The covid-19 health crisis caused the general closure of ECD centers and schools, which affected the life of all children and their learning process. Thus, Primero lo Primero -a collective impact alliance- in partnership with the LEGO Foundation co-designed a kit based on a learning through play approach, to support children's comprehensive development at home by engaging parents in their process.
Aprendamos Jugando is an innovative kit that promotes learning through play with children at home by inviting them to build fantastic characters and objects while strengthening their cognitive, creative, motor and communication skills as well as solidifying the socio-affective bond between them and their parents or caregivers.
How to play? Children and adults read the illustrated stories and make drawings inspired by them. With the materials included in the kit, children cut-out their drawings, punch holes on them, join them together with a cardboard connector to create characters or objects with movement, and finally tell stories about their creations.
The kit also invites to enrich play by including recycled and natural materials to make new creations. Moreover, we created videos as training support for parents and caregivers to understand the purpose and use of the kit, as well as to have creative ideas to play with children (https://www.facebook.com/plpcolombia/).
Aprendamos Jugando has been delivered to more than 118,000 children aged 3 to 8 living in 35 municipalities across Colombia, through Primero lo Primero partners (Fundación Carulla-aeioTU, Fundación Pies Descalzos, Fundación Santo Domingo and United Way Colombia) and 14 additional allies nationwide.
To increase our impact and benefit the learning process of more children, we created a website to share the kit: www.aprendamosjugando.org. Here, we offer a free digitized version of Aprendamos Jugando so that parents and caregivers in Colombia and in Latin America can use our innovation.
Finally, we accompanied the above with a robust communications strategy to create awareness about the importance of learning through play and its benefits, as well as to promote the use of the kit.
Our innovation is an open resource that should be used by anyone willing to promote learning thorugh play with children in their early years:
1. The digitized version of the kit is available for free on the website: www.aprendamosjugando.org
2. If you are an organization and want to have the physical version of the kit, please send an email to Primero lo Primero: asalazar@primeroloprimero.org
