Children with greater access to books and other print materials express more enjoyment of books, reading, and academics. Children’s Access to Print Material and Education Related Outcomes
When we were looking for our new home, something that was VERY important was a playroom space that had room for a home library. When we found our home, the bonus room space above the garage is the ideal playroom and space for all our children’s books! I moved their chairs and bookshelves to almost every corner of the room before the final layout was decided on. Once I got a vision in my head, I ordered a few shelves from Amazon and thanks to Prime my vision came to life in less than 48 hours!
WHY A HOME LIBRARY?
I have plans of a longer post, with better pictures once the room is painted but I wanted to share our progress so far with you. With the uncertainty of school in the fall it became priority number one to get the books organized and start setting up a space for the kids to read, learn and play.
I am thankful they are young and hopefully won’t remember too much of this season of life but in order for them to keep learning and growing they need space to READ and PLAY.
I know it may seem a little bit much to have this much space dedicated to our children and their books but beyond raising children who are kind and thoughtful, my next goal is to raise children who love to read. In order to create and foster this love of reading, it’s important to create an inviting space that showcases how much we value reading as a family. The importance of having books in our homes goes beyond literacy benefits and this article gives some great tips on starting to build your own library!
When thinking about how I wanted to organize our home library I tried to keep it simple (for a 1 and 4 year old) to be able to actually use and not just something that looks pretty after we’ve picked up and the kids are in bed. 🙂 As my kids grow and their needs change, the library area will reflect that but for their ages and my goal of having them access the books independently
- GROUP SIMILAR BOOKS– board books are in one section, hardback picture books are together, and paper backs fit in the bottom part of the book/toy shelf
- RAINBOW SPINES – Until my children can read independently, this seems the most logical (and pretty) way to put them on the shelves so they can help with clean up!
- FORWARD FACING SHELVES – These shelves will host their current favorites, seasonal, or thematic books depending on what is going on! Probably should get some COVID books up for this current season! 🙂
- REACHABLE – All the forward facing shelves are reachable for both children. Caroline’s shelves are lower and Coleman’s are the taller ones. Within a minute of Caroline waking up and seeing her new shelves she was grabbing books! This is probably the MOST important because if we want to invite children to read we have to give them access to books they can grab immediately!
- PICTURES – I had the idea to add large pictures of the kids with their favorite books – great visual reminder that they are READERS!
If you want to build your own home library here are the links to my favorite things to help create a cozy, inviting space in your home!
WHITE BOOK STORAGE // FRAMES // BASKET
WHITE SHELVES // POTTERY BARN ANYWHERE CHAIRS
WHITE SHELVES (22 inch) // WOODEN STROLLER // ACTIVITY CUBE
*I couldn’t find our exact activity cube but this is the same brand and is farm animals instead of safari.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.
