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Book Club - Reviews / Suggestions>Spin Off - Where Did You Get All Your Books??
SunflowerMama 04:37 AM 04-12-2011
The bookcase thread got me thinking.

Where do you get all your books? I have quite a few but would like more. I typically hit the library a few times a month to stock up on books that are related to our theme. My only problem is finding all the library books when it's time to return them .

They get all mixed in with my other books or my girls take them up to their room and I find them under the bed or in their closet. I'm a member of Children's Book Club so when I was starting up I purchased a lot of the more traditional preschool books from there but it was pretty expensive.

I always keep my eye open for craigslist ads selling books and hit the thrift store but they are always hit or miss.

Does anyone have any other good sources for buying lots of books?
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Meeko 04:41 AM 04-12-2011
I had a lot from when my own children were little...but wanted more. I looked on E-Bay and found a closing day care was selling a ton for just pennies. I got about 100 books for $15....it was amazing. A great big box came and I think I had to throw about 4 away, but the rest were in good shape. We're still using them!
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TBird 04:43 AM 04-12-2011
No tips on buying books but there are always parents in our neighborhood looking to get rid of their kids old books.....we've gotten encyclopedia sets, audio sets, workbooks, etc. Maybe you could identify some preteens & teens in your area and I'll bet you'll find some parents looking to get rid of a TON of "crap" as they might call it...GOLD we call it!!!
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SilverSabre25 04:43 AM 04-12-2011
I struggle with it too. I get a lot of ours from Half-Price Books (but that's so hit-or-miss, and it's hard to find titles if you don't know the author). Some from Once Upon a Child, but again, it's hard because there, they are not organized at all and it takes a lot of time.

Kohl's is good because of their "Kohl's Cares about Kids" or whatever it is, where they have HARDCOVER (!!!) copies of popular titles for $5 apiece. I just bought 3 Eric Carle books from there. It's awesome! I don't know how often they switch which books they're offering though.

Other than that, most of our books are Christmas presents/birthday presents for DD and I mooch off of my sister's kids' school book order (but usually they are paper backs...) or I just suck it up and buy them new (which hurts the wallet).
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blueclouds29 04:44 AM 04-12-2011
I have 3 book shelves down in my basement FULL of kid books not including the 50 toddler board books that are up here in the play room. I usually got my books at garage sales. Just random books to that in years i thought the kids would like. I also did scholastic book sale at school all the time. They have $1 books. But mostly garage sales, that's where most of them came from. Last year i hit a house where a teacher was selling ALL her reading books! There were all good ones too! I bought like a huge box of them!
I love kid books. Right now i have WAY to many though, but i still keep buying more!
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Pammie 04:55 AM 04-12-2011
I've collected most of mine from garage sales and thrift stores.

But when I need books on a certain theme or topic, I order from readingwarehouse.com - their prices are great and shipping is really fast:-) They even have "bargain boxes" that are 25 books for $50 by age group. It's always a surprise what books you'll get, but I've never been disappointed in the selection>
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Meyou 05:00 AM 04-12-2011
I have every book I ever owned from my childhood. I adored books even then.

I also flea market and yard sale often. You'd be surprised the number of people that have a book of books for sale at $1 each who will give you the whole box for $15 or $20 just to get rid of it. I've gotten beautiful condition books this way.

Another good one is the school book orders for kids if you get them. Lots of deals if you have a good look through those every month.
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countrymom 05:02 AM 04-12-2011
scholastics
garage sales
thrift stores
dollar stores
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MyAngels 05:04 AM 04-12-2011
Mostly garage sales. Everybody I know knows I run a daycare and they're always bringing me their finds. I have several big totes of books that I rotate in and out of current use.
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Cat Herder 05:15 AM 04-12-2011
I have been collecting them for over 20 years...but the local libraries often has shelves out front of discarded books for the taking, so I check that frequently.

I bet I have about 80 great hardback, fully illustrated, books that I got that way.
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DCMom 05:57 AM 04-12-2011
I use Scholastic frequently and I offer parent ordering to my parents; I've gotten many of my hardcover books using points from parent ordering.

Thrift stores and Half Price Books for hard cover books. Often you can find them barely used. I agree with Silver, that Kohls Cares for Kids is a great deal for $5. Ebay or craigslist; there are always people looking to get rid of kids books.
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My Lil' Monkeys 06:04 AM 04-12-2011
I get my daycare books (board books) as I have toddlers from my local library that does a book sale once a year... it's fill a bag for $3 and fill a big box for $5 - I've walked out with a box stuff full of brand new looking books for my daycare and my own boys. That is when I also go threw the books we have and donate any books that really don't get looked at. I also have another library near me that just had a book sale (they do twice a year) and it was fill a grocery brown paper bag for $2. My dck were sooo happy!!
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Blackcat31 07:15 AM 04-12-2011
I do Scholastic every month...can't beat books for $1. No minimum orders and lots of choices plus you earn reward points rediculously quickly that you can use for more books or classroom equipment.

Our library has a free book room where people can dump unwanted books so I look there often. Also parents donate unwanted books to me too.

I also do the Kohls books, but I have to say I do buy the stuffed animals for my dog (LOL!! ) because they make super dog toys and for $5 you can't go wrong.
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Crystal 07:47 AM 04-12-2011
Scholastic, Kohls, library sales, and from my families. LOVE Scholastic and Kohs. I get most of my books through scholastic for free with my bonus points. My parents order every month.....one time I got 76 books for free with bonus points!
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My Lil' Monkeys 08:27 AM 04-12-2011
How do you sign up to receive Scholastic at your house? Around here I can only get it if I'm a teacher and it's sent to a school.
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nannyde 08:32 AM 04-12-2011
I have cloth books, plastic books, and thick board books out for the kids. The younger kids get just the cloth and plastic. The older kids get the thick board books.

I don't keep regular books out. I've had too many problems with trying that in the past. The kids do really well with the big quilted thick cloth books and the plastic ones.

I scored big time on Ebay once and bought a big lot of cloth books. I was shocked when I got them because they were so awesome. I hadn't ever seen books that big and nicely made. The pictures made them appear normal sized.

The kids LOVE them and don't abuse them.

I bought them from a seller who had cloth puppets too and it was the same thing. I had never seen puppets like that before and boy was I thrilled when I realized the quality.

Those were the good ole days on Ebay... I miss that.
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daycare 09:53 AM 04-12-2011
we have a really neat out reach program in town. It is a reading awarness program and they have a book store. They sell books from 10 cents to as much as 3 dollars. I have gotten most of my books there or from yard sales.

If I really need the book, I will get it used from amazon
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DCMom 09:56 AM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by My Lil' Monkeys:
How do you sign up to receive Scholastic at your house? Around here I can only get it if I'm a teacher and it's sent to a school.
Go to Scholastic.com, click 'Teachers', under quick links click 'Book Clubs' and then go from there. All the information you need to sign up is right there. You can set up parent online ordering thru this page also.

I've never had a problem with an order or any problems being a home daycare. There customer service people are really helpful and friendly.
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Michael 04:11 PM 04-12-2011
Other Book Club threads: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.php?tag=book+club
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PitterPatter 05:09 PM 04-12-2011
Originally Posted by SunflowerMama:
The bookcase thread got me thinking.

Where do you get all your books? I have quite a few but would like more. I typically hit the library a few times a month to stock up on books that are related to our theme. My only problem is finding all the library books when it's time to return them .

They get all mixed in with my other books or my girls take them up to their room and I find them under the bed or in their closet. I'm a member of Children's Book Club so when I was starting up I purchased a lot of the more traditional preschool books from there but it was pretty expensive.

I always keep my eye open for craigslist ads selling books and hit the thrift store but they are always hit or miss.

Does anyone have any other good sources for buying lots of books?
We were members of the book clubs as well but when my son started school the collecting really took off. He was given the Scholastic order form ( same I had as a kid). That is what really kicked our collection in gear. Each time he brought home the list/order form I would buy at least 4 books. It got so bad at Christmas time I spent $70 just in books from Scholastic. We already had a big collection of board books from when he was a baby so those combined pretty much filled 3 book shelves. I also pick up more at yard sales and goodwill etc every year. We have literally hundereds of books now ranging from simple board books to the puzzle books where it's a story (jack and the beanstalk for example) and the graphics portion of the page is a puzzle. Those are a big hit. The top fav are the lift the flaps! No matte how many times the kids look at these it's like a new surprise under the flap every time! So cute!
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countrymom 05:19 AM 04-13-2011
I spend alot at scholastics too, its so hard because they have so many good cheap books. Also, with my kids, they love to read so I can't keep up. I'm glad my kids love to read because dh grew up not reading, he just doesn't understand how exciting it is to read.
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Pammie 05:27 AM 04-13-2011
Thanks for the tip about the Scholastic clubs allowing home daycares!

I didn't even try to register in the past because their website says that they have to "verify" school information.

So I went ahead this morning and completed the registration - received an email that said the verification would take 2 days - but an hour later received my "welcome" email!

I'm so excited to be able to order the club books - and offer the monthly flyers to my families!!!!
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KEG123 05:29 AM 04-13-2011
My son is enrolled in the dolly parton program... so he's gotten 1 book per month since he was born and he is 3 now. We got tons as gifts. Thrift stores. Our library has a used book store in the front with 25 cent children books. Very few have actually come from the store.

Will definitely look into scholastic!
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