DECODE HOME – a digital environment for the development of children’s cognitive abilities
In previous newsletters, we informed you about two key outputs of the DECODE project, in which all project partners participated. These were the Methodology for Teachers and the Handbook for Parents, which serve to develop children’s cognitive abilities outside the kindergarten environment.
In this issue, we would like to present the third project output: the DECODE HOME – a digital learning platform that is freely available and ready to use anytime and anywhere. Whether you have a computer, a tablet or a smartphone, DECODE HOME is always at hand as a practical tool for developing your children’s cognitive skills.
DECODE HOME offers a set of activities focusing on five areas of cognitive development. The activities are clearly divided according to the environment in which they can be implemented – indoors (e.g. at home, ideal in bad weather) and outdoors (e.g. in the garden, in the park or when travelling, when you want to use your free time in a meaningful way).
The DECODE HOME digital environment contains a total of 320 play activities that are fun, varied and adapted to the age of children. They not only offer stimulating play and fun, but also support logical thinking, memory, attention, language skills and other key areas of cognitive development.
Try DECODE HOME and discover how easy it is to support learning through play – not only in kindergarten, but also at home or on the go.
Effective implementation of workshops for parents
Another important output of the DECODE project that we would like to present to you is a manual for educators called Effective implementation of workshops for parents. This handbook serves as a useful guide for kindergarten teachers who want to run a workshop for parents and get to know them better about what is happening in the kindergarten and what their children experience every day and how their education takes place.
The guide helps teachers to prepare and implement workshops for parents – from the initial planning to the actual activities. It provides practical advice on how long a workshop should be, what topics it should cover and how to structure it so that it is useful, understandable and engaging.
The chapters take you step by step through how to draw parents into the kindergarten environment, how to introduce the curriculum and how to involve them in activities they can try together – just like their children. This will help parents to understand what is happening in the nursery and to build on the learning activities at home.
The handbook also includes excerpts from workshops held in partner kindergartens within the DECODE project. These practical examples provide inspiration and concrete guidance on how the workshops were organised by experienced teachers directly in their classrooms.
The ” Effective implementation of workshops for parents ” is a great tool for building an open and trusting relationship between school and family – a relationship that has a major impact on a child’s development.
DECODE project partners meeting in March 2025
In March 2025, the eighth joint meeting of DECODE project partners took place, this time in the form of a personal meeting in Bratislava. It was organized by RAABE publishing house.
The meeting took place over two days and offered a space not only to take stock of the work so far, but also to plan future steps. At the beginning, we recalled together all the successfully completed deliverables so far, which were created in close cooperation between the partners. We then focused on the tasks that lie ahead in the final phase of the project.
During the meeting, thematic discussions were held in which partners shared their experiences, good practices and suggestions for further improvements. One of the key points of the agenda was also setting the date of the final conference of the DECODE project, which will take place on 10 June 2025 in Prague.
The meeting in Bratislava brought a lot of inspiration, new initiatives and above all strengthened the team spirit among the partners involved. The sharing of experiences and personal contact reaffirmed the importance of international cooperation in the field of early childhood education.
For more information on the project outputs, please visit the official project website www.decode.raabe.cz.