Category: Blogs

After Jatre on understandingelectricity, it looked easy to install plugs in our laptop stations. Pulling wires led to pulling down all the existing casing and capping :(. The first learning – it’s easy to just pull and difficult to put it back! Second learning – it’s easy to attend a session, answer some questions based…

One child asked me, “how is my painting?” I replied, “you know how it is?” He asked, ” why did you say that?” I replied, ” you know that also”. He asked another child, ” why did she say that?” Another child replied “she knows that she liked. But do you know how does your…

Topic of Monday thought club comes from our life at Aarohi – Teasing. We expanded it to “Bullying”. First, it was about exploring what is bullying, we came up with our experiences of – gossip, name-calling, physical abuse, playing a prank, putting down, isolation, rumors etc. When we did the audit of Bullying on “either…

Travel is part of living at the campus. We travel in local trains. We travel in the group. This requires each one of equipped with understanding about travel, travel in a group, the place we are going, what to expect, what are the constraints and what is the responsibility for safe travel. Traveling in groups…

We have fewer plug points and more electrical items to use. This needs more plug points, so the session on understanding electricity, what’s inside the plug was natural to happen. What is electricity?Why do we need electricity?Where do we get electricity from?What is the battery?What is solar energy?Why do we need inventor?Where is the light…

Campus training is about knowing, understanding and being ready for different situations to live at the campus and to in general in life.We began with assessing ourselves on different topics. This assessment helped us in deciding if one needed to work more on any topic or work on other topics. The assessment was based on…

We are often asked this question – how does a child discover what all one can learn?We believe that there is certain exposure the child gets around him and child notices them. There is certain exposure when a child meets other people and travels. There are certain exposures a child gets when a child gets…

One maths problem a day or one story a day or one map exploration a day for one minute…and magic happens in that one word, one calculations or one exploration. And all this is related to life around us… the cost of support staff, the cost of food, distance from hometown, the distance we travel…

Imagine Aarohi that is not a restaurant, rather a kitchen. We have no dish to offer. We do not serve our children any learning on a platter. We aren’t cooking to satisfy the children. We’re like a kitchen: Raw material and tools (resources) of all kinds are available. Children are challenged to cook for themselves,…

Manthanthis year with parents began with connecting with our wishes. When the whole world is the curriculum everything which one likes becomes important. So there was no limitation to the wish one had. The community relished the wish of craft as much as poetry or science. It’s not that we respect all the wishes by…

Jatre…aFair with a variety of exciting stuff to form a Celebration called life. At Aarohi we now haveJatrefor one hour – every week – primarily exploring a variety of exciting stuff from life. Jatre gives exposure to all …to expand our learningmaps beyond what we already know.We began Jatre this week withPLANTS. We all see…

Dream, Do, try, fail, again try, reflect, connect, do differently, do it again, fail again, take help, talk about it, share, get inspired and inspire others…these are some of the common vocabulry at Aarohi. One announcement “We need Tipity taps for all our wash basins, interested people can connect with the facilitator”. He came forward…

Often tools are considered to be used by ‘some experts’. We don’t know how this beliefis formed, but we rarely consider coming close to them and becoming friends with them in our living. The learning Jatre at Aarohi brought carpentry tools closer to many of us. Some of us have been using these tools for…

Jatre of Zentangle with Asawari. She shared Zentangle is a type of an art. It’s all about the play of white and black, Lines and curves, a little imagination and a pinch of observation. Its also like meditation. We believe each individual is a wonderful story and we benefit by getting exposed to each story.…

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.