Our Love of Books with Linky ~ Amanda's Books and More

Friday, January 20, 2017

Our Love of Books with Linky

Welcome to my weekend blog hop -

Make My Saturday Sweet #205!

Everyone in our family loves books. I believe that our four kids being strong readers has helped them tremendously with their schooling. My husband and I have never demanded that they be A students, but all four have done well. In 2014, Jeremiah graduated high school with two distinctions, one for English and one for IT. His sister, Jessica, graduated at the end of 2016 and she earned an A average with five distinctions, English being one of them. Samantha has just begun grade 11 and Amanda grade 3 and both are doing very well at school.

I introduced each of them to books from when they were babies. They went from soft fabric books to hard board books and eventually to books with paper pages inside of them. I read to all of my kids and I still read to Amanda. About ten years ago I went through the Narnia series with Jeremiah, Jessica, and Samantha. Jeremiah usually sat on the floor (because he wanted his own space) and the girls on my bed while I read to them. They still remember back to that time fondly, especially the older two who found it easier to follow along.

Books were a catalyst in bringing Robbie and I together. We started our relationship through our work at the book exhibition on the M.V. Doulos, a floating book shop with Operation Mobilization (O.M.). When we got married, our main possessions were books. We are not hoarders of books, though. We have learned, with all the moving that we've done over the years, to give away what we aren't using. However, we still have more books than we need.

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Last week I organized all of Amanda's books and put some aside to give away (with her permission). Her books used to be in the office, but we changed things around and now her books are in her room. I was surprised to discover how many books are activity books, which are pictured in the photo above and take up half of the top shelf. The plastic containers that are on the bottom shelf have Lego in them. That Lego is from my childhood (including my brother's) and Jeremiah's childhood, so two generations. Amanda has her own collection of newer Lego too. She owns Ninjago Lego and Friends Lego (not featured here).

Amanda sleeps on the top bunk in her room, close to the ceiling fan. We live in South Africa, so ceiling fans are necessary. When we moved her books out of the office, I wanted to put her smaller books on the shelf above her bunk. I had just one problem, I didn't have any bookends and the books kept slipping down even when we put things up against them. My solution... a wooden box! Now she reads books to herself at night before going to sleep. Perfect!

The photo above is of the bookcase that Amanda used when she was little. It stood in the passage so that it didn't take up floor space in her room. It's now in Jeremiah's room with his books. When Amanda was little, she loved looking at her books, but she didn't care about putting them away properly. The only reason why the big books on the bottom shelf were stacked neatly was because they were too heavy for her.

Little Amanda with two Disney Fairy Tales books.
The pink one on the right was mine when I was a kid.

Amanda's picture book version of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Robbie built this bookcase for the
Britannica Books that were given to us.

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My Multicultural Children's
Book Day Review:

Mountain Chef
A True Story
About a Chinese American
who helped "cook up" the
National Park Service

Links of Interest:

Multicultural Children's Book Day

Free Multicultural Books for Teachers
(limited supply - open until February 2017)

Free Kindness Classroom Kit for
Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians
and Educators

Diversity Book Lists and Activities
for Teachers and Parents

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Make My Saturday Sweet is a weekend blog hop for all family friendly blogs. You are welcome to link your favorite post from the past week(s) and to visit the last link before yours and leave a sweet comment. It's a really easy and fun way to make new friends and to catch up on old acquaintances.

Now on to my blog hop...