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I am going to be using Beyond with my son. What are your thoughts on buying the book packs vs getting books from the library?

My thoughts so far are that the books I would read aloud to my son would 1-take up a lot of space, 2-may not be the same books I read to my daughter in Beyond (if I get him the boy set and later she would prefer the girl set), and 3-I may have more book choices if getting from the library than from buying a set book pack and my library has most the book choices.

The emergent readers set I would be more inclined to purchase than the read alouds, however my library has multiple copies of all the emergent reader books so I could get those there too. Are there benefits over owning them rather than borrowing them from the library?

My husband says that it would be easier to just own all the books. I can see that with the emergent readers set, but I think I like the flexibility of having more options for the read alouds by using the library.

Anything else I haven't thought of that I should consider as I make my decision to buy or use the library?

Laura

Personally, if my husband suggested that I go ahead and buy the book packs, that's what I'd do. Your children may enjoy re-reading these books independently when they are older anyway!

On the other hand, if it would be hard financially to purchase the books and my husband was reluctant to purchase them, I'd make do with the library.

I hope this is helpful!

Buy them! That's great that your husband suggested it.
It's very nice to have them on hand. You aren't under pressure to finish it at a certain time. You don't have to go get them, hope it is in stock when the time comes.

All of the books are so good, you will want to read them to your one that didn't hear them doing the guide, or they will read them independently later.

My daughter started HOD with Bigger and so I'm putting the Beyond story time books in her "book basket" for her to read on her own. I've chosen which ones I will use from Beyond to read to my next boys coming up and I'm using the ones I didn't choose as read alouds to all of them right now. The other titles suggested in Bigger that my daughter isn't using for story time I'm giving her to read independently later on.

I LOVE books and I have almost all of the story time titles and DITHR titles already in my library for the first several guides and severals levels of DITHR-boy, girl, and classic interest. I had most of them before I even came to HOD. (I've been collecting them for the last 20 years!)

I will suggest buying. I just found out I owed the library about $130 in overdue fines. Thank the Lord they waived fees last week.

I agree. Buy if you can. It's so nice to have them there ready and waiting. I did use the library for a few. We finished some of the shorter books/ones my ds wouldn't let me stop reading rather quickly. I then grabbed an extra one from a different list in that genre from the library to finish out the genre. Kind of the best of both. About half the books we read aloud I was told I can never sell because they are the best books ever. We're reading some of the ones we missed as read alouds for the summer. We should have the boys and classic sets, plus a couple of the girls, read by the time we start Bigger in August.

We use the library for our Storytime books in Beyond and Bigger. I like to read the descriptions in the back of the guide and choose one I think that child will enjoy. We discovered Snow Treasure this way and my ds LOVED it!

I would also say to buy them. I used to be able to get a lot of the books at the library, but unfortunately, many of these great books are being discarded by some of our libraries because they are not popular enough. There is twaddle a plenty I can tell you, but the great books are hard to come by. The library in the larger city that I also use is not that helpful to me anymore because HOD is becoming more and more popular in that area as there are now waiting lists for those books! So I now buy the book packs so I can do the books at my pace and not worry about due dates and fines. Besides, I clearly need to have these great books available for my grandkids someday.

arstephia wrote: Besides, I clearly need to have these great books available for my grandkids someday.

That's what my 8 y/o tells me. He can't wait for the day I read The Sword in the Tree to his kids.

I printed out a list of all the emerging readers and storytime books for Beyond and Bigger as well as the additional reading from the appendix of LHFHG. I love yard sales, so I took my list to yard sales all summer one year and bought as many selections for each genre as possible so we would have choices instead being locked into one book. Most of the time we were happy with what we chose but for one genre, my son didn't like the book and it was nice to be able to quickly change to a different one. The others have come in handy for DITHOR. I couldn't afford to buy this many books new but at yard sale prices, it was easy...

I use the library when I can (buying curriculum for 4 of them gets to be a lot), but I will say it is not always convenient. I make up a list at the beginning of the year of books I will need in order of week I will need them. I occassionally have a small overdue fee, but they email me when items are due and I can renew on-line so I can always see what is due and if I have any fines. They $1 or $2 that I pay in fines periodically are worth it to me (and that includes all the materials my kids check out for fun as well (books, books on CD, movies, music). The worst problem I have had with using the library is that if they only have one copy of a book, it has happened that I went to request it a few days before I needed it and it was checked out! I think I would buy all the books if money weren't tight. It is nice to have all you need on hand.

It's been my experience that bought books always get used, are always available when needed, and most likely are read and reread again and again. As homeschool moms, our needs are different than moms who don't homeschool. We need books on hand - often specific books, living books, or just excellent hard to find books - to be able to provide an education for our dc. Books are not just for free reading - they are for teaching our dc and providing for their education. For this purpose, we have chosen to slowly build our at home personal library via HOD through the years. It has been a good decision. As I see my dc read books that we have used within HOD over and over again, I have that contented feeling knowing they are reading wonderful literature. I also love to see my younger dc reading books that my older dc read at their age. There is much conversation among the dc about their beloved books that I imagine would not take place if they were not all able to read the same books through the years. Our HOD books get used again and again. We are going to spend money on books at some point - it might as well be purposeful spending on books that we will really use multiple times. So, if dh gave the go ahead, I'd start building my own HOD personal library at home and get to reaping the benefits! For those who are in a tight place with funds (which I do get BTW, I have BTDT ), the library is an excellent resource otherwise.

In Christ,
Julie

If we could afford it and had the space I would buy them, but for us it is a huge blessing to have a well-stocked library nearby!

Speaking from personal experience I would say if your husband says 'buy them' to do so.
I have tried to 'make do' by borrowing from the library and it rarely ever worked.
Besides, my children LOVE to look at the books again! and again, and again ...

You all have convinced me to buy them!

Okay...so now to figure out which book pack to buy! Oy!

Or you can mix n match! I selected which books from each set that I liked (knowing I have boys & girls coming up) and bought them accordingly. I figure I can always add to it with other kids later if it isn't the best selection for that child specifically.