I'm sure you've all seen a bowling game, but have you ever seen a simple country bowling game?

A basketball as a bowling ball, with a few plastic mineral water bottles and laundry detergent bottles as the target. Although the equipment is so simple, the playground is still full of children's laughter. Such a scene appeared in the Tengchong City Manduo Library activity ground.

"I find that young children's concentration is not long, and it is difficult to do one thing for a long time. So I wondered if our library could do outdoor games and physical activity training to develop children's attention, hand-brain-eye coordination ability, hand strength and control ability, while also stimulating the interest of parents and children", said librarian Gu Yandong. Thus, the simple bowling activity competition was born.

The "lane" is a paved path on the playground, the "bowling ball" is a small basketball configured for the library project, and the "target" is a few mineral water bottles and laundry detergent bottles placed at the end. Because this is the first time Gu Yandong and the children do bowling, and there is not much experience, so after several attempts, the small basketball cannot hit the target and the children's faces gradually showed expression of frustration. When Gu Yandong noticed this, she again encouraged the children to try more.

"Wow, I was so close to hitting the bottle, I'm going to try again and I'm going to hit the target." Some of the children shouted excitedly.

Gu Yandong mobilized the children to invite their parents to participate, just hitting the target counts as a win.

“Come on ~~~.”

In the unremitting efforts, "bang", the ball finally hit the bottle.

"We won!" The children cheered, and everyone applauded.

According to librarian Gu Yandong, the children who go to the library are mostly 1-4 years old, and their parents and grandparents tend to provide more teaching-style education at home, but children in this age group like to know more about everything through "play".

In the library, Gu Yandong takes advantage of the existing teaching aids to play games with the children in different ways.

Village "bowling" inspires children to try and challenge themselves. Through these methods of gaming, the children and parents also gain a lot of happiness.

Project introduction:

Tengchong Genwell-HPP Children's Library project is supported by Genwell Foundation and Planet Aid Inc., while HPP cooperates with Tengchong Women's Federation and Tengchong Education Bureau. The project sets up children libraries (ECD centers), engages librarians (child development workers) and trains them, promotes scientific parenting and child raising, increases the community’s understanding of child development, and promotes the early education and sustainable development of rural children aged 0-4.

Genwell Foundation    

The project is funded by the Genwell Foundation and Planet Aid Inc.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and have nothing to do with the position of the funder.