One of the easiest and least expensive ways to build a family library is to buy used books. Most library societies have book sales when they cull their shelves or when donations are turned in to make a bit of money for the library. Our local library used to do these yearly and now have a sale a couple times a year. I try to put these events on my calendar and set aside a little money to spend at the sale. Pricing can vary widely. Currently our library sale charges $5 per bag for books. I knew this and budgeted $15 to spend. I also brought along Makayla, my 15 year old, who is building her own personal library.
This time we came away with 45 books between the two of us, for an average cost of 34 cents per book. Makayla was most excited by the Merck Veterinary Manual she found. She started exploring it from the moment we got in the car after the sale, sharing facts and asking if I remembered how to convert Celsius temperatures to Farenheit.
I was most excited to come away with this nearly complete Childcraft set from 1976. It is missing two books (Volume 5 About Animals and Volume 15 Parent Guide) which are on their way to my house thanks to Amazon's used vendors. I've already started reading Volume 2 to my younger boys each day. Today was The Ugly Duckling, which had a mix of drawings and actual photographs of ducklings and swans. The little boys loved it. Middle kids are exploring different volumes based on interest - Daniel was giddy about Mathemagic. I'm also really excited to use The Indian Book in our history studies this fall.
Our children's education is worth investing in - but sometimes the wisest investment is spending a little time browsing used book sales.
I hadn't thought much about the library sales for building my at home library. Thanks for the reminder!
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