How is Reading Club fairing 2013?

The registration booth at Reading Club is a popular place.

Since the beginning of our Reading Club in July of last year, the Friday afternoon Reading Club sessions have been a major hit with the Khula kids and volunteers alike.

Reading Club is off to a roaring start this year. It came as no surprise to staff that as projects began and volunteers rolled into Reading Club, so did the readers. We are very proud of the progress volunteers have already made with the Reading Club with many more books being sorted,  cleaning being done and the children's registration being executed.

Volunteers kicked off the first registration of the year at the beginning of March. As children arrived they attended the registration desk and received a member card with their name on it. Our first registration had 52 readers attend! We collected their name and their age for our records. 

Last year we were lucky to have a librarian volunteering with us at the time of sorting through all the books we had received as donations. Our books are coded into different categories by coloured stickers; baby, early reader/toddler, 7-12 years, teenage and adult. It is important for the volunteers to record a child's age, so when our volunteers are reading with a learner they are aware of roughly the level at which the child should be reading.

Since our first registration, we have had 25 more registered readers. The large number of children in attendance has not dimmed the positive attitudes of any volunteers with everyone taking the flood of readers in their stride. 

Volunteers spread their time between children and rotate between groups to ensure that their time is shared equally.

As a reader completes a book with a volunteer, they attend the registration desk again to have the book signed off on their reading card. We have introduced a bronze certificate given after 5 books have been read, a silver certificate after 15 books have been read, and a gold certificate after 30 books have been read. 

This is something the children and volunteers are very excited to work towards and at the end of every month we will hand out any due certificates to our eager readers. With the end of March fast  approaching, we have no doubt there will be several certificates to hand out!