|
|
Post by beaglemom on Apr 6, 2016 1:52:16 GMT
I taught for five years during the height of California's education budget crisis. I taught 2nd, 4th, and kindergarten. None of the classrooms had very good book selections when a started, so I bought a ton of books with my money and then took most of them with me when I left. The last year I taught I had my dd (who is now 5).
I was always a huge book person so I had no issues buying the books. But now we are about to do a major remodel and the room that I have been storing my books in is going away. All 4 walls have floor to ceiling bookshelves that are full of books. 3 are full of kids books, the last one is adult books. My head knows I should be able to get rid of a ton of the books, but I just can't let them go. So now I have a 5 year old dd, 3 year old ds, and a week as a half old Ds. I got rid of most of the longer chapter books figuring that we'll get dd the ones she wants when the time comes.
So how do I decide what to keep and what to let go of?
|
|
gsquaredmom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,078
Jun 26, 2014 17:43:22 GMT
|
Post by gsquaredmom on Apr 6, 2016 3:43:21 GMT
One question I find helpful is "Would I buy this right now at full price, given my current needs?" If the answer is yes, I keep it. If no, it gets donated. Special Ed schools would probably love your books. They typically don't have good funding for salaries or materials. You should be able to get a tax letter.
|
|
|
|
Post by beaglemom on Apr 7, 2016 2:23:19 GMT
One question I find helpful is "Would I buy this right now at full price, given my current needs?" If the answer is yes, I keep it. If no, it gets donated. Special Ed schools would probably love your books. They typically don't have good funding for salaries or materials. You should be able to get a tax letter. Thank you this was very helpful. Some of the 4th/5th grade books I keep looking at well in 5 years dd might be interested in this...but the reality is in 5 years if she is really interested I can buy it then! Now to sort through the hundreds of books and box them up! |
|
ellen
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,505 
|
Post by ellen on Apr 7, 2016 2:39:11 GMT
I recently went through mine. I saved the books that were my kids favorite read alouds. The rest I gave to my niece and nephew or to some of my coworkers who teach younger kids. All of the chapter books ended up in my classroom library since I teach 4th grade.
|
|
perumbula
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,439
Location: Idaho
|
Post by perumbula on Apr 7, 2016 2:53:33 GMT
Save the classics and the ones that are the best written. Beverly Cleary, Magic Tree House, Harry Potter, Mo Willams, etc. You might also consider condition. If a book looks brand new after it was in your classroom for years, get rid of it. it's not something kids are drawn to. If it's completely worn out, toss it. You'll enjoy having a new copy if you decide you need to replace it.
|
|
maurchclt
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,622
|
Post by maurchclt on Apr 7, 2016 15:27:30 GMT
Really? Get rid of children's books? NOOO!!! Speaking as someone who was in your shoes.I stored my hundreds or was it thousands of books in the closets, we built bookshelves in the kid's bedrooms, stored more in the garage, who said we needed to park cars in there, lol
and my kids and now my grandkids READ all the books and love them. I gave my daughter all my books. When I go to her house and read my favorites I feel like I'm re-connecting with an old friends!
|
|
|
|
Post by Linda on Apr 7, 2016 16:55:05 GMT
Really? Get rid of children's books? NOOO!!! Speaking as someone who was in your shoes.I stored my hundreds or was it thousands of books in the closets, we built bookshelves in the kid's bedrooms, stored more in the garage, who said we needed to park cars in there, lol and my kids and now my grandkids READ all the books and love them. I gave my daughter all my books. When I go to her house and read my favorites I feel like I'm re-connecting with an old friends! looks around her family room which has 3 5-shelf bookcases of children's books (some doubled on the shelves) and at my youngest's bedroom which has another 5-shelf bookcase.... Early this school year, my youngest had a school assignment where she had to measure and count various things around the house...including her books...we stopped counting at 1200... |
|
|
|
Post by bigbundt on Apr 7, 2016 17:31:08 GMT
Do you have a used bookstore around you? We have one here that will give you 17% store credit on hardbacks and 25% store credit on paper backs. Might be a way to get rid of some books and if you need them again, at least you will have store credit to get them back.  I'm currently going through our adult books and if I'm not going to read them again, I am getting rid of them. I find the older I get, the less time I have to read new books let alone reread like I used to. If I have a kindle version of the book, the physical copy is gone. Basically the only copies I am keeping are the ones special to me like my leather bound Louisa May Alcott compilation from when I was a girl or Anne of Green Gables series. I was holding onto a lot of books that I thought would interest my children later but when I thought about it, I never read the same books as my parents, I just went to the library. Maybe for the kids books only keep as many that would fit in a tote for a certain age year. Honestly we have a ton of kids books and between the library (school and public), Imagination Library, book fairs, passed down books, I doubt we will ever read all of them. We do our best but my oldest gets on tears where she reads the same ones over and over. I know you didn't ask for storage ideas but we have shallow ledges in our kids rooms behind the doors. They store a good number of books in an otherwise normally wasted space. Something like this (but ours is just on one wall, not wrapped around like this):  |
|
|
|
Post by beaglemom on Apr 8, 2016 0:34:14 GMT
I think I need to find a new teacher that I can pass them to, that would make me feel better. I was going through and found the shelf that had 15-20 about writing letters (the jolly postman, Dear Mrs. LaRue...), my Cinderella collection (20 or so different versions), my alphabet book collection (at least 200 of those), my poetry section, artists....I know that many of these don't make sense for me to keep, but man it is hard to let them go!
I wish we could store them all. When we remodel we are losing the room that i have been storing them in. And we live in a geodesic dome and there is very little tall flat space for bookshelves. Maybe I just need to look with a more creative eye at the space we do have to figure out what I can make work!
Now what I really wish is that there was somewhere/someone that I could send my paperback adult books and get the ebook version back. I do re-read books - especially series when new ones come out. So I would love a way to get credit for all the books I have already purchased and get them as e-books. Can someone invent that for me??
|
|
|
|
Post by 950nancy on Apr 8, 2016 1:53:21 GMT
I just retired and had to rehome many of my almost 4,000 book collection. I ended up keeping six large boxes of books because it was like tossing a friend. I had so many gorgeous hardbound books it was difficult. I kept about 10% and then had a garage sale. I gave away about 30 more boxes to a local charity that does book "mailboxes" for low income areas.
|
|
I'm currently going through our adult books and if I'm not going to read them again, I am getting rid of them. I find the older I get, the less time I have to read new books let alone reread like I used to. If I have a kindle version of the book, the physical copy is gone. Basically the only copies I am keeping are the ones special to me like my leather bound Louisa May Alcott compilation from when I was a girl or Anne of Green Gables series. I was holding onto a lot of books that I thought would interest my children later but when I thought about it, I never read the same books as my parents, I just went to the library.
