Club de Libros!

I had heard that there were very few books available to kids in Paraguay. It turned out to be true, at least in the town where we are serving. Our town doesn’t have a library- even the school “library” is just a place to house the few textbooks kids use in the classroom.

What, kids without books? It seems like something we take for granted in the states. Luckily we preplanned, before leaving for Paraguay. We were given some books in Spanish by our kids, (cool- from our kids in the US to our kids in Paraguay!), and brought some others with us as well.

One day, I gave it a test run- Would the kids here be interested in books? With their many farm chores and active lifestyles, would sitting and listening or reading in their free time be something they would chose to do? So…. I brought three children’s books, (all of our books are in Spanish), outside, sat under a tree, and began to read, ( a great way to practice my Spanish, too). Before I knew it, I had two kids glued to my sides, listening, pointing to the pictures, trying to see what might be on the next page!

The next day one little boy kept asking about my dog. I kept explaining to him that I didn’t have a dog here, yet he persisted. I figure out that he wanted my book about dogs! So, we brought it out, commenced to reading, and continued to read almost daily.

To take our reading sessions to the next level, I asked an 11 year-old girl if she thought kids would be interested in a book club, or “Club de Libros.” She was all over this idea! Before I knew it we were selecting books to read, planning activities, visiting homes to invite kids, and making carrot cake and apple juice for snack!

Last Saturday we held our first meeting of the “Club de Libros.”

 

 We invited 10 kids, and 16 arrived, half an hour early, (unheard of in Paraguay- everyone arrives late!). While kids arrived, they looked at books independently.



We started with a quick ice breaker where everyone said their names and a topic they liked. Mark, Yeni, and I each read a short book about trees, (the theme Yeni chose), aloud. The kids then drew and colored pictures of trees, (which I bound and added to our book collection).




 Next, everyone read independently or read to the younger kids.



 For every book read, each kid got a “bead”, (section of cut up straw), to add to their necklace, (piece of yarn).  This was followed by an active game of Frisbee, and then finally our homemade carrot cake for snack!

Everyone seemed to enjoy our first “Club de Libros”, so we decided to make it a weekly event, every Saturday morning at 9:00am, (if you’re available, stop by!), next theme chosen, “Animals.” It was so much fun for me to see interest and enthusiasm these kids had for books- I’m not sure about their reading levels at this point how much they were actually “reading”, but it doesn’t matter- they were enjoying books!

Maybe a library project is something the community might be interested in pursuing…. Something to consider as a part of our service here?