Drawing on experience Especially for children who may not be articulate in English (although all our participants understand if they are Grade 4 and above), illustration provides a creative starting point for communicating. Recently we devised the concept of illustrating several ‘frames’ of a story in strip-cartoon format on a long strip of paper, and […]
The March school holiday workshops (3) Illustration Read More »
Working on the theme of ‘US!’ On 18th March (Stanford) and 19 March Enlighten Education Trust in Zwelihle in Hermanus, we gave two holiday reading workshops to the great enjoyment of the children. Our main goal is always to encourage reading and a love of books by embracing a theme and using books, stories, artwork
The March school holiday workshops (2) Reading Read More »
Two Day-Workshops on 18 and 19 March On 18th March (Stanford) and 19 March (Enlighten Education Trust in Zwelihle in Hermanus). The theme of both workshops was ‘US!’ and they also formed the launch of our Monitoring and Evaluation structure, which will enable us to present more detail of just who exactly comes to our
The March school holiday workshops (1) Songs Read More »
When famous hip-hop singer Janine van Rooy (Blaq Pearl) works with our children, they write songs together. It isn’t easy – and the rules are that what they want to say goes in, regardless of the difficulties (as with ‘load-shedding’ in this example!) They work on the ideas, discussing their lives and communities, and then
CBN Children sing their own tune and dance to their own drum Read More »
A new development, and a logical one. We have for some time been working on our methods for monitoring and evaluating the progress our children make with their reading. We can SEE how much more they enjoy it as time passes, but we need a way of monitoring in a more measurable way. We are
Our choir began as a community building exercise,but has grown from there. In Stanford we work with children from two communities and two schools. Singing seemed like a good idea to bring everyone together – and it was. But nobody had any idea how successful it would prove to be. The combined talents of our
The CBN Choir – Albert Hall anyone? Read More »
OK. This is why we couldn’t avoid forming a Little CBN! They just come along anyway, and during the holidays often have to follow their older siblings, who are baby-sitting. But … honestly … could you resist this? Fortunately, we have an eager team of teenage volunteers (The CBN Teen Team) and they handle the
After the success of the inaugural Teen Team last year, we have regrouped. This year we have eleven names on our list. With the busy school programme, and other activities, it is unlikely that all eleven will ever be available for a workshop, but they will rotate and share the many tasks we have in
We had a workshop at the butterfly centre that was attended by 45 children from Stanford. It was conducted by Vuyokazi Siza. We focused on introducing a new song, ‘We are the world – Micheal Jackson’ and the children loved it. The song was soon perfected once we got past the lyrics and the song
Music and Story: Saturday 9th March Read More »
CBN is very grateful to Phumlani Lose, who gives up many Saturday mornings to CBN. He adds both his voice and his example to our workshops. And WHAT a voice! Phumlani was part of an award-winning choir in Eastern Cape and brings with him a sense of discipline and commitment necessary in both choirs and
Role models and Mentors Read More »
For CBN we have a new, New Year when we hit the first of March and begin our new financial year. So, it IS the first of March and we have a whole new 2019 filing section to populate, and many plans. The children Are as excited as ever about coming to any workshops we
CBN started a choir during 2018 because we believed that it would give the children an identity and a sense of community. It succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. Our workshop participants come from different communities and different schools. We thought singing would be good. But under the capable hands of experienced choristers Vuyokasi Size and
Sing together – Be together Read More »
Reading a book is just like being a detective in a TV series. You have to look for clues to make the story work. This was our first book detective story: First, we are going to read a story together – I will read it, and you will listen carefully for clues. Then we will
Book Detectives (1) Read More »
CBN offered two workshops in January, but only one in February – the hectic athletics season at schools, but we are in full stride again, with a busy March programme. Saturday morning CBN Book Club 2 March – Book Detectives 9 March – Singing stories Holiday Day Workshops (One Stanford, one Hermanus) Monday 18 March
Children everywhere used to have strong tradition of clapping games. In Africa that tradition still exists and is enjoyed hugely. We usually begin a workshop with games. It gives a little time for the CBN children to relax after a bit of hectic outdoor play and – more importantly – it brings them together as
Moving the focus of story to Africa – where it all began This two-part workshop looked more closely at the origins of story – and how important it is both culturally and socially. We had an over-abundance of children (as has come to be usual) and the Teen Team are still deep in the start
Out of Africa: A story workshop 26 January Read More »
The children who come to Children’s Book Network workshops in increasing numbers are volunteers. They want to come. It isn’t part of school. It’s fun. It takes a lot of work to prepare for and run a workshop, and even more work goes on in the background. This picture shows some of our volunteer and
Friends of CBN, Anja and Reto Schleputz recently asked their friends to donate to CBN instead of buying presents for a special birthday! The resulting money enabled us to give a full workshop for Stanford children, including snacks and juice, art materials and stationery – and something towards books too. We thank and salute them
Continuing our theme of story and how important it is culturally and socially, we will be working with some stories out of Africa. The workshop will be from 9.30 (snacks for the children) to about 12.00 when transport will be arranged for those who live at De Kop. Image: A CBN child at the first
Story workshop 26 January 2019 – Out of Africa Read More »
Our wonderful friends in Rottweil, Germany, who visited us in person in September, have sent a cash donation to pay for four new toolboxes that will go to schools in the Overberg. The first of these will be donated to The Butterfly Centre in February and will be slightly modified to include material for children
A donation to provide four new toolboxes in the Stanford area Read More »
