Children and Parents Embrace 'Pokrig' Online Learning Platform

The Pokrig Tale site continues to publish stories in Western Armenian and help visitors learn Armenian during the quarantine. Pokrig has become highly popular in 21 countries with large Armenian communities. In the last two months, Pokrig stories’ view count has skyrocketed as the world has embraced distance learning. Website traffic has increased with the rate of visitors up by 82 percent compared to last month.

In the coming days, Pokrig will be displaying the creativity of young people on social media. Pokrig’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts will become available for children in 21 countries around the globe to demonstrate their talents, such as singing, reciting tongue twisters, handcrafting and reading poems under the “Let’s stay home and watch Pokrig!” program during this isolation period.

Illustrations, animations, sounds

Celebrating six years this month, Pokrig has produced more than 100 stories with two new stories added each month. In addition to text, each story is accompanied by illustrations, animations and narrations. Pokrig’s content is geared for children ages four to twelve; on its YouTube channel, users have the option to watch, read or listen to the stories. Stories are intended to entertain children in their mother tongue without any classroom stress or academic pressure. They also encourage young ones to think about and discuss concepts such as justice, empathy, courage, recycling and environmentalism.

Play and learn

The recently-added Activity Pages on its website offer a wonderful opportunity to learn new words and concepts and develop better reading and listening skills. Story-related games and instructions on the “Activity Pages” enable parents and teachers to reflect on a story together with the children.

The Pokrig website is made up of Armenian folk tales, fables, legends, myths, tongue twisters and contemporary stories. The site also includes prominent Armenian children’s literature authors and famous international writers. Pokrig features the works of classical Armenian authors such as Tumanyan, Khngoyan, Aghayan and Aykegtsi, as well as adapted world classics from writers such as William Saroyan, Oscar Wilde, Miguel de Cervantes and Leo Tolstoy. Pokrig also creates a platform for children’s authors who write in Western Armenian, including Anahid Sarkissian.

All around the world

Visitors in Istanbul, Yerevan, Moscow, Los Angeles, Marseilles and Montreal make up 70 percent of the site’s traffic, while the remaining 30 percent is spread across the world from Australia to Argentina, Lebanon to the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt to the Philippines.