Blog #4: Action Project: Reading Buddies

Hello, and welcome back to my blog post!

In terms of where I am with my action, all the reading buddy sessions have now been completed, which means the program has come to an end. To recap, the Reading Buddies Program, run by the Coquitlam Public Library, is a program designed for teen volunteers (Big Buddies) to help elementary school kids (Little Buddies) find a love for reading. As a first-time reading buddy, I got paired with a very energetic kid who was in grade 1. The first couple sessions were not that exciting because he was still getting comfortable around me, but as time progressed, he started talking to me more as well as trying harder to get out of his comfort zone. In the last (most recent) session, we made Christmas cards for the elderly in our community and called them ‘Holiday Hellos’. I loved making these cards with my little buddy because it was the perfect way to end a successful program!

Now that the sessions have ended, I would say the biggest success for me would be being able to practice some of my soft skills like communication, patience, and leadership. An example of how my communication skills were developed included talking to my little buddy’s mom after every session and making sure he enjoyed it and wanted to come back. I realized not all the big buddies would do this but rather just drop their little buddies off to their parents and leave. I wanted to make sure my buddy was excited to return, and I wanted to do whatever I could to make that possible. His mom was super sweet and always thanked me and told me I was doing a great job. This helped me develop my communication skills, as it taught me to talk about what I was doing to help her kid. This will help me when talking to the parents of those who I tutor and talking to them about how I could improve the sessions, etc. Another example of success I had while volunteering as part of this program included practicing my patience skills as well as any others that are required while handling kids. When my little buddy wanted to eat snacks but wasn’t allowed to, asking the leader in charge, getting the ‘no’, and having to explain to him why he couldn’t eat in the room was an area where I showed these skills. I politely made him understand it wasn’t allowed, and he only had 15 minutes left until he could. Luckily, he was understanding enough, but it did take a while for that to happen!

I learned a lot while volunteering as a reading buddy; however,  a particular problem I continuously faced was trying to quiet down my buddy during the game at the end. My little buddy was loud and energetic—exactly what you would imagine a first-grade boy to be like. Sometimes, he would get a little too excited, which would result in yelling, shouting answers, and jumping here and there. This went on a couple times, and then I figured it was disturbing others, so I tried talking to him about it. The first two times, he didn’t really understand and did the same thing the next time. At the second last session, I tried to make it very evident that it was bothering others multiple times. I would slide it into our conversations, and he ended up understanding and quieting down. This was a challenge, but we ended up finding a solution to it which is why everything worked out just fine.

I loved my time as a reading buddy, and I could not think of a single negative thing to say about the program or my role. It is so worth the time because of the strong connections you get to form with your little buddies, which was personally my favourite part. I will be continuing to volunteer as a reading buddy in the future and will be using the skills I learn, such as communication and patience, in other leadership roles like my role as a tutor or in my workplace.

Thank you for following me on this journey. If you have any questions regarding the program or my action project, I would be more than happy to answer them for you!