Steam greetings everyone!
I hope we are all doing well.
On Sunday, May 26th, 2024, after church, I made lunch (fufu and dried vegetables) around midday. After finishing cooking, we ate and then I took a nap for about two hours.
Before I knew it, the youngest children came up to me and asked, "Uncle, do we have public speaking today or tomorrow?" I responded, "We will only have public speaking on the usual day, Monday. Today (Sunday) is our 2hours reading session.
When I said this, they got excited and immediately went to inform the other children. The children then began sweeping and cleaning the venue for our sessions. Around 3 pm, they started setting up their chairs as our reading session was going to begin in one hour.
At 4 pm, we gathered together, sang, prayed, and discussed what to do in preparation for a reading session, such as having a pen, pencil, and a notebook to take notes on interesting ideas encountered during reading.
As we were about to start, rain began to drizzle and then fall heavily, so we had to change the venue. We moved all the chairs to my parlor, got ready, and started our reading session using a timer.
Normally, our reading sessions are scheduled to last about two hours, but I figured that since we were just starting, we could make it shorter and gradually increase the duration as the weeks go by. We read for about 30 minutes. Actually, the children read for 30 minutes! I didn't read myself as I previously thought I would.
Some of these children are babysitters, meaning they came with the young children they are babysitting. These younger children could have been distractions, so I took responsibility for watching them and making sure they didn't disrupt the readers.
It was challenging, but the reading went well. When the alarm went off indicating that the reading time was over, it was still raining heavily outside. We discussed some of the new things and words the children learned during their reading, and since it was still raining heavily, I decided we would all watch a movie.
The children were excited as I prepared the speakers and got their movie ready. At first, I played Young Sheldon, but most of them didn't seem to enjoy it, so I switched to a cartoon movie, Scooby-Doo, which they all loved.
We all watched the movie until about 6:30 pm when the rain subsided and the children went home. The first day of our reading session was a success!
The goal of these reading sessions is to help the children develop a love for reading, both to improve their communication skills (vocabulary) and to get used to disciplining themselves to sit down and concentrate on a specific task. As Jim Rohn said, "Reading is tapping into the treasure of ideas."
The children enjoyed the exercise, and together, we are looking forward to future sessions.