We are finishing the year off in style with two parties, two workshops in Stanford and two workshops in Tafelsig (Mitchells Plain). This will bring a successful year to an outstanding finale before we close down for a well-earned break. Workshops will begin in January before the children go back to school. 09 November Cancelled […]
Workshop programme for November and December 2019 Read More »
Our Children’s Book Network choir has been invited to join a group of singers from the Netherlands in joyful song next week, Friday 22nd November, at Madre’s Restaurant in Stanford. 16.00 until 18.00. The Dutch singers are led by Joke van der Weide. The event will be preceded by a workshop led by our prize
CBN Fundraiser 22nd November 2019 Read More »
Some projects turn out to be a lot bigger – and a lot more work – than expected, and the CBN Toolbox Project definitely falls into that category. Our aim was to produce a method of spreading the work that we do as widely as possible so that more and more children could benefit from
Toolbox Celebration! Read More »
Supporters of CBN will have noticed that our website has not been as regularly updated as they have come to expect. This year has been hugely successful in the work that we are here to do – creating a love of reading among children who otherwise do not have much exposure to books. It has
Regrets about lack of website input Read More »
The venue was the amazing Groenberg Community Library , right in the heart of Franschhoek. The participants consisted of 21 teacher-librarians from all over the Franschhoek Valley and the interest was high as we presented the ideas that CBN has been developing around books for the last eight years. This was a concerned, caring, and
On Tuesday 14 May, CBN gave a workshop to 21 teacher-librarians in Franschhoek Read More »
Today, Tuesday 2nd July, CBN had a workshop titled Place. The workshop was attended by 32children. Lesley started the workshop off with the reading of the book to the CBN group, whiles I took the little CBN outside for fun and games. After the reading of the book and games, they ate their sandwiches and
On Friday 21 June CBN hosted a workshop at Enlighten Trust , attended by 28 children. The theme of the workshop was ‘Windows’. It was focused on what you saw as you looked outside a window and what you see when you’re looking in one. Lesley welcomed everyone and gave a quick brief on the
On Saturday the 8th June, the CBN children were once again reunited. Jude Victor came to visit the children which was a great surprise. The workshop was attended by 28 Children from Stanford and Die Kop. The workshop started off with an ice breaker followed by some hot chocolate and sandwiches. We reassembled at story
Saturday 25th May, we had a workshop in Stanford in which 34 children attended. The theme was Friendship. We started of the workshop with an ice-breaker where the new children were given the chance to introduce themselves, followed by a series of games and laughter. We then proceeded to the reading area, and as a
Lesley will be away for nearly three weeks – and during that time, Nyasha Makwarimba, who is now interning with us, will take over the running of the website. All supportive comments can be directed to nyashamakwarimba083@gmail.com! She will also be handing the day to day admin of CBN and organizing two morning workshops in
Handover of website during May-June Read More »
CBN will offer a workshop on Saturday 19th April with the theme ‘Expressions’ This workshop will be well supported by the Teen Team, and we will be asking them to help with some administration tasks as well as the setting up of CBN Book Club, where children will be encouraged to take books home (and,
Easter Saturday Workshop Read More »
And, by the numbers … We always have an oversupply of children of all ages in Stanford when the call goes out. We had 54 children in attendance on 13 March and a more restrained 19 in Hermanus at Enlighten Trust on the 14th. The optimum number is 25. Then we can successfully divide the
The March school holiday workshops (4) Statistics Read More »
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
