On Board Books and Growing Up
The kids are cleaning out their rooms. We do this at least once a year, usually more often. They accumulate stuff they are too big for and need help choosing. This evening I went through their book shelves. I don’t allow too much twaddle up there–if a book doesn’t have great illustrations and good writing it lives a short life in our house. Sure Dragon Tails and Bob the Builder make their way from the thrift shop but they make their way back pretty quick.
This year was a bit of a shocker for me. The girls have begun in earnest to enjoy “real” chapter books. Sure they still enjoy some of my old picture books but most of those got moved to my son’s bookshelf. They were replaced with classic chapter books and favorite fairy tales, the books that get read and reread, and the picture books with incredible illustrations to be used for inspiration.
In my son’s room the baby board books were nestled away into the closet for a future grandchild (not mine, I am hoping my brothers will have children to read them.) It was hard to pack the Stephen Cartwright
Still it is sad to see Where’s My Teddy? go, and all the Usborne baby books are there no longer. I wonder if he will notice that Tickle Tickle is gone. I wonder if he will miss them. He needed the room for his big kid books and I am sure he will find many new imaginings and inspiration among these pages which have been read by two generations already.
Update: No I am not one of those moms who get all sentimental about baby clothes, its just the books, I am deeply attached to certain books. 🙂 Having written my sentimental stuff I tucked him in bed and he happily settled down with “Snow Day” which had been tucked away on his sister’s shelves. In fact he was having a hard time deciding which “new” book to peruse tonight. 🙂
I hear you. I have a huge row of board books that I still haven’t been able to bring myself to get rid of – nearly all the Boynton’s, some Carl (the dog), and a few other faves.
I cycle a lot of stuff that comes home via the thrift store (like the Blue’s clues etc – right back out) or the gift books from Grandma (MIL) that I really hate.
However, we have a stack of Disney books I detest that I can’t get rid of – they were Tim’s when he was young and a lot of them are signed from his aunt who he hasn’t seen since college and to whom his mother will not even speak. And guess what – I hate them…the girls’ (go figure) love them.
I don’t know why. They love lots of quality books so why? oh why?
I know that I probably will keep a bunch of the books too. I still have some of the ones from my childhood and I am happy to be using them again. As for baby clothes, I will probably just keep one or two outfits and be happy when I can get rid of the rest. We have GOBS of clothing, or at least it seems like it.
I like your illustration in your other post of how the mess affects the child. Although it backfired a little bit, it just might stick with them longer than you think.