Shabbat Books

I (try to) very rarely give out unrequested parenting tips, but we've figured out what I think is a great one called the "Shabbat book". We have very limited space in this small apartment (see title of blog), and so we are always running short of bookshelf space for the kid's books. They have a bookshelf in their room, but it has gotten occupied by many other toys and no longer has room for any books.

When we got back from the states, we had no room for the books we'd brought with us, so we cleared one of the upper shelves in our closet, and put the new books there, along with some old books that we hadn't read in a long time. Shortly after, we realized we needed a way to remember that we had those books, as we kept forgetting that they were there. Thus was born the Shabbat book.

Every Shabbat we ask them to pick a book they aren't interested in anymore (or one we're tired of reading which we "strongly encourage" them to put up on the shelf). And then they get a new book. What's great about this is that some of the books that go up, come down again in a month or two and then they read them as if they are new books. And it means that we don't get tired of reading a book sixteen nights in a row before bedtime.

I hope you enjoyed this parenting tip of the day!

Silvia and Mim holding this week's Shabbat books!