One of those days after her birthday, when I stayed home with her because she was too sick to go to school, by their rules, but not THAT sick, I suggested that Lydia organize her books in the guest room. They were stacked so that one couldn’t even see what they were. So she decided to put them into categories: Learn, Bible, Scary, Adventure, Funny, Fun, and Mariah.
Learn are educational books. Magic School Bus shows up here, as well as encyclopedic items.
Bible includes Christmas books, Bible songbooks.
Scary can be anything from Dora’s trip to the dentist (she has a cavity!) to Scooby-Doo’s Halloween adventure to various mysteries.
Adventure seems to encompass the reading books with a narrative that’s not too scary.
Funny is books that make her laugh.
Fun are books that she can have fun doing something.
Mariah involves the books she has outgrown, but she keeps them to read to her favorite doll, and to the others, I suppose.
With a system, it’s MUCH easier to get her to put her books away. I’d do it myself except I wouldn’t want to misfile something.
Her books may now be better organized than mine. I think catalogers are wonderful people, though I would never want to BE one.
As an ex librarian and someone that catalogued all her books as a child this post put a smile on my face.
Independently developed her own version of the Dewey Decimal System… I wish I were that organized!
Card catalogs? Going “old school” I see!
Hard drives fail, clouds go wonky, but index cards are essentially forever.
If Dad was a physicist, Lydia would somehow spread radioactivity around the house and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a butcher, Lydia would chop up small animals and carefully wrap the severed parts and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a cop, Lydia would electrocute her playmates with a plugged-in frayed power cord she calls “my taser” and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a politician, Lydia would make extravagant promises in order to solicit donations from her playmates and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a stockbroker, Lydia would ask him for the entire content of his wallet to bail out her 3-card monte operation in front of the house and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a janitor, Lydia would replace the roll of toilet paper in the bathroom every night at precisely 8:47, then throw the half-used roll in the garbage and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a surgeon, Lydia would make a series of small, ragged incisions on anything alive within her reach and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a computer programmer, Lydia would make sure that none of the computers around the house could be operated by a human being and Dad would be proud.
If Dad was a landlord, Lydia would lock her parents out of the house for non-payment of back rent and Dad would be proud.
Perhaps it’s okay that Dad is a librarian.