Celebrating Children's Creativity

Books written by children
of Botswana aged between
5-11 years.

What happens when you get a teacher and an author in the same room? A lot of chat and a wealth of ideas. Add coffee, cake and the down to earth voice of a business manager and suddenly dreams and visions become a tangible reality and The Honeycomb Wood – where stories come out to play - is formed.

Amazing food provided by the
Iskon Temple

Whilst teaching, some of my favourite lessons to teach were writing books when children could let loose their creativity and let their imaginations run wild. The only drawback within schools was time and the necessity to include the specific learning objectives for that term – connectives of the week, adverbial openers and punctuation that even as teachers we weren’t entirely sure what it was for!

Beautiful hanging bee mobile
we on sale made by local
artisans. This one is now a
beautiful addition
to The Honeycomb (with 2 more
on order for friends overseas!)

The awesome Topher Kash

There is something very inspiring for children in reading books written by children, for children. To this end, at the Honeycomb Hub, we are extremely proud of our latest project where we have collaborated with Kalahwood, a new publishing company, to form The Honeycomb Wood. Under this name we have held 4 writing courses for children. From this we have helped 14 children aged between 5 years and 11 years to write, illustrate, edit and now publish their own books which are for sale at The Honeycomb Hub.

There were moments of stress on our side – not from the children but from technical hitches including computer programs, sizing of documents and printers not delivering as promised. However we are so thankful for the patience and support of the children and their parents as we overcame obstacles and learned from our mistakes.

Storytelling - the back bone to what we do at Honeycomb Wood
-getting your stories out there.

Tiny Town got turned into an
interactive Sensory Experience

Sharing language and collecting words
at the Interactive Sensory Exhibition

On Sunday 29th July 2018
we held the first Honeycomb Wood Book Festival (which we believe was actually the first book festival to be help in Gaborone) to launch the books for these 14 children. Delicious food by the Iskon Temple, craft stalls by local artisans, Ballet performances by La Danse Panier Dance Studio and music by the one and only Topher Kash meant there was a great atmosphere – our parking lot had never been so festive! However, the show was totally and utterly stolen by the young, now published, author-illustrators.

A Proud Mama moment with the
youngest author:
Sebastian Burkett aged 5 years.

My heart melted as I watched them see their words in print for the first time and the smile barely left my face all day! Most of them braved the stage giving a brief overview of their stories and some even reading from their books too. I only wish we had thought to put out an autograph table for them too - next year! I am so proud of those children who have proved that writing and illustrating is not something to be scared of, but something we are all capable of if we take a deep breath and put pen to paper.

The Honeycomb Wood (Alexandra Orford and Abigail Burkett) will continue to run writing courses and publish books for the children of Botswana. And the best bit? You don’t even have to be able to write (as our two 5 year olds discovered)! If you can tell a story, we can scribe it for you.

Lone Moepswa reading from her book
The Family Dolphin

Our next course starts next week when we shall be running 2 consecutively though both now fully booked. One at The Honeycomb Hub in Gaborone and the other in Maun! We hope to use video calling to share the process between North and South. We are also very grateful to have kind sponsors who are enabling children to take part in the course who would not otherwise have the opportunity to do so.

Our car park has never been so
busy yet relaxed!
It was a great atmosphere.

We shall also be running a course on 5 consecutive Thursdays starting 20th September 2-4pm. If you are interested in this course, donating towards sponsorship or further information about what we do as Honeycomb Wood please email thehoneycombhub@outlook.com or call 75935900 for more information.

Finally, I am very proud to announce that our amazing authors now have their books for sale

Fezile Motlhale explaining what
he enjoyed most about writing
his book: Immortal Heroes.

Amazon. Please follow these links to see their books or pop in to The Honeycomb Hub to view the copies in our book corner or even purchase them and help us celebrate children’s creativity. You can also buy from smile.amazon.co.uk and then a percentage of every purchase goes to one of 5 chosen charities - and you can choose which one! (If you buy from Amazon, the profits go towards the authors themselves too!)