329

That is the number of kids books that I counted in our house. Then I remembered that I bought some at a garage sale the other day and those are still in my car. Oh, then I remembered that I bought some at a consignment sale and hid them in the garage for Christmas. Wait, there are also the "nice" books and books that are for bigger kids in the top of the closet. It also does not include the 120 items that I have checked out from the library. So we probably own close to 500 children's books and have over 600 in our house. Update since I originally wrote this. I just bought 25 more books at a thrift store but don't worry, some are gifts!

I guess you can say that we enjoy books at our house. It is my weakness. If I see cheap kids books at a thrift store or garage sale I buy them all. I have found some great deals where I have bought 5 books for $1 (worth $25). Luckily Katherine loves to read. We would read all day and all night if she could. I think it has really contributed to her large vocabulary. The great thing about having so many books is that there are so many favorites and I don't get sick of the same books over and over. When we lived in Norway we only took 10 books with us. I really got sick of those 10 books and don't enjoy reading them now. This is Caroline's bookshelf. It includes the soft baby books, small books and books that typically have only a few words per page. Of course Katherine still enjoys those books because she can "read" the words. Actually it is that the books are memorized or there is only one word per page that describes the pictures. She also enjoys "reading" those books to Caroline. It is so cute.

This is Katherine's bookshelf. The 2 outer sections are mainly board books and in the middle section are her paper books that have longer stories in them. Her current favorites are the Franklin books. They are really sweet. She also love the Berenstain Bears and Curious George books.

I get a lot of books at the library. I try to pick a theme each week. It started as a part of the letter of the week curriculum that I did a horrible job with following through. We read books about cows, the jungle, eyes and cats. Then I checked out books about sea animals to get ready for our trip to Sea World and then books about Halloween. Now we have Thanksgiving and Christmas books. It is hard to find good Thanksgiving books. Most are pretty cheesy or stupid and not really related to Thanksgiving.

One thing I love about our library is that I can go online and search the children's catalog for books. Then I can request the books and the library emails me when they are in. Then all I have to do is stop by the front desk to check them out. It is so helpful with 2 kids. It is hard for me to go through the stacks actually looking for books when Katherine is with me because she wants to take the books to the "funny chairs" to read. Another great took that has proven invaluable is called Library Elf (thanks Jen). You enter your information onto their website and they send an email to alert you when your books are due. As you imagine with 120 books, I could rack up some horrible fines if I was not careful. After receiving the email, I just go online to renew them. It saves so much time.

I guess if I were to have a weakness in buying something this is a good weakness to have. One friend on facebook even called it a strength!