The books, the books, the books!
When we decided to give the children hard-back books instead of loose papers to write and draw on, we hoped that they would react by taking ownership of the project and making it their own. We wanted some consistency and dedication. We wanted more focus on the job in hand – which is increasing their love of reading and their reading ability.
The first time we recalled the books to evaluate, there was some tension! Had they taken the point? Were they enjoying the project? Were they able to make the jump between much easier tasks during lockdown when the aim was to take their minds off the situation and give them something to DO?
Never underestimate the CBN children. They have responded with beautiful work, some pages of which are attached to this article. And we have learned something for the future when, hopefully, we will be back to workshops again.
All the material we have generated in this difficult year will be used in workshop and toolbox projects. There has been a steep learning curve. It IS possible to use CBN methods developed over ten years to work distantly with children. We hope this new work will inform our drive to reach out to yet more children and bring them the joy of reading.
