Anyway, part of that process has meant thinking more critically about what items we should keep and what we can do without and looking more closely at what we buy and what we don't really need. As a mama to two toddlers one area I really wanted to look more closely at what our books and toys. It just happened that in January, Melissa at Rolling Prairie Readers was hosting a book club on her facebook page for the book The Intentional Bookshelf by Samantha Munoz. What a great way to get started!
I'll admit that when I first ordered the book I had visions of finishing the book with an organized and complete list of all of the books I would wanted included in our home library, which is silly, because clearly it was going to take a little more work than that, right?
In the book Munoz covers a variety of topics, including why a home library is important, how to go about collecting books for your home library, and how to decide what to include in your collection. I loved that it was broken down to be reader friendly for anyone, even if they weren't already familiar with the different types of children's books available. While I spend a lot of time with books (reading to the girls, selling Usborne Books & More, and previously working at our local library) I liked that the book offered explanations of what each type of book has to offer. Many of the things she addressed were questions that I often have answered as an Usborne consultant and sometimes it takes some thought to really be able to explain the purpose behind different types of books.
For this post I wanted to walk through the first step of creating our families intentional bookshelf, which was using the Master Plan Worksheet (found here). It sets the foundation of your bookshelf by asking you to think about the purpose of your bookshelf as well as your families values, interests, etc.
Purpose
- Our family bookshelf has multiple purposes. I want it to entertain, but I also want it to educate and engage.
Values, Interests, Etc.
- This is where our list becomes a bit extensive. To start with we want to make sure we include key values that we hold as a family:
- honesty
- love
- kindness
- family
- friendship
- empathy
- learning
- religion
- Obviously the list could go on, but for the sake of getting started these were the values I chose to focus on. When it comes to interests I had to think about what each of the girls likes. Right now they are pretty similar, but I'm sure as they get older they'll gain more of their own interests. For the sake of sorting, I used general categories like "princesses" rather than listing out "Sofia, Belle, Arial, etc." Some of their current interests are:
- princesses
- sea creatures
- farm animals
- zoo animals
- dinosaurs
- I also wanted to make sure I covered a wide variety of learning subjects. Some of these books can fit into the categories above as well. Our top learning categories at this time are:
- colors
- numbers
- emotions
While this list was by no means completely comprehensive it gave us a great starting point for sorting the books we already have. Sorting using these categories and keeping our purposes in mind also allowed me to see what types of books we wanted to add more of to our library. My goal in part two is to show you what our sorting process looked like and how we applied the concept on an intentional bookshelf to our book rotation process.
I'd love for you to share your own purposes and categories you focus on in your bookshelves! Is there a specific topic that you see more of in your bookshelves? Does your child's bookshelf reflect your family values and interests?
Hello Emily! I love seeing your progression through the Master Plan Worksheet and I'm happy that my book has helped you as you work on decluttering and deciding what you really want and need in your home. Lovely! Your list looks great, and it looks like you have created a great core for your library. The list and focus can expand and grow as your children grow, so this is such a great starting point. I can't wait to read part 2.
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