Twenty Grade Fours arrived bang on time with our CBN community helper at 10.00 this morning. The Butterfly Centre again hospitably allowed us to use their lovely premises. We began with introductions and discussed how ‘small talk’ is really ‘big talk’ when we first have an opportunity to meet new people. At CBN workshops we […]
Stanford Winter Workshop 1: 11 July, Who AM I? Read More »
The winter school holidays saw the beginning of what we hope will be a long association with Enlighten at their beautiful premises in Hermanus. Perfectly positioned for the surrounding children, endowed with a wondrous library – the Alex Bury Library – warm and welcoming. CBN has found an excellent place to go further with our
CBN and Enlighten Education Trust: Winter workshops Read More »
Cold but sunny was a good forecast for children who need to let off steam before workshops and during lunch. The third day of CBN’s workshop with Enlighten Education Trust featured lions and big cats, with stories, books and activities in the morning and an exciting mask-making exercise with Alex and Thulani. The morning concluded
Green, green workshops! (Day Three) Read More »
The second day of CBN’s Green, Green Theme workshop at Enlighten Education Trust in Hermanus had all children returning – plus a couple of extra additions. Morning activities followed much the same pattern as on Day One, followed by a break for lunch of hot dogs that were much appreciated. To recap on Day One,
Green, green workshops! (Day Two) Read More »
For the first (but certainly not the last) time CBN worked with Enlighten Trust in Hermanus to bring a workshop with a conservation theme to children from five local schools. After introductions and a short outline of what CBN does, Blaq Pearl took over for a game where everyone had a chance to introduce themselves,
Green, green workshops! (Day One) Read More »
Books and Stories were the theme – and CBN launched our toolbox of the same name at a lovely festival of story on a sunny winter Saturday in the beautiful main hall of the Centre for the Book. There was a sparkle in the air when the CBN team arrived in Cape Town, an air
CBN Joint workshop with Centre for the Book 4 June 2016 Read More »
On Saturday 28 May a rather huge group of children wanted to join what turned out to be a successful morning for twelve signed up would-be workshoppers. We began with a tour of the Overberg Honey facility where the children were able to see the real life that goes on behind a jar of honey
Bees and Bee Books! Read More »
On Saturday, 30 April, CBN held its second workshop in Stanford, entitled Cats. Word had got out about the CBN workshops, and 32 children arrived instead of the pre-arranged 24. The wonderful facilitators, Janine van Rooy (Blaq Pearl) and Didi Didlof took these increased numbers in their stride and soon had the children singing a
Cat Workshop in Stanford Read More »
Excited children boarded the minibus on Friday, 29 April for a visit to Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary. The field trip marked the start to the Children’s Book Network new workshop entitled, Cats. Dannii Crystal and Berna Jacobs from Panthera did a sterling job in telling the children about the big cats and how they
Outing to Panthera Africa Read More »
World Book Day 2016 is here. The event is commemorated every year on 23 April by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) to promote reading, publishing and copyright. This day was picked by UNICEF because it is the joint birthdate of Shakespeare and also Cervantes. Maybe close enough also to the 90th
A first workshop in a new area is always a little tense. Will the children come? Well, at the frst CBN workshop in Stanford, twenty children turned up at very short notice – and they came dressed to party! A small, glittering crowd approached the Butterfly Centre ten minutes before the appointed time. The girls
The Stanford book party begins … Read More »
We are pleased to present our annual report for a very exciting year of workshops and CBN activities. To see the full report, please go to: https://www.childrensbook.co.za/sites/default/files/resource-documents/annual-report-2015-final.pdf
2015 Annual Report now online Read More »
CBN has been working with books and music for years now. They go together like … well, like children and books should. On 29 March – just after the Easter weekend, when children are looking for something to do with all this spare time – we will be holding the first of what we hope
Singing up a workshop … Read More »
A Cape Flats dad has converted his backyard into a library to encourage the children in his neighbourhood to read. What better news to close Library Week? The homemade library in Hillview boasts over 5 000 books, and you can find anything from fairytales to encyclopaedias. Now father-of-two John Nicholson’s home gets dozens of little
A library for kids in a backyard Read More »
What a pleasure to visit a beautiful library in Grassy Park, full of books and interest and, above all, READERS! Library Week in South Africa is celebrated in libraries all over the country and it was a great honour for CBN to be invited to join the party in the most impressively resourced library at
Celebrating Books and Reading! Read More »
We allow a self-selection process, which is administered by community workers or librarians. Permissions forms are issued to children who are interested (hopefully within the specified age groups, although children are always trying to sneak past this factor). Children who are motivated enough will collect the forms, take them home, ask a parent or carer
How do we select children for workshops? Read More »
The CBN team works with children who are needy in all of these aspects of their lives, underprivileged in the lack of opportunity and resources to learn to love reading, disempowered in not having books available and role models who read. We began at Red Hill Informal Settlement, where we gave our first pilot workshop
Where does CBN work? Read More »
Champion of Children. CBN was really – really – sorry when Rosemary announced her return to Britain after three years of providing a firm structure to both the running of the workshops and the administration of Children’s Book Network. We are going to miss her in so many ways, and so will the children. In
