Reading with the red toolbox Help with Encouraging Reading – Quick Notes Welcome to Children’s Book Network! Our Reading Toolbox Project has 5 toolboxes – covering Grades 5 to Grade 7 and upwards into High School. The toolboxes have been created to offer help with reading outside normal school hours. Each toolbox contains a […]
Children’s Book Network – A Year of Reading Read More »
The toolbox project, which was always the main thrust of our long-term activities, has taken wing. All the content has all been created for the Red Reading Project. The Books and Stories Handbook has been printed, with some distributed locally to sister projects in Soweto, Prince Albert and Calitzdorp, and the second edition has been
THE TOOLBOX PROJECT May 2025 Read More »
After much advance planning, we accomplished a five-day workshop mission to Calitzdorp, continuing over the Swartberg Pass to a meeting of minds in Prince Albert with the Slimlappies Project that works with the same age group as we do (10-15 years). We gave four reading workshops in Caliztdorp (report separate) and held two meetings with
OUTREACH WORKSHOPS IN KLEIN KAROO AND KAROO Read More »
We have been warmly welcomed by two prestigious local initiatives in connection with the Reading Toolbox Project. Grootbos Trust has offered advice and collaboration on both the Blue Toolbox material (particularly on veld foods and survival in the wild) and – more particularly on the Green Toolbox, which will begin very shortly (The Environment). We
GENERAL This is a year of extremely hard work and the culmination of plans that have been in development for the last ten years – building to a crescendo during this one. We have active development as well as funding partners, but we have been going through the inevitable bottleneck when work exceeds capacity. We
CBN REPORT MAY 2025 Read More »
Workshops and training continue as usual – thanks to Wilien’s hard work and steady funding from Rotary Rottweil dedicated to this purpose. Regular workshops in Stanford are at three venues weekly. Training workshops will increase as we work with more trainees and the usual once-a-term big workshop in Hermanus continues. As part of our Monitoring
LOCAL WORKSHOPS IN STANFORD (FUNDED BY ROTARY ROTTWEIL) Read More »
Funding will always be a major preoccupation, and we cannot express enough gratitude to private donors in USA who have enabled the Toolbox Project to continue and who have a total understanding of the need for running expenses to keep this show on the road. The Reading Toolbox Project is coming to fruition largely because
FUNDING APPEALS – THANKS AND NEEDS Read More »
Calitzdorp and Kruis Rivier During the week of 8 to 16 April, a small and very dedicated CBN team of five people visited four schools in the Klein Karoo to hold a series of workshops in the rural area in and around Calitzdorp. Basing ourselves at Red Rock Hills Guest Farm, we stayed in two
CBN Steps Out – A major outreach project during April Read More »
This is not a proposed project. It is a project that is nearly complete. The Red reading Toolbox is signed off to the editors. The Blue Reading Toolbox will be launched during heritage month in September. The Green Reading toolbox is in progress. The biggest part of a three-year dedicated reading project was the: Concept
What Do We Need? Help. Investment. Funding. Read More »
Children’s Book Network has been successfully working with children to encourage reading for 13 years. Beginning in Red Hill Informal Settlement (above Simon’s Town), we gave workshops and began developing our reading material with older teenagers and then with our target age-group of ages 10-15. The Red Reading Toolbox Project started here. A move to
CBN – History and Vision Read More »
This enormous project has taken years to put together – but is now nearing completion. It consists of three sturdy boxes, each containing themed books and a handbook on the theme with around 120 pages of stories and texts specifically written for CBN children. There are twelve themes in all. We are about to initiate
The minutes before a workshop begin are filled with anticipation. There are always some children who come early (sometimes very early), and some who come late, (sometimes very late), but the core group has assembled around the suggested time for a healthy drink and a snack. CBN children are often hungry when they arrive, and
We work with children in under-resourced communities where there is often little or no exposure to books outside a classroom context and for tests and exams. These young people are at a critical age for reading. Mostly, they have learned the basics of reading, the ABC of it. BUT In the first three years of
Children We Work With Read More »
Our method is formed around these core beliefs: Children can do anything if they are given enough encouragement and belief in their potential. Reading is not just a means of passing tests, it is a lifelong skill – and it is interesting and fun as well. Reading needs practice and it has to be taken
Children’s Book Network writes and imagines reading materials, activities and games that encourage children between the ages of 10 and 15 to give reading a chance. We also introduce them, through our popular reading workshops, to books and other texts that stimulate imagination and thinking. We work with under-resourced and book-deprived communities where our projects
Creative Director Lesley Beake, writer, educationalist and reading activist. Has published more than 100 books for children and young people, worked on numerous educational projects, been translated into 12 languages other than English and received many book awards. Practical experience as a teacher for ten years. She works a number of days a month. More
Who We Are – Our Team Read More »
When we began the toolbox project, we thought the book selection would be easy. What a pleasure to read a hundred books, or so, choose some, and develop materials around them. It wasn’t easy at all. The nature of publishing has changed over the last two decades so that it is hardly recognizable as the
Our next big outreach programme will be a series of workshops to as wide a selection of children as possible, starting with the Kruis Rivier farm school and moving into Calizdorp to work with schools there and the local library. We will be trialing the newly published Red Reading Toolbox – the beginning of everything
Calitzdorp and Kruis Rivier Workshops April 22, 23 and 24 Read More »
We are currently checking the final proofs of this work of dedication and perseverance before it goes to print. Soon, soon, we will hold the first copies in our hands. But our hands are not the important ones. Children must have access to these materials that support and encourage reading for a vulnerable age-group. The
Publication of first Red Reading Toolbox Handbook: Books and Stories Read More »
Wilien van Zyl, our workshop and training manager has been hard at work, specifically on the training manual for our three amazing facilitators, Rachel van Rooyen, Georgette Plaatjies, and Kelly Semu (with more trainees to follow soon). The result was an excellent workshop held at Stanford’s new business and meeting venue, The Nest. We have
Training Workshops 2024 Read More »
