Now that we’re in week seven of quarantine, the appeal of setting up elaborate craft projects and buying new and exciting toys has worn off (for me at least). Instead, I’m focusing on settling into our new routine of Zoom preschool checkins, easy activities and lots of reading. But there are a few things my daughter and I are really missing, one of which is the library. Pre-quarantine we went to the library once a week to get a huge stack of books and while I’m happy to support indie bookstores and purchase a few books I don’t plan on ordering dozens a week. So when my friend (who happens to be a neighbor) suggested a book swap I was super excited! Side note: there is nothing better than having friends in your neighborhood, right?

So here’s what we do. Every few days we drop off five books on each other’s porches and voila, it’s like an instantaneous visit to the library! My daughter loves the book swap and gets excited every single time she sees a new bag full of books waiting for her on the front porch and even tells us how they’re from “The Dexter Library” as she calls it. As I mentioned in my quarantine activity post, one of our favorite at-home activities to switch it up a bit is having “book parties.” We take tons of extra pillows, blankets and stuffed animals and pile them into the living room with huge stacks of books and call it a party. So now that’s what we do as soon as our book delivery comes.

We’ve done this four or five times so far over the last few weeks and it’s been a super fun way to bring something new into the house (for free) and still keep our library habit alive with plenty of social distancing. It’s also a nice way for my daughter to still feel connected to her friends which makes me really happy.

Happy reading!!

And if you don’t have anyone local to do a book swap with, or you’re just looking to add some books to your collection, check out our Amazon page for all of our top picks!