Category: Blogs

An appointment with death in Teen Club – just to talk about itSharing an experience of death in the familySharing views about a statement “death is an inevitable part of life”.Reflecting “how does media/world is representing death to you”. And what about after death? Word we harvested – death is inevitable, creepy, scary, sad, happy,…

Nature gives us an abundance of opportunities to be with self, explore and explore our strengths, our fears, new possibilities, throws new challenges and abundance of peace. One such nature trek was Muneshwara temple hill at D.Kondapalli. Glimpses of our experiences – One child who had never done any trek did trek for the first…

Little Millet harvest. Little Millet , Little Millet, Hold Me to cut Held me with love Collect in bunches Dry me, Crush me to remove my husk Fry or boil to cook and serve . Cutting Knife – Kodali in Kannada I am Sharp and active, Held me with care, else I shall cut you,…

Manthan is about coming together and churning our thoughts on this open path of learning. We created our portfolios and shared them with the community-wide spectrum of learners in one space. Some are focused on developing one skill/interest, while some are in the exploratory or multi-channels zone. For some, the learning of language is important,…

Self Learning Model Think of anything you have learned – let it move like a movie in your mind|What was the purpose?What were your feelings at different stages?What were the constraints?Who all facilitated?What all support?What did you plan?What all the resources you used?What motivated you?Who all supported? Share with others your learning model, listen to…

Each week the curriculum is defined by the learners at the campus – This week’s curriculum – Craft, maths, reading, dance, tracing dance, learning music, computing, research on culture and art, taking a bath, law and order, hula hoop, reading, playing basketball, making, drama, shoot, paper folding, piano, videos, weekly planning, campus medic, gardening, session…

I do what I love, dance every day and earn from dance, shared Bharat! His story began of dance began at the age of 8yrs, initially couldn’t dance, but was determined to dance and now he just dances and even earn from it! And we danced with him, just like that! Imagine Aarohi, An Open…

The story of clay pots They wanted to make a pot with clay But the clay was hard and dry They first prepared the clay And then played with it to create They created in their own way No one taught them They taught themselves with their own experiences Imagine Aarohi which does not make…

Did we wonder how to measure the height of a tree? We don’t know what all is in measuring tape? We observed the tree, it was very tall, we did not know how to measure? We choose a tree that we could climb. One child climbed the tree, another child gave the tape to his…

First aid stalls brought an opportunity to learn and understand about safety – first aid is not about me knowing, it creates an asset inside me and I can be of help to anyone in need.

AKD, Aarohi ki Dukaan, came alive with “buying snacks, a budget of Rs 13, and count your nutritional value” and that all! Not to teach about carbohydrates or proteins or balanced food but to bring an awareness that our food contains various things and it’s all about the choices we make when we are choosing…

“I like to write,” said Ramya in Lenzen Cirkle What I write it just rhymes And that happens to be called poetry And by that She has been 5yr old write And would insist others read her poetry We just chit-chatted over poetry Is rap poetry? It’s therapy It’s a game And it becomes a…

Few names appeared in physical violence during train travel Each one was written a note to join us for a restorative circle In Sahayavani each one shared their version of the story We all just listened – all stories were the same with different experience Each one made “A REQUEST” to all OTHERS Each one…

He was in the menu this week Menu making brings an opportunity to put dishes of your homes and taste He came up with an idea of “cheela” He was confident of the recipeI showed apprehension “will everyone like it?”But He was excited with the recipe We came up with an idea of “sample making”He…

Why go far in search of culture – we have many cultures within our community. Each one has some culture at home – Family Culture, Food Culture, Living Culture, Religion Culture, Social Culture, Festival or Celebrations or ceremonies Rituals, Money Culture, Roles and Responsibilities culture … Play a game of clapping from a different culture…

He fell sick He came into the kitchen and demanded: “what no food for me?” I thought, ‘dear you seem to have reached a different address Here we don’t serve to anyone Here the sickness is part of your learning journey When you fall sick – it brings an opportunity to know self And that…

Actions in DOING Session This Wednesday’s session on 13th Nov was a very unique one. Lots of energy, excitement, willingness to do and ownership was in the air. It was for a focused group of children who had chosen their projects two weeks ago. We had planned well as one would take care of permissions…

Experiencing Campus – Visit by Model School Children Model School Children conducted a Science Fair, in which Swach Bharat models were shown. I was part of visiting stalls and just felt that experience of what all we can do with the waste would be an added exposure and hence the opportunity created for the children…

The session was about Introduction to the process of Design, Discuss, Do Design – Any Project we take, we start with the exploration of the idea called Design which includes What we want to do? Why do we want to do it? What resources do we need? Who all are teams? what role each one…

He likes to play football He also likes to play table tennis He likes land work He likes the job of “cash manager” He also works as “pet pal” He likes to take responsibility for pets food He likes to coordinate with the support staff at the campus He likes video games, watching movies and…

Dadaism Poetry with Kanak – an Art moment followed by painters, writers.Politicians looked at war differently, the artist looked at war differently. People were lost, suffering, celebrating meaningless How to Make a Dadaist Poem Take a newspaper.Take some scissors.Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.Cut out the article.Next…

It began with a desire to PAINTThen paint on the WALLThey searched and selected a suitable wallThey made a designGiven other art styles – Warli, Madhubani, Zentangle, Mandala, etcBoth made their own designMade a couple of designsAnd decided to paint on two different surfacesAgain searched for another surfaceSo now we have two wall paintingThey drew,…

Our Rocket oven was not working, an opportunity to do the test-fire again! The test fire took just five minute but understanding about fire took 55 minutes. Understanding about fire took just 5 minutes, it took 50 minutes to observe the fire. Throughout the session, Dwilji was insisting on “let’s observe” – the flame, the…

Two Suggestions to bring changes in our scheduleSuggestions –“Planning to reduce to 45 minutes” –DIscussion in various groups – The challenge is to cater to different needs, different levels of clarity of planning, Different views, various suggestions – as a community we came up with solution which we all agreed upon “45 minutes of planning…

Have you heard the songDo (do) re (re) mi (mi)Fa (fa) so (so) la (la) ti (ti) do (do)Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do!doe, a deer, a female deer(Re!) ray, a drop of golden sun(Mi!) me, a name I call myself(Fa!) far, a long, long way to run(So!) sew, a needle pulling thread(La!)…

Manji Akka did not come What to do was the questions One said, let’s fast, have some fruits One said, go to a hotel One said, rice and curd Some said we will join in the cooking Few joined together and made Molli and Paratha, not Mooli Paratha Raw papaya salad made with a lot…

A session on “Love and relationships and their changes”with Dwiji We feel something for different people when we interact with different people and that is what we call relationship We are not alone in the feeling of love Have you observed how do different people interact, and how that has changed over time – relationship…

Make your own breakfast on a Friday morningSome made for selfSome made for others tooSome made it togetherSome did it aloneAll ate and that all about one of the Friday Morning Breakfast!

Watch a movie and ponder over some random questions Do Not give the answers of all – no rights, no wrongs Just ponder A movie can bring thinking What do you say? Watch together to ponder together – talk more about it, share more about it and that’s about learning and living! On one Friday…