Start a Neighborhood Book Exchange

I’m so excited to recycle our children’s books by hosting a neighborhood book exchange.



Sort Books
When your books are over flowing it is time to sort through them and make a stack of ones you don’t read as often or ones your kids have out grown that you don’t plan to hold onto. I had two boxes full.  I didn’t want to donate them to our local thrift store because I’ve seen them throw books away if they haven’t sold within two weeks. It breaks my heart to see that. We have also donated books to Reading Tree, a non-profit who recycles books by donating those in good condition to children in need or properly recycling books in poor condition. They have big blue bins located in several shopping centers in Utah.


Find a Location
I noticed an empty cupboard in our church basement a few months ago. That space was going to waste. I thought it would be an excellent place to host a neighborhood book exchange so I asked our leaders and got permission to use the space.  I took my extra books over last week and started spreading the word for other moms to do the same if they have extra books they want to trade.  A few months ago I thought about putting a cupboard on my front porch to host the books.  You could also make a small covered house like a bird house and host a Little Free Library like this in your own yard.



Trade Books
I made a sign that says Take a Book, Leave a Book (pick your first book free).
A few people have already started trading.  I’m excited to see these books find a new home and get used instead of sitting there or being discarded.  Books need to be loved and kids love to see new books they aren’t familiar with. It’s a win/win situation.

I’d love to see your ideas if you have tried something like this in your neighborhood.

Celebrate Dr. Seuss by Creating a Library

I’m sure the greatest gift you can give Dr. Seuss for his birthday is to read to a child today and everyday. Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! 

CREATING A HOME LIBRARY
In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday I am going to share my home library. I hope to inspire some of you to create your own classroom or home library so you can read to your child and instill in them a love of literacy.

Keep reading to see how to make your own library card.

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“Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” – Dr. Seuss. ‘He knew the average child would pick up a book and pretty soon they’d be reading’ (pulled from the movie, in search of Dr. Seuss.)


FREE PRINTABLE BOOKMARK

Just right click to copy and save.

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CHILDREN NEED BOOKS
This is the quote that inspired me to create this blog. My wish is for every home to have books available for kids to read everyday.  I often take it for granted that I am lucky to have so many books for my children to read. The truth is many homes do not have this luxury. “According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly two-thirds of low-income American families do not own any books for their children.” See additional statistics that will break your heart.
Jan Berenstain, co-creator of the Berenstain Bears book series, passed away last week.  Like Dr. Seuss, Jan was instrumental in helping millions of children gain a love of literacy. As a memorial, her family has requested donations be made to Reading Is Fundamental to help get books into the homes of low-income families. Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children’s literacy nonprofit in the United States providing new books to children in need. Find out how you can donate at RIF.

I think this is such an important cause to support. I’m making a donation and encourage you to consider donating if you have the ability to. Every little bit helps. $10 provides 4 books. 

First Book is another great organization that provides books to children in need. They also provide books from donations.


WHAT DO YOU DO WITH BOOKS YOUR KIDS OUTGROW?

• I know many local communities hold book drives throughout the year.  When you sort through your children’s books (or books you’re finished reading), consider donating to a local homeless shelter or reading program. Make sure books are still in nice condition.  In Utah, we have the Reading Tree that has donation bins in grocery store parking lots. They recycle books in poor condition but provide useful books to families in need.

• You can also pass books down to other family, friends or neighbors with younger children.  We often do this in our family – trade books for kids at different reading levels.
  
• Another option is to host a neighborhood book exchange. You could hold a party where everyone brings the books they have finished and trade with others. I’ve also been thinking about holding an exchange closet at our neighborhood church. There are a few empty closets that we could use one as the book exchange where people can ‘take a book – return a book.’ I’d love to have the exchange open all year long and see how it goes.
  
• A great option I’m exploring is to create a mini library outside your house available to the public. I just found out about the Little Free Library. They have tips on how to build a weather proof little house to store a few books in (larger than a bird house) to post in your yard. You can post your library on their site so others know about it. It works a little like free cycle if you’re familiar with that. It would not be public knowledge. Just the few that learn about it online, (on the Little Free Library listing) or people in your neighborhood that you tell would know about it. It would also work on the ‘take a book- return a book’ method.

CREATING A HOME LIBRARY CARD
Click to see my tips for visiting your public library with children, including ideas on what age kids should get a library card.

When my kids are around age two I’ve made these printable play library cards for them so they can play library at home. They get a little library bag then fill it up with books from our shelves. They bring it to me and I use a spatula to scan their card. ‘BEEP.’  Then we go to our reading spot (our special couch inherited from Grandma Great) and we read the books together.  We often have storytime which includes special crafts or activities that go along with books. This is where I've become the obSEUSSed Home Librarian.


 Any parent can try this at home. Now your young children can have their own library card too.  Have children write their own name on their card before laminating.

Free Printable created by me, obSEUSSed. For non-commercial use only (personal or classroom use permitted).
Save this image to your computer (right click). Put it into your word processor. Make multiple copies if needed. Here is a link to a PDF with 8 on a page. This takes you to Scribd, click the 'download or print' button.



How to DIY Printable Library Card:
Print them out. I hate using up color ink so I made them black and white, you can add red marker to them if desired like I did. Cut around the edges with round corners. Lay them in the laminate sheet. Run them through the laminator then cut them out with rounded edges again leaving 1/4 inch laminate around the edge.


REALLY SCAN AND TRACK YOUR BOOKS
With smart phones there are now apps that let you scan all your books into your phone to track them.  This would be cool to do at home or in a classroom. My kids have tried it and love scanning a whole stack of books, just to hear it beep. I'm not worried about tracking all my books at this point.  See a review of how it works at JulieDuffy.com. The RedLaser – Barcode and QR Code Scan app is FREE, by Occipital


HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE AND STORE YOUR BOOKS?
I made these Genre Book Signs out of red and white striped scrap book paper. I cut out the shape, added some red where I needed to for the brim, printed out separate text on white paper then glued the words on the white stripes. Then I outlined the hats with black marker, laminated them and placed them next to the books on the shelves or hung on baskets.

The kids each have bookshelves with bins for their more specific girl and boy books. Dinosaurs, Transportation, Super hero, Lego, animal boxes in my son’s room. Princess and now chapter book series in my daughter’s room.

We also have a return basket so the kids know where to put books when they are done. This way, I re-shelve them and they get put back in the right place.

At the top of our stairs we have a landing that is wider than a normal hallway. This has become our reading area and children's library. Here are a few things we've done to create a home library.

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I love displaying my favorite picture books in this plate holder. I rotate the books for different seasons or themes. I keep some books grouped in baskets and most shelved by genre.

Some of the signs are posted on the inside of the bookshelf, some are on the shelf in front of the books. My daughter is old enough to read the signs and knows where to put books back.

See the closet past the couch – yep – we use that as bookshelves too. Most of the time the doors are closed.

The closet holds taller picture books, activity books (that make noise or have pieces) and baskets of themed books (farm animals, bible story books, shapes and color concepts).

We also have a DIY bean bag I made that hold all our Dr. Seuss Stuffed animals. This acts as an extra chair the kids can sit on for reading time.

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We also love to set up McElligot's Pool for reading time. The kids love hopping in the pool. Click here for details and a printable McElligot's Pool sign.

I have a set of gallery info prints from The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss that I display across the top of the shelf.

Here are the bookshelves my husband built under our stairs. We have since moved from that house and I miss them so much. They were my favorite thing. Click here for more details on these under stairs bookshelves.

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Now my favorite bookshelf is this tree bookshelf my husband built for my son’s owl nursery. It fits perfectly behind his door. See more details here.  We keep about 50 board books in our baby's room.

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We use an old pie cupboard (pie safe) to store cookbooks with a small file holder to hold printed recipes. See more about how we promote literacy in our home diner.

LIBRARY BAG
Try to use the same bag each time you visit the public library so you always know where your books are.
This wonderful Dr. Seuss library book bag was created by Kari at U Create. Click the picture to see how she made it with a special Dr. Seuss font and her silhouette machine. If you'd like to pin this image, please pin it directly from the Ucreate site.

I love the idea of attaching your library card to the bag so you always have it with you.
JUST READ!
Now, after all these ideas, make sure you pick up some Dr. Seuss books and read.
Stop by the National Education Association’s Read Across America to pledge to read to your child Today and Everyday! They have great activities and ideas to celebrate.

This year they are working with the new Lorax movie to promote reading. I’m headed to the movie today and will post a review next week.

Make sure to visit the official Seussville by Random House books for the ultimate Dr. Seuss games, activities, printables and literacy resources for parents and teachers.
We will be reading Dr. Seuss books and e-books today (and celebrating with activities all month). Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

What are you doing to celebrate today?
If you have blogged about your celebrations, please add it to the Dr. Seuss Link Collection to share your ideas with everyone. There are over 200 fabulous ideas to choose from right now.

Bookshelves Under Stairs

I’ve been addicted to pictures of bookshelves on Pinterest lately.
I think it might be due to these bookshelves that I designed and asked my husband and father-in-law to build for me four years ago. After I had them for a year we moved and I’ve been craving them ever since.



I loved how I could display my Dr. Seuss Books and golden books grouped together.

They built the whole stair railing and shelves into the supporting wall. We painted the walls terra cotta color to match the stain.

They also built the entire built-in entertainment center, with gliding drawers for DVDs and my office desk tucked into the corner behind doors so I could be downstairs near the kids when they played.
Okay, I can’t talk about it too long or look at these pictures too often because I really miss this whole area and wish we could duplicate it but it just won’t work in our new house.
I hope everyone has the opportunity to take Dr. Seuss' advice to “pile your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.” My wish is for every child to have more than one book in their home. We have been blessed to have a home library.  There are bookshelves in every room of our house and I just filled our hall closet entirely with kid books too.
 
Follow me on Pinterest for more Dr. Seuss activities and ideas and creative book storage ideas.
SHOW ME HOW YOU STORE BOOKS AT YOUR HOUSE:
I’d love to see your pictures so leave a link in the comments if you have pictures posted online somewhere so I can pin it to my HOME LIBRARY pinterest board.




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