Organizations, publishing houses, bookstores, schools and public figures in Romania are coming together around an ambitious goal: to bring reading aloud back into the daily routine of parents and children. Andreea Nistor, specialist in education, explains at Interviews the Truth what the new campaign brings.
1,700,000 words: the number that changes perspective
This is not a new educational app, nor is it a mandatory school curriculum. “Fitness for children’s minds” is a six-week campaign that starts from something much older and simpler: reading aloud together as a family.
Digital Nation, the InfinitEdu Association and the Bosch Romania Foundation, along with 10 publishing houses, bookstores, Opera Comică pentru Copii and dozens of educational and media partners have joined together to convince parents, grandparents, educators and teachers from all over the country that 15 minutes of reading aloud a day can become an opportunity to develop children’s passion for books and reading.
“Studies show that between a child who is read aloud every day for 15-20 minutes and one who is not read to at all or has no books at home, the difference in vocabulary is 1,700,000 words versus 700,000. And words are nothing but concepts and notions, the raw material our brains operate with. When we read aloud to children for 15 minutes each day, they simply get smarter,” says Andreea Nistor, specialist in education.
“Fitness for children’s minds”: three simple routines, free workshops and a national platform
The campaign is built around what Andreea Nistor calls “daily routines”, small gestures that anyone can adopt, regardless of the budget or the schedule of the day.
The first routine it’s about choosing books. The campaign team collaborates with publishing houses and partner bookstores to curate titles written by contemporary authors or translations of high-value international authors, books that not only give the child a story, but also a reason to think and move.
The second routine is about the parent-child connection, a real problem of modern families:
“We can’t expect the little ones to love reading, if their life from morning to night is governed by the rush to not be late for school, by the attention given to all the devices in the house and a television that is constantly on. If we, as adults, find the chance to gather a little and connect with the children, this would represent the moment when we can really start a reading that for children becomes an experience”.
explains Andreea Nistor for the Adevărul Interviews.
The third routine refers to the personal example: “children will always do what they see”:
“Children don’t do what we say they should do. They will always do what they see. If a parent has a book in their hand, if they spend part of their free time reading, even a magazine, the child understands that reading is a real option for free time, not just an assignment to check off.” says Andreea Nistor.
All campaign activities are centralized on the platform
generationsmart.rocompletely free, accessible to anyone in the country, with a section dedicated to parents, with dozens of activities that can be done at home, outside, during the week or at the weekend.
Another section is exclusively for teachers, educators, learners and those who want to integrate valuable titles into the school curriculum. Online workshops already held are available and recorded, and future ones can be accessed by registering on the website. The online format was chosen precisely to also reach rural communities or small towns.
“We really want to show the teachers in the classroom, that the entire school curriculum in Romania can be addressed through other titles, than the ones with which today’s children no longer resonate. We have thousands of teachers enrolled in our workshops, which we chose to host online, precisely because there is a great effervescence in the province and in the countryside. We took this step and we really wanted to be close to the teachers, educators and professors from all over country”, says the education specialist.
700 prizes and almost a million minutes read: a marathon come to life
To keep the excitement alive during the six weeks, the organizers built a system of weekly rewards: 700 prizes in total, given to parents, grandparents, teachers who answer one question: “What did I read today with my children?”
The logic behind this mechanism is simple: routine is formed through repetition, and public recognition of small gestures is one of the most effective tools for behavior change.
Prizes are not toys or gadgets. The winners can receive the visit of a Romanian author to the classroom, regardless of whether it is in Bucharest or in the province, accompanied by a reading of stories and gift books for the students.
Another prize consists of a set of tickets for the whole class to the “Comic Opera for Children”, where the characters from the books come to life in performances with symphonic music and elaborate costumes.
The campaign will also fully equip a rural school library, a gesture that transforms a community, not just a child. The final winners will be awarded in a ceremony in Bucharest, which will also mark the official end of the campaign.
Until then, the numbers speak for themselves: more than 15,000 parents and teachers from all over the country have been actively involved, hundreds of people have participated in each online workshop, and the number of minutes read aloud is approaching the 1,000,000 mark.
“Most of the activities in the workshops that we have in the coming period take place at the Comic Opera for Children, as part of the Open Book Festival, which starts on March 6. For all those who need a program next weekend, both parents and children are waiting for them at the Comic Opera, where the reading workshops hosted by us take place, as well as dozens of other activities, all related to books. There will be many launches of new books for children, either by authors famous, or of authors with super potential, whom we are happy to support”, says Andreea Nistor for The Truth interviews.
A quarter of an hour of reading a day does not mean, therefore, just a nice bedtime story. It means new neural pathways, the ability to imagine what has not yet been seen, and mental tools with which the child will interpret the world for the rest of his life. The message of the campaign is a firm one: reading aloud is not optional, it is essential.
Watch the full edition from The Truth interviews and join the “Fitness for children’s minds” campaign. We don’t need revolutionary methods, expensive subscriptions or overtime. We need fifteen minutes a day, a good book in hand and the courage to stop, for a few moments, the noise around us.
