Reading Refuge Refocus

I've taken a break the last few years from blogging. Instagram is my favorite place to hang out and quickly share updates on what I've been doing. You can find me @reading_refuge or @victoriousventure.  I am not as obSEUSSed as I used to be.  I still love children's books and reading but I've shifted my focus to creating a Reading Refuge in my home and in our community.

When I started this blog was a stay-at-home mom who volunteered in our community, church and school.  I also did freelance public/media relations and other freelance work from home.  Three years ago I took a job at our local high school as an ESL advocate.  That means I advocate for the students who are learning English, many of whom are refugees or immigrants. I have been working with the refugee community for the past eight years. It has opened up a whole new world to seeing the challenges these families face as they are displaced from their dangerous homelands.

I strongly believe that if you "read a refugee a book he'll read for a day, teach a refugee to read and he'll read for a lifetime." I currently have a little free library in my office at school for ESL students to take books home to trade or keep.

We had a donation drive and were able to get all of these beautiful Usborne books for their classroom.  It is difficult to find more age appropriate books on their level.  Our school library doesn't have any beginning reader levels.  These books were eye catching and gave them a variety of fiction and non-fiction options.  If you haven't ever checked out Usborne you can contact a salesperson in your area to take a look. Thanks to my friend Coralie at Usborne for helping us get all of these at a discount with our donations.

We have over 52 languages spoken by the students at our school. We have some ESL students who are just learning their alphabet and learning to use the computer for the first time, and other students who came during elementary school and they are on track to graduate and attend college.

READING REFUGE LIBRARY
I have also had plans to build a little free library for my front yard that will be called the Reading Refuge.  I believe that reading creates a refuge for all of us.  A place to get away from the worldly challenges around us.

HOME LIBRARY as a REFUGE
Here are a couple reading refuge spots I created in our home.
We built an addition on our house to create this library room.

And our reading loft has most of our children's books. The rest of their books are in their bedrooms.

I hope to continue sharing our reading adventures on this blog but it will not be as often because we will be creating more reading refuge opportunities. Join us on Instagram @reading_refuge.