Category: Blogs

New dry toilet did not have wash basin :(. After using it we needed a place to wash our hands. We put the constraint to use “junk” material. “The wash basin can only be made by new material (buy from the market), how can we make wash basin from junk, it will be dirty,” first…

“Who AM I?” Am I not many things – Am I a child only? Who is a child? Does the word ‘child’ sounds like someone who is helpless, does not know much or not capable? But when I see a painter inside me or a carpenter or a scientist – does that makes me someone…

Opportunities come to our lives at Aarohi in many different forms and this week was no different! A heap of cucumbers brought an opportunity to set up cucumber stall. And experiment with cucumber juice (which most hated). An Artist from France brought an opportunity for some of us to experience living with an artist and…

A group of 25 young adults from Wardha, who are learning to be teachers ( part of B. Ed/ M. Ed course) visited Aarohi to learn about learning. The preparation to welcome them began just a day in advance with a brief. The group of kids were excited to receive them and share with them…

Cyril, a French artist from France joined us to paint our library bus. He has been travelling for last three years, working with different communities and kids around the world. “Graffiti” on the day 1 was the key word where we began! For many of us this word was new and we naturally began with…

We have left the city but the city still live inside us.Few kids from neighbourhood village came ( all dressed up) to the campus. During the learning Mela on Friday in their school, we casually invited them. And they came today! We didn’t expect them to come or we didn’t mean a Sunday visit. This…

Most of us like car.Some of us are mesmerised with the super cars.Some of us can talk in length about the various features in modern cars. Meeting Murthy was meeting a real life hero. Murthy from Michigan shared about autonomous driving,. He is working on airbag in cars in one of the company. He shared…

Learning Mela at Neighbourhood schools.The journey began with two kids getting interested in connecting with neighbourhood schools. They went around to find more about the schools and their eagerness to invite us. It was not easy to walk around, talk around and plan for the learning Mela.Other kids at the campus joined them on Friday…

Cake burning for last three weeks, the dough needs understanding of fractions/ proportion.Tyre seat tied up just like that, needs precision and marking.Clay needs practice.North Indian kids needs change in menu ( no rice means making of many Chapatis), so Akkas need help in making of Puri.Sports need clear rules and understanding.A visit to nearby…

Is there any difference between Cyclone, Typhoon and Hurricane? Do they change names with their nature or different countries? Where are cyclones formed? Why do they are born in Ocean? What is Tropic? Why cyclones formed only in Tropic oceans? How does the difference if the temperature leads to Cyclone? What is the eye of…

Fears are good! They allow us to learn more, keep informed and go deeper into the topic. Few kids going to nearby ponds. Some of them shared the concern of “what if someone is drowning?”. This led to a training on drowning! A little research revealed that none of us knew anything about rescuing a…

This week it was about exploring creativity through – Visualization, Collection, and Constraints. Many of us are very much familiar with ‘constarinst’ (we experience many at the campus). But it was difficult to find the difference between thinking and visualization. And also to collect out of the box (as one of the children expressed). We…

A small group from the community decided to visit Kaigal with the focus on understanding trees, learning afforestation, and nursery techniques. It included seed collection in the forest, seed treatment techniques and planting of seeds. Collection of some species as saplings from the forest for planting in nurseries. Also understanding species that can be raised…

One pot one shot (OPOS) style of cooking for efficiency of resources, introduced by Prachi. A mother, A CA by profession who got interested in OPOS cooking after birth of her twins. She emphasised on understanding the principals of OPOS cooking – like Maximum heat and minimum time, just the right amount of water, standardized…

One child decided to have ‘Gandhi’ theme in the music session. We have been having themes like colours, war, nature, festival, language etc as our themes for our music sessions but Gandhi theme felt very unusual. But this child was very clear of this theme. I was looking forward to a different music session and…

Visit to TDU Herbarium is like a livr museum, a dictionary and encyclopedia of plants.It helps in collecting information about a plant.To make Herbarium at the campus/ home – Make a list of plants. Herbarium sheet should have flower and fruits. Press between two newspaper sheets and press with weight. Arrange them as per your…

Headstream – a social NGO team was here. They conducted a small session for us. So the first logical question was – What social organisations do? To understand the session Naveen began with involving us by asking questions “What are the problems in society?”Responses were “dirty places, health issues, public transport, water, environment, crime, etc.”…

Collection is another ingredient of creativity. It is the raw material for the creative process. The more we collect, possibly the more we would have resources. Similarly a wide variety of collections helps creative thinking. To stimulate the process of collection we began with a pile of tyres. We observed them, we visulaized various usages,…

Jatre on visualization was to introduce kids to this tool. Lets help kids to get used to this wonderful tool. At the end of this note are some link to resources for parents/ facilitator. The session began with ponderingWhat is visualization?How it is different from seeing?How is it diffierent from dreaming? It is special imagination…

The week began with questioning “What is in any GAME that we enjoy it?” And we explored Why do you like? What gives you excitement? What is that different you like? Why is it fun? Why are they called games? Why it gives relaxation? What is common in all the games? What brings the competition?…

First crop harvest of the campus – It was different. For most of us, it was the first interaction with the farming and harvesting the crop by our hands. There were joy, excitement, and connection. I grew up without knowing where does the grain I eat come from. I read in textbooks so I knew…

Each leaf is different. All we need to do is spend time with them. Jatre on leaves began with stimulation of seeing a bunch of leaves and guessing the name of the plant ( all leaves were collected from the kitchen garden). Identification was done based on smell, looks, memory, and a wild guess.We moved…

Sketching Introduction: I am the publicity media officer of aarohi and my new blog is about sketching. I am going to talk about a few techniques on sketching. So let’s dig into it. Shading: Shading is when you make any object dark or light by applying a certain amount of pressure. It also depends on…

Visit to Maker Faire gave us the stimulation, experience, exposure of various fields all in one place for all ages. Maker soul came back excited, stimulated and inspired – just 3 hours of exposure stimulated us with the joy of experiencing innovations in makers space. Its is a gathering of curious people who enjoy learning…

Do kids plan their bday parties? And given a chance they start planning their parties by the age of 4yrs, some even earlier – whom will they call, where will they have the party, what shape of the cake, what candies to distribute, what snacks to have, which dress to wear and so on. If…

Sophrology means knowing of consciousness and knowing our emotions and manage them. A session with Marie from France allowed us to play with emotions. After working for various companies in accountancy in France, she opted for an alternative life and that led her exploring Sorphology and she enjoys it! We played with two emotions –…

Sophrology means knowing of consciousness and knowing our emotions and manage them. A session with Marie from France allowed us to play with emotions. (from wikipedia –Sophrology, from Ancient Greek σῶς / SOS (“harmony”), φρήν / PHREN (“mind”), and -λογία / -logia (“study/science”), is the study of the consciousness in harmony; a healthcare philosophy made…

“What did you eat? I also watched this movie. I went to a restaurant. I went to a party. That is cool”…often the talks are limited to limited experience kids have around them. To add value to our conversations, we engage ourselves in sharing the circle and meaningful conversations.Anyone is free to announce the topic,…

Just one book, few colur papers, few colur pens and just one person were enough to bring Origami fever at the campus.

This blog is wriiten by Asawari, she was part of Aarohi for few years and then joined Swaraj University at Udaipur and here are thoughts as guide, as learner and as a facilitator. Her blog also athttp://asawarimathur.blogspot.in/2017/11/peer-feedback-in-self-directed-learning.html My thoughts of Peer feedback as a process in self –directed learning, this is from my experience at…