Category: Blogs

After a break of five weeks holidays, we began the session – few new kids joined, few old continued. The energy was unimaginable. Children from different cultural and economic background coming together to enrich our learning environment. The speed of sessions has slowed down for translation in multiple languages (Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi). This slow…

This summer, organizing the event brought the power of feedback. Each week the participants took part in giving feedback to Aarohi. Each feedback documented and shared with the team helped in growing each week. Various kids took part in organizing the event of summer camp. The work was part of our regular life at Aarohi…

Aarohi campus was alive with the spirit of joy, doing and togetherness. Thank you, all for participating forthe spirit of joy and doing you brought to the community. You matter to us. What does OPEN LEARNING COMMUNITY mean at Aarohi? OPEN to learning anything on this earth. All gossiping was out of the scope of…

Any group of people can form CLUBS and follow this informally in their own time and schedule. The journey was different for everyone Yashas Says, “I enjoyed playing and practicing football with different people. I was feeling lonely when people were not coming to my club. I was feeling achieved when I was playing and…

Each day in the morning we have fitness on our schedule. Sessions are mostly conducted by kids – when they prepare for the session they also understand what are the various exercises. A mix of stamina, strength and flexibility routines brings understanding about various types of body needs. Each week feedback from the group like…

A trip to Wonderla resulted in exploring many concepts like momentum, acceleration, speed, centrifugal force, earth rotation, gravitational force, and energy. It began with wondering in water slides when five of us started from the same height, traveled the same distance but I reached first. We discovered that mass does matter. Fear of falling in…

Experiencing Aarohi is about living and learning together. It begins with ‘what you want to do and how you want to do”. The week began with DREAMING, making a cat house or making a science toy all became part of dreaming. Dreams do come true. Knowing each other with a small introduction was the beginning.…

When do you become a citizen of the India?When can you vote?Why do we not know our rights?Is politics government?Why are some govt spaces like hospitals and schools stinking?How do our lives get affected if we do not know the politics? Komal, a politician by profession, shared about politics and government. She emphasized knowing about…

Aarohi kids were invited to facilitate an experiential session on using playful environments for learning at Christ college. As part of the preparations for the conference, the work of individuals and organizations from across the world on the play, with a special focus on India, was compiled. This will be showcased at the conference. Play,…

Aarohi is not about learning about a topic or gaining knowledge or learning and mastering the skills. The life at Aarohi revolves around ‘discovering self’. The first discovery is of self and that begins with “I need to think for myself”. Summer camp at Aarohi began with asking “DREAM”. One of the child shared spontaneously…

Workbench is a maker space – a dream place for anybody who is into making stuff and who would need tools, guidance and a contagious environment. When workbench created this 2.5 day event – Ctrl-Alt-Make – six of our children got excited – to participate, to learn and to make. While we did not really…

It began with a need to have another bathing space. It continued with the dream of exploring the different material and different method to create. One of the visiting guests had introduced to us the concept of TeePee shower. One of the children liked the idea and all other things fell in place. It was…

Flame of the Forest Or Palsah flowers….bringing scented yellow-orange orange to our Holi joy. Happy Holi !

Every hand adds value. As part of Friday Active We, we planted trees at the campus just before it rained. All hands at the campus took part. Two years back a 3yr old child shelled 100 seeds, we planted all of them and out of them 60 sprouted. Encouraged by this experience we planted many…

A Child came from Chennai with his mother to spend a week at Aarohi. This week there were no kids of his age at the campus. We did not ask him to do anything, he did not ask us to teach anything. The first day he wanted to go back.He began with wondering, observing, exploring…

We went for a walk along water path at campus exploring septic tank, baffle filter, Reed bed, black water, gray water. This walk led to making and experimenting with our own water filters.

Bamboo Cutting Baboo Treatment

Manthan is the space for the Aarohi community to come together and churn our thoughts. Each time it is different. This time we began with pondering over ‘manthan’. “What is Manthan for you?” – Union, bonding, togetherness, chatting, understanding and clarity. “What we want to do in this Manthan?” – Portfolio, games, and activities for…

Gifting is beautiful! At Aarohi, we began with the need of gifting for our volunteers. Gift factory was born to cater to the needs. We started exploring handmade gifts, gifts which can be given to travelers (most of our volunteers are the traveler with tight spaces). The need of giving created space for us to…

As part of our health and hygiene, we explored ‘dental health’. Interviews were taken to simulate about this topic with few questions – How much time do you spend in brushing? Why do you brush When do you brush? Do you consciously brush each teeth? Do you brush in the night? Why? Why Not? Do…

Summer brings dry season at the campus and this also increases the possibility of forest fire around us. One of the tools we use for our safety is we make fire line. This also allows some of us to get trained in handling forest fire. Since the making of fire line is planned it allows…

Parent-child-mentor meeting is to add value to our ecosystem. For the benefit of the child, open and honest communication among facilitator, child, and parent is needed. Parent, children, and facilitator together review learning, challenges, expectations etc. At Aarohi we believe we all are learner and child can get immense benefit by knowing us and knowing…

Active WE at Aarohi bring us together and we experience the power of WE…making flooring for our courtyard to make usable flooring space or to collect plastic or clean tamarind of our yearly supply or repair our sports ground or re-organize our library space.

Do you wonder what does it means “Do what I want – I decide – I do?” Does freedom to choose means no responsibility of commitment? Life at Aarohi involves committing to yourself as well to the community. Contributing on a daily basis to all aspects of life like the campus, kitchen and resource care,…

One of the children who is taking his passion for chess at the deeper level, He shared,“Chess is a game if you plan to start you cannot come back and you have to really work hard and dedication. It’s not as easy but you do when you want to achieve. I have my own frustration…

Observe any object and see the lines, curves, shapes, size, colur, texture.Wonder why the pens are of this size, why nibs have those curves or why scales are if 6″ or 12″? Wonder why ink was invented or staplers were made? What are these simple machine?Imagine you are the inventor of the object you are…

This began with one thought “design your own outstation trip”. There was excitement to go for the outstation trip of their own interests. Bird Watching to B R Hills – One child who loves birds decided t o go for dedicated bird watching trip. The need was not enough, now this needed work. The search…

When do I know I have a concern? How do I deal with it? How do I express? What stops me from raising my voice? We prvoked this in Thought club. We began with pondering What is a concern? Bothering my emotions and constraining my working or life Not liking something Some actions are bothering…

All sessions at Aarohi are designed to add value in learning. The users add value by sharing their feedback. Alternate Fridays session feedback helps in adding value. And also bring clarity for all. Thanks to some of the tools like World cafe, Sociocracy and NVC we create listening in a safe environment. We are growing…

I have been doing art for many years now. I got this urge to learn from a teacher. I asked a child ‘if you know any online art course, let me know’. Another child with a spark in her eyes answered ‘I know a best online course’.With hope in my eyes, I was eager to…