What has CBN been up to in the last weeks?

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There is a lot going on. So much, that the website has been a bit neglected. So much to do, that everything else, that is not directly related to children and reading, has been neglected too. But it is time to catch up and keep our friends and supporters in the loop.

It is hardly necessary to say that the events of last year have meant change – change for all of us and change for CBN too. We miss our large, rambling workshops where children would arrive, often on a very informal basis and sometimes bringing some younger siblings who needed to be with them. It was fun, it was a huge challenge … it is no longer possible.

So, we are focusing on new directions. We have a huge archive of specially written stories, reading texts, games, reading activities and imagination stimulation that have been tried and tested over nearly ten years. The task now is to redeploy those and to add new methods of bringing children to books and books to children.

This is a threefold plan:

WORKSHOPS
Have to be small to conform to Covid regulations, but there are two workshops every week, reaching 24 children in total. We will be expanding this in the third term to offer a third workshop to children from a different area.

BOOK CLUB
There are currently three Book Club Boxes circulating under the close supervision of Wilien van Zyl. Books are plastic covered and sanitized on return.

TOOLBOXES
Work continues to develop the toolboxes to be used by individuals, small groups – or as free access on our website. There are now three full boxes and two book bags, and this project will hopefully be complete by the end of 2021.

Note: All pictures of children without masks pre-date the pandemic. Our children wear masks, and we follow Covid protocols at all our events.

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