14 de July de 2026
What does it take for an ordinary routine—such as making a recipe or telling a bedtime story—to become a learning experience? This is the reflection that guides Labedu’s new article published in the newspaper O Globo, authored by Beatriz Cardoso, strategic advisor, and Nicole Paulet Piedra, Labedu’s executive director.
The text draws on data from the International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS), conducted by the OECD in Ceará, Pará, and São Paulo, to discuss families’ educational role and tackling inequalities in early childhood.
“What turns an ordinary routine into a learning experience is the adult’s presence, the willingness to listen to what the child has to say, and a minimum repertoire to recognize and enhance what is happening there,” the authors state in the article.
The study shows that more than half of Brazilian families rarely read, sing, or play with numbers with their young children, and that these differences already appear at age 5, associated with children’s socioeconomic level and race. This does not mean shifting more responsibility onto families, who are already overburdened, but rather understanding what makes these opportunities possible. This is what Labedu has been doing over the past decade: we have worked alongside Departments of Education and Social Assistance, from the rural areas of Maranhão to the urban outskirts of São Paulo, in an inter-institutional effort to strengthen this role within the community and with the support of public policies.
In practice, this translates into initiatives such as the 7 Fundamental Childhood Experiences, a set of Labedu materials that supports families and caregivers in enriching everyday interactions with children aged 0 to 6. Each experience organizes simple activities around core dimensions of development: listening to texts read aloud is one of them, and it can happen with a picture book before sleep, a story told along the way, or a recipe read together in the kitchen.
Read the article in the newspaper here.