Re-stocking a teens bookshelf cheaply

pukkamum

Charity shops are my personal favourites if not looking for a particular title, I can get 3 paperbacks for a £1, brilliant, it means i'm more willing to try different authors as I haven't spent much on the book so don't feel forced to read it!

mountainofdebt

Not being argumentative but what's the logic between reading more fiction and putting more detail into his notes/answers?

In my experience you have show the child why they need to put greater detail into their answers - for example Junior thought it was enough to just put the answer down in maths questions until I showed him that getting the right answer only got you a small amount of marks as opposed to those to be gained for method

duchy

skylight wrote: »

Didn't know about that site - downloaded plenty to keep the kids and I going - thanks for that!

Glad some found it useful....... I haven't paid for a book in months. I check it a few times a week - download anything I like the look of and when I have time to read I'm spoilt for choice (and if it's not as good as I hoped I just delete it without pain as it was free )
A surprising number of really established authors pop up for a free 24 hour download.

themull1

my local library sells off books for 40p, i restocked my bookshelves after my ex left and took all his books, leaving me with about six!! I read them, then my mam does, then we send them to charity.

sooty&sweep

Hi
You're lucky to get 3 books for £1 local to me its a minimum of £1 even the childrens books ! Thats why I prefer carboots.
I suspect they're asking him to read more fiction to encourage him to use more descriptive words ?
Jen

Spendless

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Not being argumentative but what's the logic between reading more fiction and putting more detail into his notes/answers?

He doesn't expand his writing and isn't descriptive enough. This weakness in English, is creeping into other subjects where he 'can't think of anything to write about' so a recent science test where they had to read a piece of writing and then 'evaluate the situation' it would have been worth 12 marks, son got 3 as he hadn't written enough.

When I spoke to his English tutor (having already spoken to his science teacher because I'd tested him on the subject and thought he knew it, so wanted to clarify what had happened.) it was suggested to son that something that would help with this is for him to expand his reading.

By a co-incidence today, son received a late Birthday present and it's a National Book token. Not sure how much is on it, but definitely welcome.

Gleek

Oxfam pretty much universally has books at 2 (sometimes 3) for a pound. Most other charity shops will hopefully run something similar, especially if you have one of those that is an 'end of line' type one - for example, our Scope is pretty expensive for books, but the one in Scunny has everything (not just books) at round figures and pretty much nothing over £3.

liney

I haven't read all the suggestions, but does he have a group of friends with a pile of books they have read sitting on their shelf too? Could they have a book swap, or put a library shelf together between them?

tyllwyd

Spendless wrote: »

He doesn't expand his writing and isn't descriptive enough. This weakness in English, is creeping into other subjects where he 'can't think of anything to write about' so a recent science test where they had to read a piece of writing and then 'evaluate the situation' it would have been worth 12 marks, son got 3 as he hadn't written enough.

...

I think if it was me, I'd also be trying to push him verbally - I mean trying to prod him into talking to me and describing things. I pick the kids up from school every day, and I always ask them how things have gone (when they are a captive audience in the car!) - the teenager starts by grunting but after a couple of tries usually starts telling me about something. Talk to him about tv shows, take him to see films, talk about whatever sport he is into - try to get him used to using his brain to remember what was happening and tell someone about it!

lostinrates

duchy wrote: »

Dust off the kindle and try this site. It lists all the free books available currently on amazon for FREE . Some books stay around to download for weeks , others are 24 specials so download as soon as you see something of interest and keep it til needed (or delete -as it's free anyway) http://www.dailyfreebooks.co.uk/free_ebooks/latest/

Thanks for this duchy!