Monday, July 2, 2018

OWL summer reading program

Roo did this program last year and Wichita did it this year. This is a really cool program, most of the kids who attend the OWL Reading Camp are immigrants who are learning English, I'm not sure about this year, but last year, I know a few of them were refugees from Syria. 
Some of the kids are a little bit afraid of dogs, so I would sit between Wichita and the kids who were nervous. Some of them wanted to pet Wichita by the time they were finished reading, others were still a little too nervous to pet him.

The first week, most of the kids read Wichita's story to him. A few times when the kid got to the part where "Wichita met a volunteer named Heather...she took him home to meet her family" the kid would look at Wichita, look at me, smile, and say, "wait...are you Heather?"

We had an interesting encounter the second week. We were waiting for the kids and three women in the lobby area were saying hi to Wichita (2 of the women met him the first week). After petting Wichita, making kissy noises to him, and telling him how sweet he is, the new woman said, "there are still breeds I would never have, like pit bulls" I responded politely "Wichita is a pit bull" She was shocked and said "REALLY?" I replied, "yep, he's a rescue, but his genetic test says he's 100% American Pit Bull Terrier" The third woman said to Wichita, "you're just breaking down stereotypes right and left, aren't you". Later, I overheard the first woman telling the new woman that pit bulls are usually very sweet & cuddly, and the new woman said "I had no idea"
The first week this little girl was afraid to pet Wichita, but by week two, she was totally up for giving him some post reading love.

 I'm not sure Wichita was impressed with Spiderman
 Ms. Bridget gives great ear rubs!
 This little boy was absolutely in love with Wichita
And Wichita took full advantage, flopping over on his side for better ear rubbing access while reading.
The boy even gave him a kiss goodbye

I hope we can do the OWL reading camp again next year. It's an assignment that caters to some of the higher need kids, so it's really rewarding and the staff is great too.


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