Discovering Dewey

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey

(This is the first installment of our annual homeschool review of the Dewey Decimal system. Print your own River Houses Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our free weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year.)

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses — we think teaching your students how to use the library independently is one of the best educational gifts you can give them. Most public libraries in the United States arrange their books according to the Dewey Decimal Classification, so teaching the basics of the “DDC” is one of the first things you’ll want to do.

If you start in September at the beginning of the River Houses year and run until July, you can “adopt” one of the major Dewey Decimal classes each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year. Our first Books & Libraries post each month invites you to do just that, and since this is the very first Books & Libraries post of the entire year, we’ll begin by inviting you to orient your students to the organization of your local library as a whole.

The Dewey Decimal system arranges books into “hundreds” according subject, and the major classes are:

• MAJOR DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSES (“Hundreds”)
• • Class 000 – General Knowledge
  • Class 100 – Philosophy & Psychology
  • Class 200 – Religion
  • Class 300 – Social Sciences
  • Class 400 – Languages
  • Class 500 – Science
  • Class 600 – Technology
  • Class 700 – Arts & Recreation
  • Class 800 – Literature
  • Class 900 – History & Geography

By “hundreds” we mean the numbers running from 00 to 99 within each class: “the 300s” (Social Sciences) means the numbers running from 300 to 399; “the 500s” (Science) means the numbers running from 500 to 599; and so on.

On your next library visit, take a few minutes with your students to find the 000s (“the zero-hundreds”), and then follow the maze of shelves around the library all the way through the 100s, the 200s, the 300s, and so on, to the 999s. You can make it a fun little adventure for your children, and a beginning-of-the-year tradition. Don’t try to memorize the classification or analyze it in detail — just follow the numbers from beginning to end and your little lesson is done.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “500 … 505 … 510 … here it is, 520.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July); On Beyond Dewey (August). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-lc-classification

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month for the past year we’ve invited you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. Our survey for the year is done — hooray! — and if you’ve been following along with us, you’ve explored the whole of knowledge (!), from our Dewey introduction (September), to the General 000s (October), the Philosophical 100s (November), the Religious 200s (December), the Social 300s (January), the Linguistic 400s (February), the Scientific 500s (March), the Technological 600s (April), the Artistic 700s (May), the Literary 800s (June), and the Historical 900s (July). Whew!

The Dewey system is the standard in American public libraries, and if your students are familiar with it they’ll be right at home in a small-town library near you and in a big-city library across the country — a lifetime of learning will be open to them.

But the Dewey system isn’t the world’s only library classification system. Most other countries have their own national systems that are suited to their local interests and their local library collections (although some of these are modified versions of the Dewey system).

And there’s also one other big library classification system in use in the United States that your students will almost certainly encounter if they go off to college: the Library of Congress Classification system.

The Library of Congress is Washington is the largest library in the world, and at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Dewey Decimal Classification was coming into common use in most public libraries, Herbert Putnam (1861–1955), the Librarian of Congress, wondered if LC could come up with something more suited to their own vast and ever-growing collections. The result was the Library of Congress Classification, which can accommodate deeper and broader collections more easily, and which is easier to expand than the Dewey system.

While the top level of the Dewey system is based on numbers — the 100s, the 200s, the 300s, and so on — the Library of Congress system is based on letters: Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and so on. (And you can see right away that it can have up to 26 top-level categories, instead of the ten that are available in Dewey.)

Most public libraries use the Dewey system, but most college and university libraries use the Library of Congress system. If you have a local university library near you, why not pay it a visit with your students and see how it is arranged. These are the main classes in the LC system:

• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CLASSIFICATION
• • Class A – General Works
  • Class B – Philosophy, Psychology, & Religion
  • Class C – Auxiliary Sciences of History
  • Class D – World History & History of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
  • Class E – History of America
  • Class F – Local History of the Americas
  • Class G – Geography, Anthropology, & Recreation
  • Class H – Social Sciences
  • Class J – Political Science
  • Class K – Law
  • Class L – Education
  • Class M – Music
  • Class N – Fine Arts
  • Class P – Language & Literature
  • Class Q – Science
  • Class R – Medicine
  • Class S – Agriculture
  • Class T – Technology
  • Class U – Military Science
  • Class V – Naval Science
  • Class Z – Bibliography & Library Science

Just as the top-level Dewey classes are subdivided into “tens” — the 500s (Science) is subdivided into the 510s, the 520s, the 530s, and so on — the Library of Congress system creates first-level subdivisions by adding another letter: Class Q (Science) is subdivided into QA (Mathematics), QB (Astronomy), QC (Physics), QD (Chemistry), and so on.

Take out your copy of our recommended homeschool bird guide, the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, and turn to the copyright page at the very end of the volume after the index. There in the fine print you’ll see all the publication details for the book, and as in most titles published today, you’ll also see recommended library call numbers. The recommended Dewey number shown is 598.297 (remember the 500s are Science and the 590s are Zoology), and right above that you’ll see the recommended Library of Congress number: QL681.F53. “Q” is Science, “QL” is Zoology (Animals), and all the numbers from QL670 to QL699 cover Birds.

You may never have occasion to use the Library of Congress system — Dewey is more than adequate for most general libraries — but if you do run across it, don’t panic. It’s just another arrangement, running from AA to ZZ instead of 000 to 999. The skills that your students develop learning Dewey will serve them well if they ever happen to encounter this alternative library “language.”

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your public library lately? Or, what lovely letters have you discovered thanks to the Library of Congress? 😊

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-900

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July (that’s today!), you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for July is the 900s, which covers History and Geography. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 900s” means the numbers running from 900 to 999.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Historical (and Geographical) 900s:

• CLASS 900 – HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
• • 900 – History (General)
  • 910 – Geography & Travel
  • 920 – Biography & Genealogy
  • 930 – History of the Ancient World (to ca. 499)
  • 940 – History of Europe
  • 950 – History of Asia
  • 960 – History of Africa
  • 970 – History of North America
  • 980 – History of South America
  • 990 – History of Other Areas

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 950s (History of Asia) you’ll find works on the history of China (951), the history of Japan (952), the history of India (954), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, the history of South America, you’ll find it in the 980s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “920 … 940 … 960 … here it is, 980.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

This concludes our annual homeschool Dewey Decimal survey. We started back in September and October with our initial introduction to the Dewey system and with the General 000s, and now we’ve come all the way to the Historical & Geographical 900s. We’ll have one more post next month — “Beyond Dewey” — but before you leave all these delightful decimals, what’s at the very end? On your next library visit, be sure to drop in on one of my own favorite numbers of all: 999, “Extraterrestrial Worlds.” 🌌 👽 🚀 🔭

What treasures have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 900s, one in the 910s, one in the 920s, one in the 930s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 900) and the very last book in the class (the highest 999). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-800 😊

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for June is the 800s, which covers Literature. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 800s” means the numbers running from 800 to 899.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Literary 800s:

• CLASS 800 – LITERATURE
• • 800 – Literature, Rhetoric, & Criticism (General)
  • 810 – American Literature in English
  • 820 – English & Old English Literatures
  • 830 – German & Related Literatures
  • 840 – French & Related Literatures
  • 850 – Italian, Romanian, & Related Literatures
  • 860 – Spanish, Portuguese, & Galician Literatures
  • 870 – Latin & Italic Literatures
  • 880 – Classical & Modern Greek Literatures
  • 890 – Other Literatures

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 860s (Spanish Literature) you’ll find works on Spanish Drama (862), Spanish Essays (864), Spanish Speeches (865), Spanish Humor & Satire (867), and so on.

So this month if you’ve got a homeschool student in love with the monsters and heroes of Beowulf, the place to go is 829 (Anglo-Saxon Literature). A future Classical scholar? Head for 881 (Classical Greek Poetry). A future student of American Indian history? Try 897 (Literatures of North American Native Languages).

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, Latin Literature, you’ll find it in the 870s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “820 … 840 … 860 … here it is, 870.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 800s, one in the 810s, one in the 820s, one in the 830s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 800) and the very last book in the class (the highest 899). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Looking in the lexicon: The Dewey system attempts to encompass the whole of knowledge, so there’s a good chance it will introduce your students to subjects and terminology they haven’t encountered before. In the Literary 800s, for example, they may come across familiar language terms like “French” and “Spanish,” but what about “Anglo-Saxon,” “Occitan,” “Catalan,” “Corsican,” “Semitic,” and “Dravidian”? During or after your library visit, then, why not send your students to your family dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) or to any dictionary sitting open in the library reference room and invite them to investigate some distinguished Dewey-inspired literary vocabulary. 📖

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-700 😊

Tuesday is our Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for May is the 700s, which covers Arts & Recreation. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 700s” means the numbers running from 700 to 799.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Artistic 700s:

• CLASS 700 – ARTS & RECREATION
• • 700 – Arts (General)
  • 710 – Area Planning & Landscape Architecture
  • 720 – Architecture
  • 730 – Sculpture, Ceramics, & Metalwork
  • 740 – Graphic Arts & Decorative Arts
  • 750 – Painting
  • 760 – Printmaking & Prints
  • 770 – Photography, Computer Art, Film, Video
  • 780 – Music
  • 790 – Sports, Games, & Entertainment

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 750s (Painting) you’ll find works on Techniques (751), Color (752), Symbolism (753), History of Painting (759), and so on.

So if you’ve got a future architect in your homeschool, the 720s are the place to go this month. A future photographer? Head for the 770s. A future musician? Try the 780s. A future high-stakes gambler? Go and explore 795 (or maybe not). 🎲😊🎲

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, sculpture, you’ll find it in the 730s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “710 … 720 … 725 … here it is, 730.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 700s, one in the 710s, one in the 720s, one in the 730s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 700) and the very last book in the class (the highest 799). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-600 😊

Tuesday is our Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for April is the 600s, which covers Technology. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 600s” means the numbers running from 600 to 699.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 600s:

• CLASS 600 – TECHNOLOGY
• • 600 – Technology (General)
  • 610 – Medicine & Health
  • 620 – Engineering
  • 630 – Agriculture
  • 640 – Home & Family Management
  • 650 – Management & Public Relations
  • 660 – Chemical Engineering
  • 670 – Manufacturing
  • 680 – Manufacture for Specific Purposes
  • 690 – Construction of Buildings

Each of these divisions is subdivided further of course: in the 630s (Agriculture), for example, you’ll find works on Field Crops (633), Orchards & Forestry (634), Horticulture (635), Animal Husbandry (636), and so on.

If you’ve got a future farmer in your homeschool, then, the 630s is the place to go. A future civil engineer? Head for 624. A future blacksmith? Try 682. A future HVAC technician? Explore 697. (You may want to skip over 662, however, unless your child is really determined to study the manufacture of explosives.) 😮

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “505 … 510 … 515 … here it is, 520.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 600s, one in the 610s, one in the 620s, one in the 630s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 600) and the very last book in the class (the highest 699). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Looking in the lexicon: The Dewey system attempts to encompass the whole of knowledge, so there’s a good chance it will introduce your students to subjects and terminology they haven’t encountered before. In the 600s, for example, they may come across hydraulics, horticulture, metallurgy, and more (to name just a few). During or after your library visit, then, why not send your students to your family dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) or to any dictionary sitting open in the library reference room and invite them to learn some new Dewey-inspired vocabulary! 📖

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July).

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the libraries near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

Tuesday is our Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for March is the 500s, which covers Science. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 500s” means the numbers running from 500 to 599.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 500s:

• CLASS 500 – SCIENCE
• • 500 – Science (General)
  • 510 – Mathematics
  • 520 – Astronomy
  • 530 – Physics
  • 540 – Chemistry
  • 550 – Earth Sciences & Geology
  • 560 – Fossils & Prehistoric Life
  • 570 – Biology
  • 580 – Plants (Botany)
  • 590 – Animals (Zoology)

Each of these divisions is subdivided further of course: in the 510s (Mathematics), for example, you’ll find works on Algebra (512), Arithmetic (513), Topology (514), Geometry (516), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “505 … 510 … 515 … here it is, 520.”

Mastering these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

(And next month: The Technological 600s.)

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 500s, one in the 510s, one in the 520s, one in the 530s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 500) and the very last book in the class (the highest 599). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the libraries near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

Tuesday is our Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for February is the 400s, which covers Language. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 400s” means the numbers running from 400 to 499.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 400s:

• CLASS 400 – LANGUAGE
• • 400 – Language (General)
  • 410 – Linguistics
  • 420 – English and Old English Languages
  • 430 – German and Related Languages
  • 440 – French and Related Languages
  • 450 – Italian, Romanian, and Related Languages
  • 460 – Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician
  • 470 – Latin and Italic Languages
  • 480 – Classical and Modern Greek Languages
  • 490 – Other Languages

Each of these divisions is subdivided further of course: in the 410s (Linguistics), for example, you’ll find works on Writing Systems (411), Phonology (414), Dialectology (417), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. (If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice.)

Mastering these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

(And next month: The Scientific 500s.)

What delightful decimals have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 400s, one in the 410s, one in the 420s, one in the 430s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 400) and the very last book in the class (the highest 499). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

Here’s a great activity to get you back in the swing of things after the holidays. Tuesday is our Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month — even when it falls on New Year’s Day — we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for January is the 300s, which covers the Social Sciences. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 300s” means the numbers running from 300 to 399.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 300s:

• CLASS 300 – Social Sciences
• • 300 – Social Sciences (general), Sociology, & Anthropology
  • 310 – Statistics
  • 320 – Political Science
  • 330 – Economics
  • 340 – Law
  • 350 – Public Administration & Military Science
  • 360 – Social Problems & Social Services
  • 370 – Education
  • 380 – Commerce, Communications, & Transportation
  • 390 – Customs, Etiquette, & Folklore

Each of these divisions is subdivided further of course: in the 340s (Law), for example, you’ll find works on Constitutional Law (342), Criminal Law (345), Courts and Procedures (347), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. (If you have an opportunity to make special field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to really drive that point home.)

Mastering these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

(Next month: The Linguistic 400s.)

What delightful decimals and textual treasures have you found in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 300s, one in the 310s, one in the 320s, one in the 330s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 300) and the very last book in the class (the highest 399). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

Tuesday is Books & Libraries Day at the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

This month’s class is the 200s, which covers Religion. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 200s” means the numbers running from 200 to 299.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 200s:

• CLASS 200 – Religion
• • 200 – Religion (General)
  • 210 – Philosophy & Theory of Religion
  • 220 – The Bible
  • 230 – Christianity
  • 240 – Christian Practice & Observance
  • 250 – Christian Orders & Local Churches
  • 260 – Social & Ecclesiastical Theology
  • 270 – History of Christianity
  • 280 – Christian Denominations
  • 290 – Other Religions

Each of these divisions is subdivided further of course: the 280s (Christian Denominations), for example, include works on the Early Church (281), Roman Catholicism (282), Anglicanism (283), Methodism (287), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country.

Mastering these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals and textual treasures have you found in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 200s, one in the 210s, one in the 220s, one in the 230s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 200) and the very last book in the class (the highest 299). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

Tuesday is Books & Libraries Day at the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

This month’s class is the 100s, which covers Philosophy and Psychology. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 100s” means the numbers running from 100 to 199.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the 100s:

• CLASS 100 – Philosophy & Psychology
• • 100 – Philosophy
  • 110 – Metaphysics
  • 120 – Epistemology
  • 130 – Parapsychology & Occultism
  • 140 – Philosophical Schools of Thought
  • 150 – Psychology
  • 160 – Philosophical Logic
  • 170 – Ethics
  • 180 – Ancient, Medieval, & Eastern Philosophy
  • 190 – Modern Western Philosophy (19th-century, 20th-century)

Those may sound like abstruse topics for young students, but don’t underestimate the capacity of the developing mind. Here’s a late-in-life reminiscence from one very early homeschooler:

“Until I was thirteen years old I lived at home and was taught by my father. Lessons occupied only two or three hours each morning; otherwise he left me to my own devices, sometimes helping me with what I chose to do, more often leaving me to work it out for myself.”

What sorts of things did this young fellow choose to work out for himself?

“My father had plenty of books, and allowed me to read in them as I pleased. Among others, he had kept the books of classical scholarship, ancient history, and philosophy he had used at Oxford. As a rule I left these alone; but one day when I was eight years old curiosity moved me to take down a little black book lettered on its spine ‘Kant’s Theory of Ethics.’ It was Abbott’s translation of the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten; and as I began reading it, my small form wedged between the bookcase and the table, I was attacked by a strange succession of emotions. First came an intense excitement. I felt that things of the highest importance were being said about matters of the utmost urgency: things which at all costs I must understand. Then, with a wave of indignation, came the discovery that I could not understand them. Disgraceful to confess, here was a book whose words were English and whose sentences were grammatical, but whose meaning baffled me. Then, third and last, came the strangest emotion of all. I felt that the contents of this book, although I could not understand it, were somehow my business: a matter personal to myself, or rather to some future self of my own. It was not like the common boyish intention to ‘be an engine-driver when I grow up,’ for there was no desire in it; I did not, in any natural sense of the word, ‘want’ to master the Kantian ethics when I should be old enough; but I felt as if a veil had been lifted and my destiny revealed.”

That little homeschooler (eight years old!) grew up to become one of the most prominent British historians and philosophers of the early 20th century: Robin G. Collingwood (1889–1943). So don’t discount the value of leaving your young scholars alone to browse in the Philosophical 100s. 😊

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country.

Mastering these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What delightful decimals and textual treasures have you found in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 100s, one in the 110s, one in the 120s, one in the 130s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 100) and the very last book in the class (the highest 199). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries near you, and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

Teaching your homeschool students to use the library independently is one of the best educational gifts you can give them. Most public libraries in the United States arrange their books according to the Dewey Decimal Classification, so learning the basics of the “DDC” is an important library lesson.

Tuesday is Books & Libraries Day at the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes. If you start at the beginning of the traditional school year and run until July, you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

This month’s class is the 000s — the “zero-hundreds” — which covers General Works. The Dewey system is grouped by hundreds, so “the 000s” means the numbers running from 000 to 099. Interestingly, because the Dewey system was developed long before computers were invented, the major subject of computer science originally had no Dewey home, so it was eventually put into the 000s also (although an argument could be made that it should have been put into either the 500s — Science — or the 600s — Technology — instead).

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the zero-hundreds:

• CLASS 000 – Computer science, information & general works
• • 000 – Computer science, knowledge & systems
  • 010 – Bibliographies
  • 020 – Library & information sciences
  • 030 – Encyclopedias & books of facts
  • 040 – Unassigned (formerly Biographies)
  • 050 – Magazines, journals & serials
  • 060 – Associations, organizations & museums
  • 070 – News media, journalism & publishing
  • 080 – Quotations
  • 090 – Manuscripts & rare books

When I was a kid I would have zoomed right in on the 030s — books of facts! As an adult I’m more likely to head for the 080s (“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library”) and the 090s (Aristotle’s Treatise on Comedy, etc.). You can explore and find favorite numbers of your very own. 😊

Be sure your students understand that any library that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, and if you’re interested in, say, astronomy, you’ll find it in the 520s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country.

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

What educational discoveries have you made at your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and invent a Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title of one book in the 000s, one in the 010s, one in the 020s, one in the 030s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 000) and the very last book (the highest 099). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your five favorite numbers in each class. Devise a simple pattern like this and follow it over the course of the year — you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Explore more: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries near you — there may be more than you realize — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊