"My first library" is one of the projects of our association. The project "my first library" helps children who are having difficulties learning to read . Six primary schools are taking part in this project. Adult voluteers, or "BookBuddies", are meeting with a child 1:1 once a week and spend some time reading together. Each reading session lasts about 30 – 45 minutes.
The BookBuddy (adult volunteer) answers the child's questions and they talk about the book they are reading together. Sometimes they will also play, paint or do crafts together during their reading session.
At the moment, we have more than 120 teams of voluteers and children reading together.
We read well-known children's books such as Pippi Longstocking (Pipi Langstrumpf) or Bibi Blocksberg. We want the children to learn to enjoy reading. We want them to learn something about life from the books they read and we want them to understand the world they live in better.
Through reading with their ReadingBudies the children expand their vocabulary (they learn many new words), they are able to understand better what they are reading, their self-confidence is growing and they get better marks at school.
Our association buys the books our teams are reading. When a book is finished, the child is allowed to keep it.
Children from first or second grade on can participate in the project (first graders will start reading with their ReadingBuddies in March). They can stay in the project until the end of fourth grade.
If they want to, the child's family can get to know the child's ReadingBuddy. And our adult volunteers are encouraged get to know the child's family.
We also offer day trips and workshops to the children taking part in this project. Sometimes we are visiting a museum, sometimes we are going to see a play for children at the theatre and sometimes we are just going for a walk and are exploring nature and our surroundings. Our BookBuddies invite the children the to these activities and they may accompany them too.