Play and Learn - Contributing to the Learning Process

Read more with details here

Learning through Play is fun, educational, advisable, stress free and it is the core of the learning process for children from a very young age! While this procedure takes its own course at each different stages of every child, adult intervention from the beginning as a facilitator would definitely help children get off a better start and develop vital skills.

If you have taken up that noble role of a Facilitator be it in a school, hotel, restaurant or even at your very own home and if you are living in Qatar then "Play and Learn" is the one stop place for you which will not only ease your job as a facilitator but also broaden your creativity! 

  

  

Established in 2010 Play and Learn excels in providing educational supplies, toys, furniture for classrooms and libraries, indoor and outdoor play equipment and many more high quality exclusive resources and valuable guidance to support the child's individual strength, interest and need. The wide range of products they have could be viewed here

Play and Learn is reputable and have been trusted for excellence by many nurseries and other establishments around Doha as they have successfully set up classrooms, indoor and out door play areas according to specific needs, 

 

 

The good news is they take care of the installation and provide after sales service too. More of what they do could be found here

If you are looking for some out door summer fun these days have a look at Play and Learn! Doesn't this look awesome!

How about setting up your own little library? Play and Learn would do that for you with passion since they bring you the best products from people who understand specific designs and deliver outstanding solutions! 

At Play and Learn Quality and Safety are utmost concerns and thus they choose to affiliate with world renown brands and bring them to Qatar. So you will find some excellent branded products such as Quadro, FG Library, Ultraplay etc, at Play and Learn.

  

As children play not only do they enhance their fine motor skills and gross motor skills development but they also develop cognitive, social, emotional, physical skills they would need to take them into a successful adulthood! Hence having a place like Play and Learn around town is a relief for educators as now, they could pick and select tools and items that would enable children to learn confidence, cooperation, negotiation, sharing and empathy along with developing intelligence, curiosity, flexibility, communication skills and problem solving ability.  

 

Check out GPS Location details and contact numbers of Play and Learn at www.rush360.qa by searching for Play and Learn.

Qatar Book Club - Reconnecting people with Books!

What is the Book you are reading these days? Well. be ready to hear this "What is your Book Club reading these days?"

Yes, if you are in Doha, and felt you have left your cozy living room book clubs with your friends, then do not despair! There is one in Qatar just sprouting!

Qatar Book Club is a brain child of a Qatari and French couple and was launched in September 2014 at Katara. The event was well attended and was interactive.

Details  of Qatar Book Club could  also be found at www.rush360.qa by seraching for "Book Club"

So what is it all about?

According to their website The Qatar Book Club aims to reconnect people with books and each other. It is a project by the community, for the community. 

Apart from organizing discussions on books this book club will be hosting other activities throughout the year, such as movie screenings, workshops and more in different locations. Follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook to keep upto date of their upcoming events. 

The first book discussion will be taking place on the 26th of November at the Red Velvet Cupcakery , Katara Cuktural Village at 6.30pm  where they will be reading Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar latest book “The Dohmestics”. Location details of Red Velvet Cupcakery can be found at www.rush360.qa by saerching for Cupcakes or Red Velvet.

Who can join?

If you’re an avid reader or if you've lost connection with books and want to find your way back to reading, you knocked at the right door.

To make it easier and more accessible, Qatar book club is entirely English speaking/reading and open to all.

How to join?

To become a member, you can register here. The membership costs QR150 per person , per year which can be paid when you attend one of their gatherings.

Membership gives you access to all book discussions for free, free priority access to the books bought by QBC for the discussions, and you benefit from a 50% discount on all events and workshops organized by QBC.

Not sure you want to register for the whole year? You can still attend book discussions by paying QR30 fee per session. 

Additionally Qatar Book Club has come up with something more! Yes they are going to set up Book Exchange Booths all around Qatar. Leave a book and Take a book!

One such booth is already set up at the Youth Club. Location details for this booth could be found at www.rush360.qa by searching for "Book Exchange Booth"

So here is an opportunity for you to Donate the books you do not need any more and benefit someone else!

This is a much needed initiative in Qatar and we wish all success to Qatar Book Club! Our sincere thanks to Iman Al Doubali for sharing the information with Rush360.

PS: As they set up booths around Qatar, all booth locations will be availbale at www.rush360.qa your elegant online directory and search engine!

Maktaba Qatar - Experience the Joy of Reading!

Four years ago three anxious mothers in Qatar with young children were desperately searching for programs that exposed their children to the joy of reading and encouraged them to fall in love with books. They were also very conscious of the fact that there was very limited access to age appropriate reading materials, particularly in Arabic, in Qatar.

Today, Sarah Champa Al Dafa, Hind AbdulRahman al Khulaifi and and Mohana Rajakumar are the proud Co Founders of "Maktaba" (the meaning of the Arabic word Maktaba is Library) a non profit organization that offers free, regularly scheduled Story Time Sessions at various locations in Doha and aims towards a Children's Lending Library at their own location very soon, offering a variety of reading materials and learning related programs.

Contact details of Maktaba can be found at www.rush360.qa by searching for "Maktaba"

Maktaba is very fortunate to partner with RasGas. Their support allowed Maktaba to launch a website and Maktaba Mobile Application. 

 "Both allow us to bring books and reading tips to children and parents. We have had over 10,000 downloads of Maktaba Mobile in 43 countries; the numbers are increasing," says Sarah.

Sarah is extremely thankful to RasGas and says: "Their generous support allows us to continue to grow and expand our programs year by year and benefit a larger audience of Qatar"

"Our first partners and story time hosts were (and still are) Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Katara Arts Center. 3 years later, our regular events at both locations are very popular." recalls Sarah.

In June 2014 Maktaba partnered with Kalimat Publishing based in the UAE to bring Story Time with Baba to WH Smith. This event focused on encouraging families, especially fathers, to get involved with reading to their children.

What does Maktaba offer?

• Regular Scheduled Storytime Sessions for Children at Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Katara Arts Center, WH Smith at Ezdan Mall
• Festival and Book Fair Programs
• You can invite Maktaba for a Session at your convenient venue and they would be glad to host a Storytime and craft activities for a very small fee.

Maktaba's Calendar is available at their website and they keep everyone up to date on all their activities via social media accounts including Facebook and Twitter. 

Great news is that  children are not required to bring anything to the sessions. Maktaba provides all the reading and crafting materials. When possible, through the generous support of partners and sponsors, they also do giveaways of books or reading related materials. Isn't that just awesome? Do not miss the next session! Keep an eye on their calendar!

We asked Sarah to describe a typical Story Time Session, and this is what she had to say:

"Each story time has a few key activities. we read a story in both English and Arabic. We try to choose stories in both languages under a shared theme. We then work together on a related craft activity which could be book making, shadow puppetry or drawing. "

Our goal is to encourage kids to reflect on what they have heard and respond through crafts. At the end of each session we ask the participants to present their work to the group. We find this is a great way to reinforce the value of their work and build self confidence".   

"We focus on reading in Arabic because there are fewer programs supporting reading in Arabic. All of our sessions are bi-lingual Arabic/English so everyone can participate and even learn a few new words in either language."

One of the applauding achievements of Maktaba was the Guinness World Record! In April Maktaba partnered with RasGas, the Supreme Education Council and Bloomsbury Qatar  to break the Guinness World Record for the largest Children's Reading Lesson.

 

When asked, what were or are the challenges Maktaba faced and facing in this journey?, Sarah confidently says: "Starting something new is always a challenge but we have been pleased by our progress and the interest of the community"

"There is an expanding interest in reading and supporting a culture of reading in Qatar. There are amazing on-line resources available from the Qatar National Library for example (follow @QNLib for more info). There are also some great book clubs such as Qatar Book Club and Khair Jalees." 

Our sincere thanks to Sarah Champa Al Dafa for sharing these much valuable information about Maktaba with Rush360 inspite of her busy schedules. We wish Mataba all success in this noble Journey!

PS: Locations of Mathaf Museum of Modern Art, Katara, WHSmith can be found at www.rush360.qa with accurate maps and details!

First Little Free Library in Qatar - Umayr's Little Free Library!

Gardens are easier to find in Qatar, but, how many of you have seen Libraries in Qatar? Except for the libraries in schools there aren't many Libraries around here. For those of you who come from places where Public Libraries are the core of learning it would be hard to digest this. Instead of complaining lets get inspired by a little boy who brought the First Little Free Library to Qatar!

What's a Little Free Library?

As per the website its described as follows:

"It’s a “take a book, return a book” gathering place where neighbours share their favorite literature and stories. In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share"

This is Umayr with his Little Free Library in Wakra. 

 

The location and details of Umayr's Little Free Library can be found at www.rush360.qa by searching for "Free Library" (Pin your location, and set the radius to more than 100KM and do an exact search)

Umayr's Mom Yasmin was more than happy to answer our queries with regard to this interesting project. Read on....

When did you start this Library?
We opened the library to the public in April 2013.

What made you and your family embark on this Project?
When Khalid (Umayr's Dad) first moved to Qatar (with us still back in Canada), he got a sense that there were not many accessible public libraries.  Since we all love to read, he asked us to pack all the books and get them here.  So we brought with us several boxes full of books.
As we settled in and Umayr (and his older brother Saad) made friends with other kids in our compound, he started sharing his books with them.  People would regularly visit to borrow books from Umayr.  While we started lending out books, we thought of how we could do this efficiently.  We thought of starting a mini library with the usual check-in check-out system.

During this time I (Umayr's mom) started looking online for how to go about starting a private library, and stumbled upon the Little Free Library (LFL) project!  This was exactly what we wanted, and how Umayr's Little Free Library was born.
Once we launched the LFL, it was an instant hit!  Lots of kids from the compound and some adults thronged to it.


How do you register the Library? Can anyone start this anywhere?
Anyone can (and should :-)  start a LFL in their community. Registration is quite easy and with a nominal fee. On registration, the Library gets listed on the Little Free Library world map.
All details including tips on building the box for the books are available on the Little Free Library website.

We will be glad to answer any questions as well. We are hoping this idea will catch up and more LFLs will spring up in other parts of Qatar.


How did you set it up?
After registering the library, it took us some time to get the library box made locally here with the help of a carpenter.  We then painted it at home.  The compound maintenance people gladly built us a small pedestal outside our house for the box.

We then launched a Facebook page for the LFL, mainly to keep the patrons updated about the library. The page recently got 100+ "Likes!"


How does it work?
The library works on the simple idea of "Take a book, leave a book."  There is no need to become a member nor there is any fees. There are no checking out of books. It's purely based on honour system.
One doesn't even have to leave a book behind though it is encouraged.


What are the collection of Books you have?
The books keep changing all the time. A sampling of books we have had in the past are:
A Hatful of Seuss,

Guinness Book of World Records,
The Rainmaker,
The Help,
Kira - Kira,
Captain Underpants,
Bob's Busy Screwdriver,
DW rides again, and many more.


Is it only for Children?
It is not just for kids, though most books are for kids. Adults are more than welcome to drop by.


Can anyone and everyone from all over Qatar visit your library and borrow books? What are the timings if so?
Everyone is welcome to Umayr's Little Free Library! As the library is not manned, one can come any time of the day. It's always open!


Do they have to return the book they borrow?
Ideally, one would bring a book with them and leave it behind when taking a book from the LFL. Please note that the book they leave behind may be taken by someone else and the original donor may never see it again.
However, if you do not have a book to leave behind, you may just borrow one and return it at your convenience.
Finally, if you do not get a chance to return the book, that is fine too. We do not track the books!


Do you have a particular system with regard to keeping track of who borrows and returns?
Nope. Nothing is tracked. If you wish, leave a book behind when borrowing.


How does it work so far in Qatar especially a country where you hardly find any public or children’s Library except for one or two?
The library is doing quite good.  At evening time you can see kids from the compound gather around the Library.  Some people have contacted us on how to go about it.  Several people have donated books as well.  We're really glad to have this going.  Umayr is always excited about it.  Something he looks forward to checking every day on returning from school.



How do you deal with wear and tear and also irresponsibilities by some kids and adults in terms of taking care of the books?
The books do undergo wear and tear as can be expected. We try to keep them intact by taping or gluing from time-to-time. We hope with time the community will start doing this as well for the books they take.

What are the advantages of this Project?
It's an excellent, low-cost, and fun way of sharing the joy of reading. Good and low-tech way to encourage community engagement. These benefits were covered in a recent article in The Atlantic, which also featured Umayr's Little Free Library.

What are the drawbacks?
There aren't any drawbacks per se. There is very little risk of vandalism, especially in a safe country like Qatar.


What is the commitment required on your part when you register the Library and if you for some reason need to relocate or unable to continue this project what are you required to do?
We do tend to the library box regularly like keeping it clean, stacking the books nicely, rotating the books, and restocking it when someone doesn't return a book.
If we relocate, the library moves with us as it does require regular cleaning and restocking. In Umayr's words "I don't want to leave my library alone"

What have your little man as well as your whole family learnt from this project?

This has been a great experience for all of us, especially Umayr. He is stopped at school and asked how the library is doing.
Umayr's Little Free Library was also covered by local online news outlet, Doha News, which got encouraging comments:
It has become an avenue for us to give back to the community.

Rush360 Qatar Team sincerely thank Yasmin for taking the time to patiently answer our questions. We congratulate little Umayr for his valuable initiative and if any one of you get inspired and start a Little Free Library in your neighbourhood in Qatar do not forget to let us know. Rush360 will surely want to have you listed!

 Knowledge is better than wealth.

(Ali bin Abee Taalib)