The Joys of the Enchanted Book Basket: A Guide to Being Organized While Igniting Wonder

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You already know that I love books, especially picture books, but I also love baskets. Why? Because they are the perfect receptacle for picture books! They make it easy to keep track of books, you can arrange books by themes and everything can be nicely organized. I do love to organize too, lol! So today let’s talk about book baskets both as actual objects and as accessories in my school room. 

Baskets for holding books

I love using baskets to organize the picture books that we are currently using for our school day. They are portable, easy to place pretty much anywhere, and, of course, pretty. They help us all maintain a certain level of organization and  display books in such a way that children just want to reach in and grab them. Children can’t help it, a basket has to be looked through, you have to pull out every.single.book. Baskets are perfect for igniting curiosity. But not all baskets are created equal…

A basket perfect for books:

• It has to be sturdy, to be able to handle the weight.
• It has to be wide enough for long picture books.
• It does not need to be very deep, shallow ones are preferred as they display covers better. But they also need to be tall enough that taller books don’t just fall out, so some back support is good. 
• If made of chicken wire or other abrasive material, it has to have a liner to ensure that the books do not get damaged. And because it’s prettier…
• If it has a liner, it needs some lace (because who doesn’t love lace???), and to be removable for washing.
• Wooden boxy ones are wonderful
• It has to be square sided, slanted sides make it difficult to pull books out or put them in.
• It cannot be very big
• It cannot be too small
• It HAS to be pretty

Those are my very simple requirements, lol. Find a few of my favorites in the Resource List below.

Now, why use book baskets in your school room?

Baskets are wonderful accessories and we have used them for different purposes. Now the main purpose, no matter the content, of a basket is to keep things together in a somewhat organized manner and in the same space. Another important duty of a basket is to be mobile, which allows for multiple locations. For example, my preschooler’s basket has a set place in our school room when we are not using its content but is easily carried to the couch when we need to. Now as to the content of the baskets. Each basket is usually “themed”: Morning Basket, personal baskets, seasonal baskets, Liturgical Year baskets, A Daily Picture Book baskets, topic baskets, you get the idea. Let’s dive into some of the themes and content of each basket.

Morning Basket

Our Morning Basket is currently a shelf, not a basket, but the idea is the same as it is a very small shelf. In our Morning Basket we find our daily treasures that cannot be skipped. On very busy days, the Morning Basket is our priority, it is the one basket that gets done. So, what lives in our Morning Basket?

• The saint of the day, we are currently using A Saint A Day by Meredith Hinds, illustrated by Isabel Muñoz

• Our current spiritual reading: catechesis or a chapter book on the life of a saint. Currently: An American Little Flower: Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, by GinaMarie Tennant
• A Daily Picture Book and an ipad for the enrichment activities and the recipe
• Current study: Young Ameritown material for the week and Mammoth Math: Everything You Need to Know about Numbers by David Macaulay, The Story of Civilization: The Medieval World by Phillip Campbell (audio)
• Current Read Alouds: The Burgess Book of Birds, by Thornton Burgess and Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (audio)
• And last, but not least, my binder with the plan for the week 😉 I also tuck in the back of the shelf our upcoming reads, or the next read aloud that people have been asking for. 

It is a pretty rich Morning Basket and full of goodness.

Seasonal book baskets

On the other side of the couch lives a three tiered basket that contains our seasonal books and our latest purchases. The top tier is reserved for our newest book finds, this way we can read them all. Then the two other tiers contain our spring books. These books are on rotation. I have a whole bookshelf in our garage where our seasonal books live the rest of the year. On the first day of the new season the old season returns to the garage and the new one comes out. It’s a little like Christmas morning to find these old friends, who have been sleeping for the last year, back in the living room.
Our Liturgical Year Basket currently holds our Lenten picture books and sits next to our prayer altar.

Themed book baskets

These are the most fun to put together! Currently it holds all of our bird picture books and reference guides, as well as our Bird Bingo, to go along with our reading of  The Burgess Book of Birds, by Thornton Burgess.
This basket is the most versatile as it changes frequently depending on what we are studying. I curate the books we already own based on the current topic, and add other materials that go along. I occasionally add new books, of course. It is an easy way to bring front and center our current study and for the children to have free access to all our resources on the topic without having to rely on Mom. Free exploration brings amazing results.
I love themed baskets as they enhance our education without my having to hold my children’s hands to learn. They will learn on their own, at their own pace and within their interest. Themed baskets are crucial to raising lifelong learners.

Personal baskets

Some of the children have shelves for their school books but others have baskets. Currently my preschooler has a basket as well as a hanging magazine holder. These two things combined work really well for her. It gives her independence and mobility as well as learning to put things back where they belong. In the past we have used workboxes with my older kiddos. They were a great tool but we moved and we no longer had the space for them, so we moved to baskets and/or shelves for each child.  Even when we used workboxes, they were really baskets for the longest time, lol. It is just so much more versatile and mobile. It is also easier to organize and keep track of things with an open top.

A Daily Picture Book basket

This is where our Daily Picture Books live for the month. During the week we will read the Daily Picture Book together but on the days we do not have Morning Time the girls can find that day’s picture book in the basket. I usually get them out on a weekly basis on Fridays. The ones that we will read together will go on our Morning Basket shelf and the ones that we will not get to as a family will go directly in the basket, soon to be joined by the ones we have read as a family. These are usually the picture books featured in the booklists for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Any additional book suggested on the Daily Picture Book booklists also go in this basket in order to be easily accessible.

And voila!

The use of baskets really helps me to be organized and thoughtful about what is displayed and easily available in our home. It is also a wonderful organizational tool as well as pretty. I love pretty and practical! Themed baskets are a great way to deep dive into any topic and to give children the freedom and independence to learn. All in all, I shall keep accumulating baskets, lol!
Love,
Mattie

• Rectangle Chicken Wire Baskets with Liners: I love the look of these and they are big enough/small enough to be very versatile. The sides do not slant enough to make them difficult to use and they are great for long books. They have proved sturdy and I love their look.
• Whitewash Wood Crate: I love, love these! They are not as pricey in the store as you don’t have to get the set. They check all the boxes and are really the perfect book baskets!
• Wall Hanging Magazine Holder: Great for slipping in coloring pages, small projects, worksheets, maps, thin books, etc…