We all want to read to our kids and develop their little minds, so we buy books for them and check books out of the library and ask the grandparents for books for their birthday gifts and .....we end up with huge piles of books! Often we know we're due to return books to the library but we just can't find them.
My friend has two children under the age of four and her children's books had taken over a corner of her family room. She loves to read to her children and wanted to make it easier to find specific books so we worked together this morning on organizing her kids' books. First, the goal was written down so we stayed on track:
Next, we sorted all the books by "Older Son" and "Younger Son." At this point we didn't take the time to consider whether or not a book was worth keeping. We did put the library books in a separate pile. My friend was so fast at sorting the books that her arm looks like lightning in the photo.
Then, we got out several paper grocery bags and labeled them by the child's name, plus today's date. I asked my friend to go through her older son's books and put half of them into a "Read Now" pile and a "Read in 3 Months" pile. She handed the books to me and I organized them by size in their respective groups. After we did her older son's books we tackled the books for her younger son. We put the "Read in 3 Months" books in her storage area and she wrote a note on her calendar to rotate the books in March.
If her older son remembers and asks for a book that is in storage, it won't be too hard to locate it.
When we were finished my friend said, "I can do this with their toys." I smiled and agreed.
