New shelves for all those books

Books are really important in our family.  I guess that's what's happens when your mom is your school librarian.  I used to spend time each day after school helping my mom in the library.  Up until my mom was hired, I didn't care much for reading (mostly I resisted learning how).  But eventually the books in that library got the better of me, and from that point on I just haven't felt complete without a book in my life. :)  I really want my kids to feel excited and passionate about reading.  Brynn came along and I began reading to her from day one (literally) at our house.  She loved loved loved books and I thought I was such a good mom.  Well, that's not allowed, right?  So then Bryce came along and I did the same thing with him.  Whenever I read to Brynn I'd just get him up on my lap, too.  Different results - he didn't care about books or reading for the first couple of years.  He'd fight and squirm and couldn't wait to get away from the book.  Then a while ago he finally settled down enough to give them a try, then enjoyed them, then (hallelujah!!!) started bringing me books and asking me to read to him.  I was excited, and relieved, honestly.  Then recently, BOTH of the kids' interest has declined.  I'd pull out a book for them and offer to read it, and then feel SO DEFLATED when they'd say, "Nah." 

Enter the rain gutter book shelves (cheap white rain gutters from Home Depot).  They are all over the web right now, so I'm not clever at all.  But so far, these shelves have done the trick.  It doesn't hold a ton of books, but the ones that are in it are so much more visible and right at their level.  So they'll see a favorite book they had forgotten about and ask me (can I get another hallelujah??!!) to read it with them.

I think one problem was that we had too many books.  I brought a lot of mine with me from when I was little, my mom gives the kids a new book pretty much every time she sees them, plus we get some of her discards.  But I didn't want to get rid of any because I'm very sentimental about books, and I want our house to be like a library.  So, I organized our books (one of the VERY FEW times I've actually had fun organizing anything - organizing is not my thing).  The bottom shelf of books I get to pick out (right now they are all our counting books) and the kids get to pick a stack to put on the top shelf.   This time they decided to go by themes too, and Brynn picked all the "feelings" books and Bryce picked all the "diggers and dumpers" books.  There's still another book shelf in their room they can pick books off of, but usually when they want to read something, it comes from this one.

I didn't mean for this post to be so long, but since Marty is happily enjoying the march madness BYU game, here I go. 

Side note 1)  One guess on which category of book was our biggest one after organizing them (cue the Jeopardy music)....yep.  Princess books.

Side note 2)  Marty and I get a big kick out of the sign hanging on Brynn's doorknob (you can just see it on the first picture).  It says something like, "Shh, Princess sleeping inside" on one side and "The princess will see you now" on the other side.  Brynn's had it since her birthday in December and I don't think she's ever missed a single night or morning of turning that thing to the right side.  Funny how OCD five year olds can be about certain rituals. 

Side note 3)  Best book ever:  "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons."  Brynn's not totally there yet, but getting close.  She can read most of an easy book like "Hop on Pop."  Although right now we are SO into...

Side note 4)  Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems!!!  Thank you so much for the tip, Jana, they are so funny and the best beginning books ever!  Our personal favorite:

We laughed our heads off in this one and now will randomly burst out, "Banana!"  It's so fun that Brynn is old enough that we can share inside jokes with each other!

Ok, so reading we are doing ok on.  So far my kids seem to love music.  Now on to getting Brynn to run (or do anything even remotely athletic).  But that's a topic for another post....