Create Your Own Home Library!!!

Dear Parents,

We all know that with kids at home these days, homeschooling is taking on a whole new meaning! That's where Pomegranate's Make Your Library comes in handy: an everyday bank of resources, DIY activities and quirky tips for you and your child. Set up your library at home, society or neighborhood with a little help from us!

Visit our facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pomegranateworkshop/ for daily activities. Put on those creative hats and tag us on Facebook and Instagram with #wecreate 

• Get those books together and Catalogue them

Now that you ready to set up a Home Library, here comes the exciting part. Find all your books and catalogue them like a real librarian!

Remember you will need to include all the books you have (yes, even the ones you don’t like very much) because a library has all kinds of books.

To go about cataloguing here are some options.

1.      Arrange it according to alphabet based on the title

2.      Arrange according to alphabet using the last name of the author (this is how it is done in most libraries)

3.      Get coloured labels in at least 5 colours (the kind of labels you see on books in your school library)

4. Now each label colour can stand for a set of alphabet. E.g. Pink can stand for the alphabet A to E, Blue could stand for F-J and so on. This is called a colour key

5. Use your colour key to arrange your books alphabet wise (First alphabet of the book title or second name of author, thats your choice) and stick the relevant colour at the bottom spine of the book. Now arrange the books with each set of colours together.

Make sure you make a colour key table and stick it up in the library so you are never confused on the cataloguing!

• Making your home library a special place

Now that you know how you could catalogue the books. Here is another step. Your library space, even if it is just a book shelf is special!

1. Collect old containers, boxes from around the house and use acrylic paints to paint them in bright colours with designs of your choice.
2. Now fill them with (some of these will need to be bought if you don't have them at home) Pencils, Thick markers in different colours,Sketch pens,Highlighters,Poster paints,Glue, Scissors,Stapler
3. Now stock up on - A4 size bond paper, A3 size cartridge paper, Chart paper, Old magazines
4. Add these found materials from the house for your library space-  Buttons, thread, ear buds, ice cream sticks, sutli or any kind of rope or thread - well, bits and pieces of just about anything, dried leaves even that you feel you could stick on all the art that we are going to make during our library time together.

• Get started with your first activity!

Populate your library space with your favourite book character paper roll puppets!

1. Cut A3 size cartridge paper in 2 halves (either length or breadthwise)
2. Roll each of the halves into a cylindrical roll and staple the roll so its stands upright
3. Now stick some thread/wool/draw the hair of the character, make a small paper hat or other paper headgear for the head, light enough to stand on the roll and not topple it over
4. Now go ahead and use the buttons, ice cream sticks and just about anything light that you find to create your favourite book character puppet.
5. Make as many as you want and place them on your home library shelf!

• This is also a great time to add new books to your home library.

Go through the lists below with your child and see what excites them.  For readers under 9 years, do go through the book yourself first to check for age appropriateness before handing the book over to the child.  Nothing beats the smell and feel of newly arrived books!

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/books/review/best-illustrated-childrens-books-2019.html (Ages 3 to 6 – select as per age appropriateness for your child)
2. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/95989.Time_Magazine_s_100_Best_Children_s_Books_of_All_Time  (Ages 5 to 9 – select as per age appropriateness for your child)
3. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/12/best-childrens-books-eight-twelve-years  (ages 8-12 years)
4. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/may/12/best-childrens-books-twelve-years-over  (12 years and above)
5. Books by Indian author
6. https://www.thecuriousreader.in/bookrack/indian-classics-for-kids/ Ages 10-15 years

Books by the following authors would be a great addition to your library. Check them out for titles that your child may enjoy.

SankaraPillai, Arup Kumar Dutta, PoileSen Gupta, ParoAnand, SwapnaDutta, SandhyaRao, Vayu Naidu, Zai Whitaker, KalpanaSwaminathan

Sukumar Ray, Satyajit Ray, Rabindranath Tagore, R. K. Narayan, Ashokamitran,  Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Ruskin Bond