3rd Place Winner
Post 1:
I really enjoyed my first week of reading buddies. My buddy wasn't there the second week, so I'll only be talking about my experiences from the first week in this blog post. My buddy's name is Seth. He was a little bit shy when we first met, but once we got started playing games he warmed up to me. We played one board game at the very beginning, then went into the children's library to read books. He picked out 5 different superhero books to read which were super fun. We read each one all the way through. A couple of the books had pages that only had text and no pictures, so he chose to skip those pages. Because of that, the stories didn't always make sense, but he still seemed to be having a good time. After we were done reading those books he got some energy and wanted to roughhouse a little bit. I was fine with this at first because I know little boys have a lot of energy to get out, but it got a little bit out of hand. He started throwing bean bag chair around and being a little bit too physical with me. When I told him that we couldn't be so rough in the library and tried recommending other things to do, he pulled me hair and pouted for about 5 minutes, then perked back up. We played hide and seek for the remaining time. I think he likes hanging out with me and I think he's a fun kid, but I'm not sure what to do when I need to steer our activities in a different direction. I dont want to be his babysitter or act like his parent, I want to be able to just have fun with him, but there are some things he shouldn't be doing and I'm not sure how to address that. Overall my reading buddies thus far has been positive and I look forward to seeing how is goes in the future!
Post 2:
This month has been fun in the reading buddies program,听 but still a bit on and off. The first week, My little buddy Seth and his mom actually came to reading buddies early! This was a bit of a surprise because previously there had been some inconsistencies with the mom bringing Seth to reading buddies on time. So that week was really fun because we just got to read and relax a bit. Collin told me not to worry about making a book so we haven't been working on anything like that. We usually just read a lot and play one or two games. Unfortunately the following week I didn't get to go to reading buddies because I had tonsilitis. The next week m reading buddy did not come again, so I helped one of the other big buddies and their little buddy with ideas for their book. The week after that was really fun! My buddy came on time, so we started by picking a bunch of superhero books to read. We pretty much did that for half of the reading buddies time, then we started playing hide and seek, which is always super fun. After a while another reading buddies pair started playing with us, which I think was good for seth. I get the sense that he doesn't get to be around a lot of other kids, so getting ot just play with one of the other kids in the program was really fun. Overall, this month ws better than last month, but we'll have to see if the inconsistencies with the mother continue, and if they do take further action from there.
Post 3:
Last Thursday was our second to last Reading Buddies session at Boulder Public Library. Most of the groups have been working on making books with their buddies for the last month, but because my buddy couldn't come consistently we chose not to worry about making a book. So for the last few weeks, we pretty much do the same thing each time; we start with some games and move on to reading books later. We pretty much exclusively read superhero or comic books, although this week we did read a pop-up book about Aesop's fables. This week was a bit more fun and active because a bunch of the boys (little buddies) were playing together. I can tell my little buddy Seth really wants that attention and interaction with other people his age. Two of the other boys were making paper airplanes and throwing them around, so Seth wanted to make one. One of the other boys kindly taught us how to make them, and for the next half an hour to 45 minutes the boys just ran around and played with the airplanes. We did also play charades with the same boys and their big buddies, which was pretty fun. When the other boys started reading, Seth started reading, but we only read one book before the kids wanted to play with the airplanes again. We ended the day y playing a group game of hide and seek with four reading buddies pairs (including us). Overall it was a really fun week. Hopefully next week is just as fun. Because Seth didn't make a book, his mother doesn't think he should come to the book party, which is unfortunate. Although we had a bit of a rough start, I have a lot o fun with Seth and will be sad to leave him at the end of the semester.听听
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