What do you do with books that you have that accompany a particular grade level? DO you leave them out all of the time? DO you keep all 1st, 2nd, etc. material togehter and pull it out fo rthe child that needs it. I am just trying to think through all of this.

I think that I will put workbooks and such away when we are done with them until they are needed again, and I will keep books for the future out of sight so that they will be exciting once they do appear, but should I take books we have already covered and that DS has outgrown away for now until DD is into them since there is such an age difference at the moment? And what about when there isn't such an age difference?

That's a tough one. I have Sonlight K-4 and there's no way I have enough room for all of those books on my shelves. I tried to keep them out, but there were just too many of them. So for now their are packed away in the garage because we aren't using them.

I have a wall with 3 shelves on it (the rain gutter shelves) that I put special books on, (that would normally be put away) and I rotate them every month. That way they still get to see those special books, but all of them aren't out at once. I do keep lots of grade level reading books out though, can't have enough of those out :)

I have one in 4th and one in K this year (and its our first yr hsing) and this is what we do. We have a tall 5 shelf bookshelf and all not presently in use items are kept there according to grade level on the top 3 shelves. My ds' in use K items are kept on the 4th shelf and books/blocks things for all are on the bottom so youngest ds can play while I need to work individually w/other 2. My dd's in use materials are kept next to her computer in the wall book shelf. (We live in a very old farmhouse and there is a couple places in the house that there are 3 or 4 shelves built into the walls because they are so deep.) When any teachers/student manuals~books, supplies, are done I put them in a box and store it on the attic steps. There is one other bookcase that is home to all art/craft/paper supplies. Which makes it easier for me to tell the kids where to look, in what bin/container for an item. They have gotten pretty good about putting things back where they go (except the 2yo sometimes :) )because they are seeing its nice to find something pretty quick ;) At the beginning of the school year for us we looked at our materials/supplies so the kids knew what we had and would be doing but then it was put on the not in use shelves. So far it has worked that way for us, kinda long but hth's some :)

We have a LOT of books in our home...probably enough to fill 6 or 7 tall bookcases if we had them all out.

I do have some stuff packed away because we don't have that many bookcases. When we are finally done finishing our basement we'll have enough shelving to hold all the books. But for now I've packed away:

beginning reader books (the ones with levels/steps...I didn't want these to be familiar to Mason when he reaches this point in learning to read)

series books and chapter books that are too easy for Isabelle (JunieBJones, Magic Treehouse, etc)

teen+ books. I can't pass up a good, hardcover of classic literature when I find it on a sale table. Also stashed in this category are books with weighty or historical subject matter. For example, I have 5 or 6 books on the holocaust with a big rubber band holding them all together.

We do a little of both really.

we have one spot with the books that are "current", the ones where DD & I need to sit and work through them together. I keep these seperate with my other HS reading materials & the folders full of printed pages for her to do. I don't have a lot of stuff for later. I usually just pick stuff as needed. Everytime I plan for the future we end up not liking what I've planned when we get there.

there is another area with the cheapy workbooks & the books she hasn't finished but are below her current level. There are also a bunch of craft books, puzzle books & coloring books in the same spot. She has free range of all these books and will frequently pull out a book to work on when she needs something to do. They might be easy for her, but she finds them fun. I like that she is choosing to do educational work because she finds it fun. That's the whole reason I'm homeschooling.

Chole