Category: Blogs

Often asked what if a child does not know what he/ she likes? Here is a small story After a couple of weeks spent at the campus, one child with tears and anger expressed “I don’t know what I want to learn”.The conversation was full of ” I can’t do this because…I know I am…

Where does our food comes from?Where does our resources comes from?Where does our tools comes from? We went out into the neighbourhood, seeking information about the market and suppliers – visited bakery, vegetable market hardware shops,utensilmarket, grocery shop, petrol pump…the visit included knowing about them, knowingtheroute to those shops, being there,interacting, buying, negotiating,understandingrates and exploring…

Jatre at Aarohi means “Celebration of learning”. Each day we celebrate by bringing a new learning exposure. It ranges from knowing about deep sea diving to mathematical calculations. And any age can bring this Jatre. This week we explored mathematical conceptual understanding by playing around with the concept and creating our own concepts! We played…

Mindfulness is the themes of the week..a session on Mindfulness to bring awareness about awareness! One can call it awareness or way of living. Awareness and knowing what are you thinkjng, what are you feeling, what are you doing now! Mind works like a search light…focusing on one thing at a time and keeps shifting…

Business Jaatre with Valli, father of Aditi to understand started with a question ” what is business”? Work, generating money, transaction of money, make and sell…What all we need to do a business? Passion, skills, patience, understanding, know-how, people, social skills. Business generates employment, earning opportunities, revenue for govt (tax paying). He runs a business…

We want to keep bee boxes at the campus..to do this we needed to know a lot about bees – we realize we hardly know anything about them. An hour session withGuru was enough to wonder about bees. Guru is pioneer in bee keeping…hope to have some bee boxes at the campus soon! We know…

It began with a question “can there be higher degree of autonomy? But to give or receive that autonomy community needed to understand the meaning of autonomy.Onebelief, “we can live life with far more autonomy right from the childhood” led to exploring higher degree of autonomy atAarohi. Perhaps we need an understanding of the process…

Every time I feel I have learnt a lot, someone shares something new! Megha, cousin of SreeLakshmi joined to share about Capoerira.Meghaencouraging the healthy movement, touring world, visiting 14 countries. It was not only about the art form of Capoeria, but as well about the history, society and culture of the Brazil. For her it…

Some new, Some old, Some big, Some small…it didn’t matter. The life began with exploring autonomy – the power to make decisions! The life of each one of us revolved around “what I want to do” – A wish to make own laptop led to opening an old laptop, endless play of table tennis, practicing…

Can a campus Teach?Yes, We believe a campus can be the very lap of learning if it is conceived anddevelopedjust as mother nature;if it offersconstraintsto children which make them think, do, learn, and live differently The Architectural Design of the campus is based on these three guiding principles: Design tobuild less Design toinstall and use…

I saw few cardboard boxesI saw few things made up of cardboard boxes (doll house, fridge, sofa etc).I thought I can make for kids at the campus.I decided to not make it!I collected few and decided to not to make. I kept all the boxes as “resource of the day”.Day one, two kids picked up…

She came in search of herself. She finished 11th and took the plunge into gap year. She shared “I have been staying in Aarohi for 5 months .It was a very good experience . I think a child gets a lot of options to choose his interest in what he /she has .I got to…

Someone asked, “any working parents homeschooling their kids?” For all practical purposes, I have always been working mother! and our kids have “working parents”. Here is about me as working mom! People can label me “workaholic” but working or the need of my time was never an issue to homeschool my kids. I was never…

Showing interest in football, construction, athletics, wall climbing, rock climbing, sessions conducting, water sports, few childhood games, art, electrical, business, bird watching, and gardening. An active, hardworking, organized, inspiring child who likes beauty in work and things and understand feedback. Showing interest in painting, construction, sports, adventure, photography, theatre and electronics. He likes to do…

The joy of writing a letter to mother. We received a kit from “Battees”, Delhi basedorganization run by Shivani and Harnehmat. The kit is designed to encourage writing letters. This brought an opportunitytopauseand think about one person in ourlivesand connect througha letter. All ages participated with joy to write a letter to their mother. Thank…

Different ages – Different skills and the joy is learning from each other – from different ages. 7yrs old Advay was not too small to set up a learning stall to teach “how to cut wood using a saw”. 9yrs old Prapullawas not too shy to set up a learning stall to teach storymaking. 47yrs…

The fourth week of summer began with parents and kids joining with a constraint that kids are not kids and parents are not parents but all are equal. The equality is not easy but the week began with experiencing the life in a space where all are equal and all needed to speak for themselves…

She was introduced to Mandala designs.She loved itShe spent hours in scribbling.She practiced patternsShe tried on different surfaces – a book, book cover, mud…She drew different designsShe painted Mandala on a wallShe started a wall mural with mudShe started taking sessions in learning events at AarohiShe designed while traveling, free timeShe is growing each day…

The joy was planning a whole day trip to buy TrampolineThe joy was in assemblingby selfThe joy was in understanding its componentThe joy was in debating and arguing in assembling the TrampolineThe joy was in installingThe joy was in understanding the do’s and dont’s of careThe joy was in the whole process. Bhargav, Aparna, andAchileshdonated…

Vishruthi, a mother of 2-1/2 yr old boy, a passionate RJ by profession visited Aarohi during summer- sharing her experience. Honestly, Aarohi experience is unique in its own way. Something we (city people) don’t even think or consider, you guys are practicing that in your lifestyle. It lot many ways I have started rethinking the…

Strengths and Weaknesses are like Hero and the Villan of a movie. The hero in the movie is always nice and full of goodies while the Villan in any movie is always bad and ugly. None wants to be Villan but all aspire to be Villan! Why it is good and bad about strengths and…

Empowerment means “I am able”. We believe we all require self-reflection to truly understand our potential. Introduced S.P.A.C.E. framework as a way to explore self. We did this with small activities for each element of SPACE. Realise that “I am the only one who will stay with myself the whole life”, realise how important it…

I am sad, I am angry, I am bored…do the feeling have limited vocabulary? Or we feel only within these limited reach of feelings? What about the feeling of rejection, respect, joy, peaceful, remorse, hostile, inferior, superior, dejection, success, overwhelming…To explore the vocabulary of feelings, the game of making a tower with playing cards was…

Openlearning is not only about children but it’s about all of us. It’s about life and not only about learning. We don’t want in our life someone else to dictate. We like to do what we like to do, it’s “me” driven, “me” leader of my life. If we are an essential creature who likes…

The story of Learning Utsav at Aarohi started with one thought “What if at one place, on the same day, there are lots and lots of people … children, young adults, parents, senior citizens … all with different gifts, coming together to create the magic of co-learning. Learning Utsav, where anyone can teach, anyone can…

Who is this child? Who is this learner? Do we understand him or her? Do we know what lies inside and in the future of each? Who will show them, teach em, lead em. Each child is CAPABLE To Dream, To Think, To Decide, To Do, To Fail, To Achieve, To Assess, To Learn, To…

multiple children of different ages presented 10 minutes session on an area of their interest. One talked about bacteria inplantsand microscope. He took few hours for this 10 minutes session – reading, researching and compiling the information. One taught a magic trick. He knew the tricks. He spent time in preparing material for each participant…

This is the story of two equally clear and determined minds. He is 7 yrs old and I am 47 yrs old. We both are clear about our needs. He often comes to me with other clear needs and leaves giving me a clear message. We normally don’t get into any clash. Last week during…

Food is very talked about topic – how much to eat, what to eat, eat for growing bodies, eat this food and avoid this food. This brought an opportunity for each one of us read and research by self to be able to take our own decisions. Some read about food during the festival of…