Oh! I know your feeling; I am living in the downtown. We kid always need a lot of space,
Do you have I pad or pad? If you have, I recommend you can buy so many children books in there. I download many E-book for my children to read and play.
This one is my favorite,
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mom-s-birthday-present/id486688126?l=zh&ls=1&mt=8
I like their drawing and story. It can choose English,Simplified or Traditional subtitles. it’s good for your children to learning and have fun to read.
Book exchanges! There are some online sites for book exchanging just google it. Also, you can look for book exchanges in your area – sometimes mom groups will host them or schools and libraries. Our school district hosts a book exchange party twice a year or so. You could always use the public library – if there is one close.
But really, I have 5 kids, and we get about 3-4 new, and used, books a month for them. Everything from small soft covers to large hard bound look and find books and after a year, we only have a small book shelf full – something that would be easily stored in a small apartment or on a shelf in a small apartment.
You could also buy used books – they are much cheaper. And once your children get tired of them you can donate them and get them a new book. We use used book sites quit often to get books for our children (books suffer terrible abuse at the hands of children that love them!). Finding good to new condition books is actually really easy and for the price I feel it’s a much better purchase for children. I mean really, $15 dollars for a children’s picture book that will be roughed up is outrageous. And they will be roughed up. Our most loved book, No Bunnies Perfect, has been abused to no end (that’s how you know it’s loved, when they read it so much it’s falling apart). So make sure to that into account when buying books for children, don’t spend much until they are older.
Also, check out creative small space storage ideas. Honestly, we have a ton of books in our house (I’m a book nut, we have a digital library as well) and using things like storage coffee tables or automans that serve a dual purpose helps. Not just with books either. Get creative, put him on the spot with a storage solution, cost effective books, and the fact that books mean better school performance later. Can’t argue with that!
Children’s books are rather small. Get one big volume of fairy tales. That one you won’t want the children to touch until they are old enough to know how to treat books. Then buy several cheap ones that are small and can fit in the toy box. These will need to be cheap because these are the one you’ll let the child use and touch, while trying to instill in them the need to take care of books. But in these lessons, and while still allowing them to explore, these books are “disposable” once they become useless as story time books. Therefore they only take up room temporarily.
I consider books are important for children’s development, so buying books should not be considered a bad thing. Even if the space is limited and you don’t want to fill it with unnecessary items, books for kids are a good choice, as they don’t need too much room, but they can turn out to be quite handy for your children. So I would recommend you to talk to your husband and try to convince him that buying a few books for your children would not do any harm to your apartment.
Your local library should have lots of books for children. Often libraries have multimedia titles for both children and adults including streaming video, audio, and ebooks. Libraries may have programs for children such as story times and craft activities. The library is also a good place for adults to find inexpensive activities, education, and entertainment material.