Stimulating Early Childhood Reading in Bulgaria

In November and December 2019, books purchased under the project "Stimulating Early Childhood Reading in Bulgaria" and sent to the 14 libraries were inventoried and brought to the library and made available for use by children and parents. Readings with children and parents are organized at the libraries with new books, as well as visits to kindergartens where children can browse the books and the adults read them.

In selecting the books, we were guided by the words of Russian pedagogue Boris Nikitin, who developed a methodology for early childhood development: "You think are you just buying a toy? No, you're designing a human person with that", which we put it: "You think are you just buying a book? No, you're designing a human person with that". Led by the desire to cultivate good aesthetic taste and a sense of the beautiful in children, we selected books with fascinating texts and beautiful illustrations, picture books with compelling stories, poems and tales from Bulgarian and foreign authors and illustrators. Another part of the books helps children to acquire useful knowledge and skills about life, family, environment – educational books on various topics, books-games (puzzles, cubes, cards), books with lids and other moving elements to spark interest to the books in the youngest children.

We have come up with a set of ideas for organizing readings with books on different topics, divided into two age groups – from 1 to 3 years and from 4 to 6 years. So far, we have sent the first 3 parts to our colleagues, and we are currently working on the last 4 parts. They list books that are relevant to a specific topic (Get to know nature, My family, What we know about vehicles, The world of animals, Learn to cook, How to become better, When you need a friend, etc.), as well as suggestions for activities that can be organized with them for the children and their parents at the library. An album has been created on the BLIA's Facebook profile, which publishes photos of the books on different topics along with the necessary instructions and description of the books.

And here are two shared stories:

In December 2019, the librarian of Chitalishte ”Hristo Botev – 1898” – Rila holds a meeting in the group “Sun” at the kindergarten in the city with the parents and their children. They talk about children's development and the benefits of early childhood reading, how to build connection, closeness, trust through the book and play, and that by cultivating a love for the book and reading, children will have a better chance of achieving their goals and then lead successful lives as adults. The meeting ends with a workshop for parents and children to create "swing toys", similar to the books "swings" donated to the project. With the appropriate materials (plastic caps, plasticine, colored paper, glue, pencils), a lot of desire, love and inspiration, parents and children make "swing toys" – bunnies, bears and snowmen.

A young mother, a reader at the library of the Chitalishte ”Pencho Slaveikov – 1871” – Tryavna, goes to choose Christmas books for her daughter, who is 5 years old. She picks up a few, including the “Snow White’s Cakes”, which received from the project. On her next visit to the library, she shares with the librarian that the girl asked her grandmother to copy all the recipes from the booklet to make sweets together.

Links:

• Ideas for organizing readings with children's books