"Think and Create your own Hobbies" is a project carried out by six Primary Schools: EDIFACOOP, CRL (Coordinator - Portugal), 107 Primary School "Khan Krum" (Bulgaria), Jelgavas 6 vidusskola (Latvia) and CEIP Nuestra Señora de la Victoria (Spain), Cengiz Topel Ilkokulu (Turkey) and 9th Primary school of Nea Ionia Volou (Greece). To avoid overuse of technologies, dependency and addictive behaviors that lead to stress, sleep problems and low social and school performance, it's urgent to teach children to assertively manage time beyond classes and school work. Betting on healthier activities instead of the uncontrolled use of technologies is a bet on physical, psychological, emotional, social well-being, is a bet on the future of our pupils. Technologies are here to stay, but it's also important to understand the prevalence of its problematic use. We should engender strategies to minimize the problems. Thus, if children are challenged to find sources of personal well-being and fulfillment, it will be halfway to using technologies intelligently. Practicing a sport, discovering a vocation, collecting, imagining games, volunteering, are more beneficial occupations. The project intends to create alternatives to fill the void that free time may cause. Focusing on hobbies, designed by children themselves, can be an added value for a more balanced, responsible and sustainable citizenship. To think of a hobby is also to think of a way to relax, to develop cognitive and mental faculties, to envision reality, to discover hidden skills, talents, and areas of interest. Above all, it's essential that leisure activities do not appear only as an escape from the daily routine. The project objectives are: 1- To raise awareness of pupils and families on the impact of new technologies and the need to define rules for its assertive use, at school and at home; 2- To encourage lifelong learning and non-formal education; 3- To enlighten the importance of children's motor and cognitive development, making them more skilled through the manipulation of different objects and materials, mental exercise, games, and invention of ways to fill their own time; 4- To understand the child's needs in the development of language skills (mother tongue and English language) and in the way they relate to others, in a safe and sustainable way; 6- To advise vigilance and sense of responsibility, whenever the child uses the Internet to establish communication; 7- To encourage the creation of new challenges, by testing skills, experimental practice, learning to learn; 8- To motivate for play, while developing intrinsic skills to the growth of the individual; 9- To avoid in the child the sedentarism and the lack of social interaction and develop the ability to relate to others and the real world, avoiding isolation when giving priority to technologies; 10- To teach how to abdicate social pressure and not spend large amounts of money in the acquisition of technology, replacing it with something more economical; 11- To develop partner schools' ability to cooperate at a European/international level and create synergies with other institutions. 12- To involve in the project individuals and institutions from civil society and the private and public sector for partnerships in the realization of some activities. In each term, a club will be highlighted and hobby models will be developed. Students will think and create their own hobbies that they will take home and to their families, in order to put them into practice and develop them for life. There will be: Games and Play Construction Club (Club 1); Manual and Domestic Arts Club (Club 2); Gardening and Environment Club (Club 3); Collecting Club (Club 4); Singing/Music/Dance/Drama Club (Club 5); Reading Club (Club 6); Experimental Science Club (Club 7); and Volunteer Club (Club 8). Each partner country will be responsible for the implementation of a club and magazine. The summer clubs will not have a facilitator country, students and families will be in charge of its implementation. The target audience of the project will be pupils from the partner schools (Primary level). The Educational Communities and families will be involved in the project in order to work, in articulation, on objectives linked to the integral education of the children and also to articulate with curricular objectives. The tangible results will be: - Youtube Channel - Podcast about Hobbies - Virtual Clubs - Project Website - ETwinning page Intangible results expected: - Partner schools will develop the capacity to cooperate on a transnational level and will be ready to participate in other projects at national and European level; - This project will strengthen the European dimension of the schools, teachers, pupils, and school communities involved, as the exchange of cultures and good practices will strengthen European values; - Pupils will use technology in an a rational way and create hobbies that encourage devolopment of skill
The project “ Think and create your own hobbies” in partnership with schools from Portugal, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Spain, and Latvia was a response to the needs of each partner institution. The project was created in order to avoid the overuse of technologies, dependence, and addictive behaviors, so children are able to find other sources that are healthier and more time fulfilling. The project objectives were: -Raise awareness of pupils and families on the impact of new technologies and the need to define rules for its assertive use, at school and at home; - Encourage lifelong learning and non-formal education; - Enlighten the importance of children's motor and cognitive development, by making them more skilled through the manipulation of different objects and materials, mental exercise, games, and invention of ways to fill their own time; - Understand the child's needs in the development of language skills (mother tongue and English language) and in the way they relate to others, in a safe and sustainable way; - Advise vigilance and sense of responsibility, whenever the child used the Internet to establish communication; - Encourage the creation of new challenges, by testing skills, experimental practice, and learning to learn; - Motivate for play, while developing intrinsic skills for the growth of the individual; - Avoid in the child, the sedentarism and the lack of social interaction and develop the ability to relate to others and the real world, avoiding isolation when giving priority to technologies; - Teach how to abdicate social pressure and not spend large amounts of money on the acquisition of technology, replacing it with something more economical; - Develop partner schools' ability to cooperate at a European/international level and create synergies with other institutions. - Involve in the project individuals and institutions from civil society and the private and public sectors for partnerships in the realization of some activities. The project priority is Support Individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competencies. All partner schools worked with their students, with dedication, responsibility, and collaborative spirit, supporting the neediest, in the different domains of their development and social and pedagogical/educational, so that everyone felt welcomed, understood, respected, and integrated into the group. This project foresaw the development of key competencies for our students during the project implementation period and throughout their life. This included multilingual competencies, critical thinking, creativity, cooperation in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics, as well as skills in fields such as climate action, but also social and learning-to-learn competencies. This includes actions of cooperation with players in civil society as well as in the private and public sectors. The activities developed monthly, the clubs ( Games and Play Construction Club (Club 1); Manual and Domestic Arts Club (Club 2); Gardening and Environment Club (Club 3); Collecting Club (Club 4); Singing/Music/Dance/Drama Club (Club 5); Reading Club (Club 6); Experimental Science Club (Club 7); and Volunteer Club (Club 8)) have contributed to the stated above. The concrete results developed during the project's implementation period were: - Youtube Channel - Podcast about Hobbies - Virtual Clubs - Project Website - ETwinning page