“A crisis of art is brewing.” This is proven by dozens of business ideas that have been implemented in recent months via the Internet, with… tangible results. A Greek “patent” is the first online kindergarten, the creation of 28-year-old Tina Minaretzi from Larissa. “I am an electrical and computer engineer and I particularly love children,” she tells “K,” who two years ago began working systematically to put her inspiration into practice.
“I wanted to combine technology, which every family now has access to, with education, as I had noticed a great lack of online educational material.” Tina chose preschool age, as “the material is more general and common in all countries.” The bilingual site, in Greek and English, is addressed equally to parents, kindergarten teachers, but also to the children themselves. “The entire platform is designed so that the child can browse on their own and be creative, after all, toddlers have the skills to operate a computer, the only obstacle is reading, which is why everything is recorded.”.
Kidogarten.com takes , whether parental assistance is required and what ages it is aimed at. “Parents can print both the instructions and the pattern”. The other section of activities includes material for the lesson of arithmetic, the environment and the arts. Browsing here is a pleasure for young and old: we listen to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”, read his biography, while also seeing works of art inspired by music. The material for visual arts follows a similar philosophy: a brief biography, as well as the most representative works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Klimt, Degas, Cezanne, etc. are available for young art lovers. Three more sections, the calendar, statistics and awards, serve for the overall overview of the child's activity and progress either by adults or by the child himself, always in a pedagogical way. Registration is required to use the page, the charge is 6.9 euros per month, while annual packages are offered for individual users or for school classes. "Our users have already reached 300". At the same time, Tina and her collaborators have created an application for iPhone and iPad, which presents Aesop's fable of the hare and the tortoise with animations, interactive games and puzzles. The pilot version has already been "downloaded" by 15,000 users from all over the world.
The business idea of 26-year-old biologist Gloria Konstantoudaki, founder of trozato.com, is in the process of being implemented. “I was inspired by the name from my homeland, Crete,” she tells “K,” explaining, “in my area, we call a trozo the one who is different, the one who used to be the village crazy.” Her goal is to introduce people to a healthier way of life and nutrition. We will cook healthy meals with Mediterranean flavors, which we will distribute to workers (initially) in the center of Athens, only our distributors will be… cyclists!” The biologist’s groundbreaking idea, which is scheduled to start in February, has already convinced many. “We will post the daily menu on the page, which will include a selection of casseroles, pans and bowls, while customers will be offered fruit, sweets and multi-grain bread.” For those who want to have a sample of Trozato’s “writing”, they can try his soups at the festival on Veikou Street, in Koukaki, on December 15.
