International Children’s Day fest instills love of reading in kids

During this year’s International Children’s Day, which lasted three days and concluded on Saturday, kids at the Kingdom enjoyed a large variety of activities, including reading sessions, drawing workshops, poem recitation, contests, theater plays and folkloric performances, among many other events.
“These days were like a cloud of joy for our children because of all the different activities they brought,” said a father at the children’s fair. His son near him validated his statement, as he refused to go back home, but preferred to stay and read some more.
The festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Information all over the Kingdom, including the capital Riyadh, attracted over 60 exhibitors. They included individual companies and organizations, government departments and civil societies.
Among the many stalls, one of the most successful was Dr. Muna Al-Belaihid’s, an expert in child education, who conducted a workshop for young girls on creative story writing for children.
Another popular stand was a lead pencil drawing contest run by the Ministry of Health which was followed by a short introductory session on the Palm Tree Shape Nutrition System and nutritional benefits of fruits and vegetables.
The Saudi Anti-Smoking Society (Purity) also had a stall for awareness on smoking and its health dangers. “We were here to educate children on the harms of smoking. You know that children very quickly tend to imitate their seniors in any habit, including smoking. ” said the society’s adviser, Waleed Fathi.
Some embassies also participated in the fair with active stalls. At the Indian stall, which featured children’s books, visitors were shown photos of different parts of the country and the local animals, with Indian folkloric performances included.
At the Japanese stall, Japanese language Saudi students were seen writing the names of visiting children and accompanying adult as part of the activity of the stall.
“This the second year for me to participate in this fair, writing the name of visitors in Japanese. Usually it’s the adults who ask for their name written in Japanese, much more then kids,” said Abulaziz Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, a student.