just seemed exhausting and pointless.

After doing the 12 Days of Christmas Storytime with my son, I realized how fun it was to have a different book to read every night. I'll admit I have some favorites that I love to re-read, just like he does. But... we often don't agree on which ones we'd like to read over and over again. Reading new books together made bedtime fresh and exciting for us, so I realized it was definitely time to go through his shelves and change things up.

I pulled his books into stacks, such as: 

• spring and summer books, including birthday books because he's a summer babe

• fall and back to school books

• Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and winter books

• series and favorites

I left the series and favorites on the shelves, because we read obviously read our favorites a lot, and with series, there are multiple titles, so while we're reading the same characters for several nights, each book is different. I also left out some of his board books. While some board books can be intended only for babies, the ones I left out have more of a story to them, or are favorites, or are ones he can "read" independently.

We have tons of children's books, so I added some "random" anytime titles to the seasonal stacks, just to have fresh books on the shelf that aren't specific to the time of year. I also culled some to donate, because we already have more than we need, and we go to the library to max out our cards fairly often! We'll donate some to a local women's and children's charity, and keep some to put in Little Free Libraries around town.

As an added bonus, there's now room on his shelves for some of his smaller toy bins. They also fit under his bed, but often get pushed back too far to reach, so this is a great solution. I love how his shelves look right now, but the real test will come in March when I get out the spring and summer books, because... what will I get rid of? I guess I can use his Goodreads account to keep track of what we read this year and put those away to bring out next year after Christmas? Who knows! It's an interesting experiment I hope I can keep up with, especially given the volume of books we own!

Do you change out your child's bookshelves? Or your own? What themes or system do you use to change them out? Share in the comments!

Almost April!

This space has been sadly quiet for some time. I’ve missed sharing books and program ideas here, but it’s been hard to carve out time for it. I’m excited to take the A to Z blogging challenge for April, because it’s gotten my wheels turning. I’m excited to blog again, to share reviews and thoughts here.

I don’t really have a “theme” for the challenge, beyond the theme of this blog being based on books, reading, and, to a lesser extent, writing. Some of my posts are about favorite books or series. Some are about favorite authors. Some are book reviews of what I’ve read recently. Some just revolve around books in some way.

Basically, any thoughts I have involving books and a letter of the alphabet have made it in. I’m pretty proud of the posts, and proud that I made time to do the challenge. I’m excited to keep up some sort of blogging momentum after this, also – though certainly not every day!

Unique Friendships - August #kidlitpicks

Another month of excellent #kidlitpicks/@kidlitpicks recommendations are done, and Summer at Reading Is Our Thing compiled a list of the books that were shared. Head over to her blog to check them out!

Check out her full post!

The September theme for #kidlitpicks is Change:

A lot changes in September. I mean, as the ancient Greeks will tell you, change is the only constant…but there’s something about September that sparks a bit of reflection—on the tilt of the Earth, the passing of the year, the meanderings of the path of life.

Share your favorite books about change and tag #kidlitpicks to be featured!

Repeat Reads - July #kidlitpicks

If you listen to the podcast, or even just check out the links in the podcast recap posts, then you know all about #kidlitpicks/@kidlitpicks on Instagram! July's theme was Repeat Reads, and Book Nerd Mommy put together an AWESOME recap of all twenty members' favorite Repeat Reads.

Check out her full post!

The August theme for KidLitPicks is Unique Friendships: 

Friendships, of course, come in all different shapes and sizes, and there's no better medium for exploring these unique friendships than picture books. The people we meet during our lives can be transformative and ​life-altering, and finding the people we want to spend our time with is always a process unique to the individual.

Share your favorite books that feature Unique Friendships and tag #kidlitpicks to be featured!