Ex Libris a Home schooling mother!

I have been admiring my new library.Well it's a book case really but a VERY LARGE one! I found it at our local charity shop and it was perfect for the stashes of books we have got piled under the bed, the sofa, in the entrnce porch even the window sill. As I started filling it I was surprised at how much space seemed to be left but as I have added to it from the little hidden piles in every room the spaces have gone and I am going to have to be strict with myself. When the book case is full the rule is 'one in, one out' (That's the theory anyway!)

As I was going through my hidden stash I uncovered a book about Abraham Lincoln. I learned that the man was 6ft 4" at a time when the average person was only 5 ft 6".It put things in perspective.We  often forget how man has evolved. It reminded me of another book on my 'to do ' list " The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England". I started reading it a while back .The descriptive prose had me breathing in the pungent Medieval air in the towns and eating the food. One of my main recollections of the book however was how much smaller people were in Medieval days and because they died much younger then. village leaders were in their  20's and 39's rather than the 40+ we have come to expect today.

One of the things about living in the country is that we are accustomed to frequent power cuts as the overhead powerlines are buffeted by the wind and rain off the sea. Yesterday the power was turned off for maintenance and we found ourselves without power for most of the day. Unable to access the computer my son snuggled up in a sleeping bag next to the bookcase and took down an encyclopedia of British History.

I thought that the books in our library reveal a lot about us. There are history and gardening books,books about the Lake district and barely looked at craft books (I love to look at the pictures but lack the confidence to make very much). Now that they are on display I plan to overthaul our books (something which I routinely do at the start of each homeschooling books) to make way for books on our new hobbies and interests. My son has suggested that one of our first jobs should be to categorise them like in a 'real' library. That will be a lesson for another day!
 HAPPY READING!