Book Keeping

After close to 3.5 years of living in our present cramped quarters, I have at last put some order into our book shelving system. Our books are no longer haphazardly thrown together or on the floor, but now, actually follow a certain, organized arrangement...although I'm the only one who even realizes there's one LOL.

But it's a start. I thought I'd blog about this for posterity...and to jog my memory should I feel the need to reproduce this system in any future domicile.

This is the coffeetable where we do any sit-down stuff and in the foreground (not pictured) is a sofa against which we lean for read alouds. From young, I've always preferred to read sitting on the floor or carpet (blame it on the sweltering Malaysian weather) so it just feels natural to do it this way and DS seems to agree too. This black mini-shelf is actually a drawer organizer from Staples. I place all our spines, Math workbooks and current read-aloud materials here for easy reach. If it isn't right in front of me, I often forget to use it so this works best for me right now.

At arm's length from our coffeetable is our floor-to-ceiling high window against which I propped a bench. On the bench sits our printer and under it are more drawer shelves (from IKEA this time and again with drawers removed) stuffed with supplementary materials. Here lie our picture study resources, Language Arts workbooks and writing prompt idea books, poetry books, History and Science encyclopedias, Math and Science dictionaries etc. and any other read-alouds that I couldn't fit into our coffeetable organizer. The small dry-erase board shows me our schedule at a glance (but we don't always follow it) and the wicker baskets behind it (and also the one on the bench) hold math manipulatives.

This is our Math and Science bookcase situated right next to the printer bench. Our science kits/ science materials (from Sonlight) sit on the black drawer cart inside which are extra stationery, envelopes, stamps etc.

And behind our sofa sits another bookcase filled with Language Arts, Literature and History readers.

Propped on the wall opposite are two six-foot tall bookcases. The first one contains a few of DH's books on the top shelf and the others are DS's art supplies and drawing manuals, K'Nex kit, and misc encyclopedias, code/cipher manuals and activity books and leisure reading favorites. The orange canvas above the shelf and the darker one above the TV both showcase oil paintings by DH.

Initially a display case for DH's die-cast toys, this second 6' bookcase now contains overflow from our homeschooling bookcases. The first shelf houses my Harry Potter collection, the second DS' piano and natural history books, David Macaulay books, Indian comics, a Malaysian history encyclopedia and photo albums. The shelf below contains more Math, Science and History readers. And the bottom two, board games, Legos, MagNexts and ZooBees and DS' mechanical pursuits. On the carpet are his origami calendar and Smart Globe and two bins containing his origami projects and library books.

Add a tiny galley kitchen, a biggish master bedroom and bathroom, a piano, and dining table that doubles as DH's office and voila...that sums up our current apartment home.

As you can see our furnishings are predominantly black. But I have my heart set on it all looking like this one day.