Timmy Mouse Educational Project
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What is this project about
It is about education, it is about children and it is about opportunities. In northeastern Romania, unfortunately hard unseen poverty still has a tight grip on many adults as well as children. This Romanian region deals with bitter poverty and therefore it is not strange that kindergartens and schools do not have sufficient educational materials. The chances of developing a learning deficit are high in these circumstances.
In order to support those children, the Timmy Mouse Educational Project provides school books free of charge to kindergartens, hospitals and orphanages, aiming to stimulate children in their learning and development process in the earliest phases of education.
In order to support those children, the Timmy Mouse Educational Project provides school books free of charge to kindergartens, hospitals and orphanages, aiming to stimulate children in their learning and development process in the earliest phases of education.
Many things develop inside a child’s mind until the age of 6, the brain is growing very fast. For instance, if we look at language development, it is a miracle to watch an infant’s vocabulary increase from 700 at a toddler’s age to 3,000 at the age of 5. The emerging science of brain development shows that a child’s brain must be stimulated before the child starts regular education at 6-7 years old, otherwise the brain will not develop correctly. The Timmy Mouse Educational Project adheres to this vision and aims to help teachers with the materials, so the young children can develop the important basic knowledge in a playful way.
Many things develop inside a child’s mind until the age of 6, the brain is growing very fast. For instance, if we look at language development, it is a miracle to watch an infant’s vocabulary increase from 700 at a toddler’s age to 3,000 at the age of 5. The emerging science of brain development shows that a child’s brain must be stimulated before the child starts regular education at 6-7 years old, otherwise the brain will not develop correctly. The Timmy Mouse Educational Project adheres to this vision and aims to help teachers with the materials, so the young children can develop the important basic knowledge in a playful way.
Why is this project important
The following figures will show why we are working hard to keep this program up and running:
The European Union, the World Bank, UNICEF and many other monitors agree in several reports that Romania is at the very bottom of the list when it comes to poverty and its related problems. According to Eurostat’s most recent data, Romania is the second poorest country in the EU. The rate of Children at Risk of Poverty or social exclusion from 6 to11 years was 36.50% in December of 2021. Many of the children live in dire conditions.
Almost half of the Romanian population lives in the countryside. This is also our working field and poverty is most felt in this area; 2 out of 3 households face a deficiency of the most fundamental needs.
More figures tell us that over 66% of the Romanians living in the countryside or in the mountain villages have insufficient income to make a basic living.
This poverty is a vicious circle, in which malnutrition, lack of education and lack of employment sustain poverty.
In a report, the following question is asked:
“Are they poor because they lack education, or do they lack education because they are poor?”
There is no obvious answer to this question, because they are faced with problems that seem to have no solution and that have grave consequences in the long run. But the lack of education feeds the poverty of many Romanians living in the rural areas – and this starts by giving up education. This also means their opportunities for a better future are nipped in the bud.
Education must not be a luxury, it is a right of the child (article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child). And in the long run, the more opportunities a child has to learn and develop, the stronger his or her position in society will be.
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How did this project come to be, and how does it run on-site
About 15 years ago, we came into contact with the Romanian Children’s Humanitarian Foundation (RCHF), situated close to the Moldavian border. In short, this foundation aims to improve the quality of life of children, poor families and elderly people mainly in eastern Romania.
During this time, our daughter created a preschool program and taught it to a number of Roma children. She continued to monitor several of those children and it turned out that these children profited highly from the program, which improved their school results!
My own affinity for working with children and materials was mainly founded in the seven years I worked as a psychological pedagogical assistant in an educational centre.
This combination, together with the development of a basic hygiene book as an easy learning tool for children on this subject was the kick-off for the development of educational materials and swiftly grew into the current Timmy Mouse Educational Project.
The distribution of the materials is done in close cooperation with RCHF and existing contacts are used, which were built up by the Romanian foundation over the course of 30 years. The schools that receive the materials have to sign for it and they are visited regularly to check if the materials are on site and in use.
The distribution of the materials is done in close cooperation with RCHF and existing contacts are used, which were built up by the Romanian foundation over the course of 30 years. The schools that receive the materials have to sign for it and they are visited regularly to check if the materials are on site and in use.
Beside the materials for children, we also direct our attention to the teachers. They are trained in using the materials. It is not only important to teach the children; the way in which the material is offered to them is also key.
In principle, it is very simple: we stimulate the child to look and combine information, we fuel its imagination, we teach the child to ask questions and encourage it to tell something from their own experience. In short: ‘learning to communicate and learning more through communication’.
After all it is the teacher who, through communication, will help the children and stimulate them to internalize the basic elements needed for the course of their education.
What has been done so far
From the start in 2014 until this moment 40.000 books have been sent to Romania.
I would also like to mention that all these years the printing has been taken care of by printer Strijbos Graphic Group, Eindhoven. And not only that, they have made regular contributions so that as many books as possible could be printed.
The educational material and our goal for the future
1. Timmy Mouse Look-and-Learn-cards parts I and II:
These sets consist of boxes of 251 and 217 cards and include a teacher’s manual.
Part I is divided into 22 categories, such as: farm animals, in and around the house, food, transport, health, exercise, nature, opposites, numbers, shapes, colours, alphabet.
Part II consists of 17 categories, such as: instruments, buildings, drinks, tools, professions, landscapes, in the kitchen, senses.
The manual describes how to work with the cards. There are exemplary questions, related to the young child’s level of understanding and experience. It provides room for the teacher to take notes in order to adjust the materials as well as possible to the children’s level of development and to use the materials as broadly as possible.
This set of cards is also very useful for learning foreign language vocabulary. In the manual, a page has been added with the English translation of the cards and categories.
2. Timmy Mouse Look-and-Learn-book parts I and II:
These books contain all the pictures from the Look-and-Learn-cards and these are named in Romanian. In part 2, the pictures come with questions.
3. Timmy’s Dream Rocket
In this read-aloud picture book there are 32 pages. It is about Timmy, who builds a rocket in a shed with his friend. When Timmy gets so tired he falls asleep and starts dreaming, things get really exciting!
4. Geography with Timmy Mouse
This book helps and stimulates young children to recognize and explore their own environment and to slowly expand their knowledge of it.
Starting in a familiar place – the house – the children ‘walk’ with the teacher and pass important subjects, which will form the base of their knowledge of Earth, their world.
The teacher’s manual contains questions and tips to convey the material as clearly as possible and to adjust it to the children’s developmental level.
5. Language with Timmy Mouse
A basic language book, in which Timmy teaches the children all letters in a playful manner. Furthermore, it contains some useful language exercises.
6. Counting with Timmy
The first half of this basic math book focuses on the numbers 1-10. Children can count and add. The second half introduces the numbers 10-20.
7. Early learning with Timmy Mouse
This book has 10 theme posters. Children learn 10 words in every poster. It also contains stories, math and language assignments and spatial insight is introduced playfully.
8. Timmy Mouse Exercise book
This workbook has 61 pages and contains all the exercises from the existing books, plus a large number of new language and math exercises. In this way there is no longer any need to write in the existing school books, which is a great improvement.
9. Timmy Mouse and the Fountain of Colours
In consultation with the teachers, a reading book was produced, with some work pages in the back of the book. It turns out that for many teachers reading books are high on the agenda.
10. Timmy Mouse and the Grumpy Cloud
This is a reading book with 34 pages, questions and exercises to learn English words. It is about a headstrong elf, a grumbling Timmy and a Wise Owl. Through cooperation and a positive mood, they work toward a happy ending.
11. Timmy Mouse All-in-One learning book
To have a most efficient learning tool, we created a book in which the main elements from the Timmy Mouse Language-, Counting-, Early Learning-, Geography-, and Look and Learn books will be presented in the same order as in the Timmy Mouse Exercise book. Together, these books will be a great complement to each other and educationally very easy to work with.
All materials are translated into Romanian by an interpreter.
The books are to remain at school. A book is available for each child in class. The materials are intended for children in the age of 3-7.
The future
The next step would be to collect enough resources to have all materials reprinted, because many more children could and should benefit from our early learning Timmy Mouse books!
Main goal is however to be able to reprint the Learning Cards and the Timmy Mouse All-in-One learning book together with the Timmy Mouse Exercise book. These learning materials are the result of 10 years experience in developing children’s books and have proven their value to children and teachers alike.
Therefor any kind of contribution to our goal would be most welcome and well spent, because we all work on a voluntary basis! Every donation is used 100% for the printing of school materials.
Your support counts!
Stichting Romanian Children’s’ Humanitarian Foundation receives some monthly donations from long standing supporters who recognize the importance of our work that brings hope and raises standards for the poorest of people in eastern Europe today including both children and the old aged people who suffer the most when living in hard circumstances. We educate children to a better standard in pre schools and schools via the superb Timmy Mouse educational aids that allow every child to learn with ease, plus provide essential school materials to many a child who’s parents have no financial means, support families in difficulty to raise their heads above water and allow a healthier lifestyle, plus help the sick back to health in well designed projects and also provide summer holiday camps for children without the possibility of even a days holiday and much more besides.
Educational support
We educate children and provide essential school materials to children in need.
Health care
We help the sick back to health in well designed projects.
Social support
We support families in difficulty to raise their heads above water.