Swiendlo swa mfenhe (Xitsonga)
The Little Library Life Skills Kit (along with the Literacy and Numeracy Kits) was initially developed to respond to a need for high quality, indigenous books for the younger members of our communities. After ten years successful use in schools, the kits have now been revised to meet the changing needs of learners, schools and the new education policies. The Life Skills Kit focuses on promoting life skills to learners of five to nine years of age, as stated in the National Curriculum Statement. Monkey business is written in verse with a simple rhyming scheme. A monkey family watch a human family having a picnic. They watch them drink beer and smoke cigarettes, and copy them after the humans leave. The curious monkeys feel ill from the beer and cigarettes and also set fire to the forest. Eventually they decide that some human habits are not worth copying.
In the story 'Swiendlo swa mfenhe', a family is having a picnic in an area where there are monkeys. The monkeys watch the humans drink beer and smoke cigarettes. When the picnic is over, the people leave, leaving all their litter behind. The curious monkeys copy what the humans did. They drink beer, smoke cigarette butts and set fire to the forest. Feeling ill from beer and cigarettes and frightened by the fire, the monkeys work together to tidy up and set things right. They realise that certain human habits are not worth copying.
- This book forms part of the highly successful Little Library Life Skills Kit.
- Responds to the need for high quality, indigenous material with a local context.
- Focuses on NCS requirements in the area of Life Orientation, but can also be successfully integrated with other Learning Programmes at the same level.
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