By Ilkim Ayşe Mükan

Early Birds Istanbul employee

No matter how nature-oriented an education system is, that does not mean that technology should have no place as an educational element. The following is the story of how we integrated the often stigmatized "screen" into our project-based learning concept, which revolves around nature and raw materials, as well as the children's imagination.

As part of our "Making Books" project, one of the activities was to comment on and label the pages of the book. The children were asked to tell the story of the book in their own words.

We decided on the theme of our book, carefully selected our painted artwork, compiled our photos, illustrated our pages, and began to write the text. In a book where everything was decided and created by the children, the usual clear and firm lines of everyday fonts available on the computer seemed to contradict the EBI spirit. We encourage the children's original work in every way because they are very proud of it, and we avoid using products that have been pre-made by adults.

How do children create their own font?

We had already practiced writing with the children by having them copy the recipes in our cookbook, the text in invitations, and letters to our friends who had moved abroad. Our group of 4-6 year olds was more than ready for the exciting task of designing their own fonts using an online tool.

After months of intensive work on our phonics and writing exercises, we immersed ourselves in the world of fonts. This began by tracing out the individual letters. The lines were crooked, the ink was smudged, the dots were a little too big, and some of the letters resembled anything but the Latin alphabet - but it was just perfect! The children were very proud of the font that they had designed. It was named BlueJays'23.

Imagine that ten years from now, when you write a letter to a beloved relative or an old classmate abroad, you can simply choose your own handwriting from your kindergarten days.

When we were putting together the Earth Oven Cookbook, we realized that the creativity of younger children should also be included. What about recipes from our 2-3 year olds, or 3-4 year olds? They may be developing different fine motor skills, but that doesn't mean their pages should consist solely of letters and words. They deserve the same opportunity to contribute their creativity. They did so with their drawings, which replaced the words.

As an unexpected bonus, our original font design, "Blue Jays'23," was officially approved by the Turkish Patent Office. We are all incredibly proud of this achievement, which represents a significant milestone for this unique project.