Calling for kidsREAD volunteers

You have been studying and working and find that life has become a meaningless routine. You realise that getting that paper qualification and earning that salary meets your needs but yet doesn't satisfy your soul. You ponder if you can somehow re-ignite the spark in your life, that feeling that there is more to life than just living your own, that you can do more for others, for society and for children...

You have found yourself in my kidsREAD blog!

Is there more to life than work or study
What you are going through is not unique. For a big chunk of my life, I was involved in other extra-curricular activities even as my career started and I have been involved in many different domains as diverse as personal finance to public speaking to teaching children reading skills in kidsREAD. :-)

I discovered from my volunteering activities that while all of us only have 24 hours in a day, our hours become more meaningful when it is applied to endeavours that touch lives.

Your unique experiences shape who you are and who you will become
My toastmastering has allowed me to share a little about myself, my experiences and my soul to others through public speaking.

My personal finance blog allows me to think through my own attitudes about wealth, health and happiness and to sharpen my focus on achieving financial freedom.

My kidsREAD volunteering activities has allowed me to interact with families and especially children from less advantaged families, and allow me to contribute back what the mainstream education system has given me. The gift of knowledge and the privilege of touching lives through something as simple as sharing a story with children.

How about you?
Do you want to touch lives too?
Do you want to leave a meaningful legacy not in dollars and cents but in the memories of young children who remember a volunteer who taught them reading?
Do you want to try something new and experience for yourself the intrinsic joy of giving?

kidsREAD may be for you.

To find out more, please leave a comment to this post and preferably a contact email so that I can get in touch with you. :-)

kidsREAD starts on 30 June at the Jurong Student Service Centre of the Chinese Development Assistance Council.

Volunteering at a kidsREAD Program Near You!

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Originally uploaded by PanzerGrenadier

The kidsREAD programme at our centre is taking a break until we start again on 30 June 2007 Saturday. Since its inception at our Chinese Development Assistance Council's Jurong Student Service Centre in October 2005, our program has provided opportunities for students from Junior Colleges such as Jurong Junior College (JJC) as well as undergraduates from National University of Singapore as well as Nanyang Technological University to help out as volunteers in our kidsREAD program. Read more about kidsREAD background here.

What does it take to volunteer at a kidsREAD program?
Typical kidsREAD class at Jurong Student Service Centre
At our centre, we have three kidsREAD classses conducted once a week on Saturdays. Two of the classes for the younger children aged 4 to 6 are held at 10.30 am to 11.30 am on most Saturdays except for school holidays in December and in June. The third class is from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm for older children aged 7 to 8. This is the class that I teach regularly. ;-)

Typically, what we do in my class is as follows:

1. Class reading of Big Children's Book (Judy Ling series) - 15 to 25 minutes
2. Break-up into smaller groups of 2-4 students for small group reading with volunteers - 15-30 minutes
3. Wrap up with game/activity (if time permits) - 5 to 10 minutes

The main reason I enjoy the program so much and have been a volunteer for one and a half years is because it is non-academic so the children have fun during the class. In addition, I am rediscovering the joy of children's books and reading to children: skills that help me to be a better toastmaster which is my other passion in life. :-)

Interaction and Teaching Children is Fun
My fellow volunteers and I also enjoy interacting with children and it's interesting to note that there are only two men volunteering in this program. Most of the other volunteers were women which was typical according to one of the trainers who conducted one of the kidsREAD training sessions organised by the National Library Board.

The women volunteers prefer to interact with the younger class as they are so cute. I prefer teaching the older class because they are able to hold a conversation with you while the younger ones are still too young to engage them. I find it fasinating to see how smart children can be at that age and some of them are very bright kids who come from low income families. They have some much potential and if they were given better opportunities in life they could be the next Sim Wong Hoo, Albert Einstein or even Leonardo Da Vinci!

Consider Volunteering Now!
If you are thinking of volunteering in a fun environment, where you also pick up skills in teaching reading and literacy to children aged 4 to 8 years old. Drop me a note to indicate your interest and I will get in touch with you! One of our volunteers Angie came into our program because I met her at the official opening of the Raffles Junior College Shaw Foundation Library and subsequently her interest was piqued in our kidsREAD program because she thought it would be fun and this kidsREAD blog helped to arouse her interest in the program.

Don't just take my word for it, try it out to see if it suits you.

We can use our time in studies, career or making money, but at the end of the day, are we defined by the dollars we have in the bank or the lives we have touched in our journey on earth?

kidsREAD is about touching lives. You can start now...

How to Volunteer for KidsREAD?

kidsREAD is a nationwide reading programme officially launched on 23 April 2004 by then Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. kidsREAD is a collaborative effort by the National Library Board (NLB) together with the People's Association (PA) and five self-help groups to promote the love of reading and cultivate good reading habits among all young Singaporeans, in particular children from low-income families. The target audience of kidsREAD is children between the ages of 4 and 8, regardless of race or religion.

The objectives of kidsREAD are

• To leverage on the strengths of various partners to create a reading programme for all children between the ages of 4 and 8 in Singapore.
• To promote the love of reading and cultivate good reading habits among all young Singaporeans, in particular, children from low-income families.
• To provide an avenue for children from various races to interact from an early age.
• To help enhance the quality of life of the children and their families.

kidsREAD Participants

kidsREAD is open to children between the ages of 4 and 8 regardless of race, language or religion. Priority is given to children from less well-to-do families i.e. children from families with gross monthly household income not exceeding $2,000 or per capita income not exceeding $500

kidsREAD Volunteers
Volunteers are vital to sustaining the reading programme. Anyone can be a volunteer as long as they are 15 years and above. The time commitment is at least one hour per week for a period of 6 months. The main task of a volunteer is to read aloud stories to children so as to inculcate good reading habits from young and help them discover the joy of reading. Training will be provided for volunteers on basic storytelling skills, and use of the kidsREAD Starter Kit.

kidsREAD Programme

A kidsREAD Starter Kit comprising a recommended reading list, a poetry and rhymes list, and an activities list serves as a resource guide for volunteers to use in running the Reading Clubs. Volunteers are trained on how to use the kit and other skills to work with children. Participating children can expect reading to be made more enjoyable through a fun-filled interactive setting. Word puzzles, board games and craft making are some of the elements incorporated to make reading an exciting journey.

kidsREAD Reading Clubs

Each Reading Club can take up to a maximum of 25 children with 5 volunteers managing the session. The programme is conducted for a year and each session is conducted once a week for 1 hour. For the first half hour, volunteers read aloud stories from books to the participants. For the next half hour, the children is further divided into smaller groups of about 5 according to their reading skills or age range. A volunteer attached to each group would then engage the children in an interesting variety of reading and related activities such as craft, board games, poetry and songs.

For further queries, please contact:

kidsREAD Secretariat

278 Marine Parade Road #B1-01

Marine Parade Community Building

Singapore 449282

Telephone: 63424205

Fax: 63424411

Email: kidsread@nlb.gov.sg

For those interested to volunteer with Chinese Development Assistance Council's kidsREAD clubs, please contact:

Email: rod.loh (at) gmail.com