Category: Blogs
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Creativity isn’t a skill but part of who we are
Discovering just how creative we all are – We kicked off the session with some singing and dancing, setting a lively tone. Then came the games – simple yet mind-bending. With “Story Dice,” we spun tales inspired by pictures on dice. “Storyboards” let us remix stories into our own creations, while “Juggle with Number Dice”…
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Children are capable of Learning / teaching.
Learning Mela is Celebration of Learning: Children are capable of Learning and Teaching Anything they’re Interested In.Learning Mela was an opportunity to Celebrate their Learning by teaching. At the Learning Mela, children are the stars, showcasing their ability to both teach and learn, regardless of age or gender. The process begins with empowering them to…
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The Art of Listening Vs Hearing – Experiential Learning
We often do not notice the profound difference between Listening & Hearing in our world filled with constant noise and distractions. Here is a snippet of Experiential Learning through Reflection For one of our Reflection Activities during Thought Club at our campus of open learning, we all shared our thoughts/ experiences/ awareness about Hearing Vs…
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Conquering Fears : “A Journey Through Rock Climbing”
We embarked on a thrilling journey through the rugged & raw landscapes as we explored outdoor rock climbing. We also explored the sheer joy of scaling heights, the natural beauty of nature, and the rawness that only outdoor can offer. ~ We planned in detail about having a safe & enjoyable experience for all.~ We…
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Parenting or Un-Parenting
Some parents asks us what does Un in UnParenting stand for?Un has two parts to it. Part 1 – Un stands for Understanding the child.In most cases we, parents and teachers, DO NOT understand the child!Surprised? Disagree!You see, we know an awful lot about the child, but we do not understand the child. This knowing…
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Children can be great mentors, this is what Learning Mela taught us
What happens when children mentor adults? Here’s the story….. It all started with a Santa seeding the idea of Learning Mela, 18+ year olds (adults) of the community would conduct the workshops and 18- year olds (young ones) would be the mentors to adults. All parents, teens and tweens of the community got together for…
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Menu Making Day
It was just a lazy and casual breakfast talk on a Sunday morning. It all started with one kid asking “what is the lunch for today?”. I put that same question back. We were looking forward to see what menu we can decide for that day but ended up making whole week’s menu together. It…
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Let’s Bake
Food is one thing that brings people together and my learning is any bake be it cakes/ cookies/ breads/ any savouries not only touches the senses but soul too 😊 Baking is more than just another activity of putting ingredients together and waiting for outcome. I learn a lot with each baking and see how…
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Can a campus teach?
In the spirit of Open campus the campus development in itself has been (and continues to be) a huge learning opportunity for us. Children, parents, local people, various experts from different fields (architecture, design, construction, rain water harvesting etc) all are involved in collectively creating a campus that itself teaches. Making of the campus began with a thought,…
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All Hands Matter
Regardless of age or knowledge or position or role everyone has the capacity to do anything and everything they want to do and make a huge difference to themselves and whole community. Everyday at Campus ,we see various hands working together to make a thing happen in any activity be it the carpentry, gardening, experiments,…
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Story of Generosity – Making of campus
Making of Aarohi campus is not complete without talking about Deb Uncle and many other well wishers who contributed to make this campus happen.The campus is created with crowd funding – started with land and the story of generosity Aarohi started in June 2009 in Geniekids Indiranagar center, Bangalore. One year after starting, we realized…
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A Visit to Fire Station
One kid randomly asked “how about visiting Fire Station” as we were discussing about going for Outdoors. At Aarohi, Outdoor refers to visiting any space to explore, meet people and know about the process/ people. Also we used to discuss Fire at Safety Training sessions in Campus. We collectively made a plan with dialing contact…
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Fear and Children
Fears often multiply more with collective anxiety that a group of people experience together with lots of questions/ fears triggered by various factors such as uncertainties, health upsets, external situations or challenges. Recently we had this amazing period of 10-12 days at Aarohi Campus where out of 6 people four were partially/ fully sick and two…
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What if my child has special need? Does Open Learning work for children with LD, DYSLEXIA, ADHD, ADD, Autism etc
In open learning there are no expectations that a child will behave or learn or do the same things as other child. There are no milestones or benchmarks or references. The only reference is the child. And each child has great life within. Open learning accepts and expects child as unique. The child creates his…
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Confidence, Confidence, No Papa – ebook
Confidence is a myth. None of us need to bother ourselves or our children with this concept. You see the more we value this concept the more we devalue all the children (and people) who are seen or see themselves as not confident. Hence we’ve written in detail about confidence, in this small book primarily…
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Kitchen as a Restaurant
The kitchen was converted into a restaurant for our Lunch this Wednesday The special restaurant which Gives money to buy items and also charges only for a few items and is free for many items. The chips were free but limited to 10 numbers. No money could buy more chips. They decided the Name of…
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Trip to Meter Fall – Curiosity Rules
Curiosity Rules.Construction of understanding and learning not only is natural in children (just how a toddler constructed a whole mother tongue) it is the way they enhance their cognitive powers. The child uses his thinking to experiment, to know, to make sense, to create his own learning. The child naturally explores, invents, copies from peers,…
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No hands are small
I decide-I do-I ReflectThe learning cycle continues every week at the campusIt is not about learning music or reading a book or learning Taekwondo or cooking food or getting engaged with mathematical calculations during the week at the campus – it’s all about “how do I know myself?” Who is this child? Who is this…
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Trip to the stream near Temple
The world is our learning spaceAny space for us is learning spaceAny experience is a learning event A trip to a nearby streamWhen we reached – it looked like a dirty placeSome even thought of going to another place since it did not look like natureWe continued to the same placeWe took a walk a…
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Hillside Afforestation
A month back we did seeding on the back hill After the rain a trip to the hill again Found some baby trees Cared about them and made doggy bowl Scream “I found one” in each little sprout, we spotted
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One hr lost – 24 hrs
My 24 hrs looking like 8hrs sleep 3hrs eating and cleanup 2hrs klubs and prep 1hr music 1hr fitness 1hr sports 1hr entertainment 1hr games 1hr table tennis 1hr economics 1.5hr drawing 1.5 hr hygiene 1hr lost
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My first rope mallakhamb competition – with Mishti
What an experience! and what an expression!!No words to describe it On the first day of rope There was a lot of hope I saw girls going upside-down But none of them with a frown I thought that they were great And what was their starting date? The trainers were cool And I hoped I…
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Outdoor – Banyan Tree
One treeOne big treeClimbing, falling, swinging, singing, eating, Is this all about a trip to the nearby big banyan tree? What about – Planning, organizing, deciding, preparing, communicating, deciding for self, choosing where to get involved, pushing ourselves a bit, to get inspired, predicting, cooking, and experiencing it in different ways. Two from the group…
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Eggstraunat – Lunch and Design
One morning at the Aarohi campus Team was challenged to design a vehicle for an egg to safely land on a cement surface from a height. This was a simulation of an astronaut landing on the moon surface A brief, with some material, some constraints Discussions, designing, debating followed Anxiety, excitement, predictions continued And launching…
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What I want to do
“Wonder what makes me not do what I want to do?” was the question this week in the beginning SOME SHARINGFear of failureAnxiety to startComparisonCompetition with othersThe expectation with self or othersWhy do I need to do this?What will be the outcome?Fear of criticismFear of opinion And a POEM ON FAILURE with Lakshitafailure is something…
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Dance with Daksha and Roohi
They like listening to mash up music They can sing along with almost all the songs They enjoy singing Simply singing They added dance to their singing Choreographed together Practiced for a few hours And the joy continues
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Make your own breakfast
One Friday morningMake your own breakfast in teamsRaw material Rava, MIllets, and Vermicelli availableFind your own recipe, ask people, and experience making it yourself
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String and Seenappa
Seenappa Anna at the campus is skilled with using tools Making puzzles and play with strings in his free timeHe shared his joy with the community Learning continues …
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One word – Jingle
One evening Community coming together Making jingle on one word Making, Practicing and then presenting What would happen if we free the child of education systems, of curriculum, of teaching, of ranking and comparison? When we invite the child to grow organically (just like they do in the first few years of life). When they…
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Open Learning – some thoughts
Collaboration & Camaraderie in Open Learning In conventional education, 20 to 100 children are all taught the same set of subjects at the same time in the same way. Some schools even design their activities to encourage collaboration. So a common concern among families considering Self Directed Learning is, ‘how will my child learn how…