What’s the longest you’ve been stuck in traffic? An hour or two, or maybe three? That’s a pretty long time to be sitting in a car slogging through a sea of red lights—and chances are it’ll feel like double that if you’ve got a handful of unruly kids sitting in the back.
“Ma! Ma! YouTube!” “Pa! Borrow iPad (proceeds to kick the back of the driver’s seat)!”
We know it’s tempting to just throw your kid a gadget so you can get some rest in traffic, but how about handing them a book instead? Call us old-fashioned, but the art of calm, quiet reading is something that seems to be lost in today’s youth.
This is why we’re really digging the idea behind the Lakbay Aklatan mobile library. From the outside, it looks like any ordinary Five Star bus, save for some inconspicuous decals up front. Once it opens its doors though, you’re greeted by a children’s library fit for a small school.
The Lakbay Alalay mobile library was launched in Tarlac just a few days ago at the Laoang Elementary School via a reading-aloud and open-reading session with students. The vehicle will proceed to be stationed at four other schools in other secluded barangays without access to a library.
According to the official Lakbay Alalay Facebook page, the goal of the project is to “improve reading proficiency among kids because we believe that it serves as the foundation to better and quicker learning once the child moves to upper-grade levels.”
With today’s traffic, maybe it would make sense to have Lakbay Aklatan units in Manila to bring the library to kids instead of the other way around. How about you guys? How do you get your kids to pass the time while stuck in traffic?
