Category: Blogs

LOGO programming with Prashanth – maths is all about finding patterns. The session was not only about programming, nor just about computers, but also about developing critical thinking and observations.It was about Observing shapes and patterns in our environment and notice the ‘shift in your thinking’. What is language?It is a way of expressing. Expressing…

Chloe, a volunteer from France, has been travelling since last 2 years and she likes to see different communities around the world. She is a practicing gymnast for last 8 years and a really curious and open-minded person. Her favorite skill was cooking and she had been a kitchen hand in Australia, and back in…

This is not played with fire – Its just exploring Hulahoop with LED lights.

The power of visualization or law of attraction with Durgesh Nandini. She began with a thought on thought – What is a thought? What happens to a thought? How to channelise our thoughts? She shared “Thoughts create feelings, feelings lead to behavior and behavior leads to habit and habits leads to action”. She believes”Only dreaming…

Working with a desire to create another working space at the campus. A hole was dug to make mud house. to house our tools, we planned a roof -on that hole to make some more working space. Kids named it blackhole. Stanzin from Swaraj who likes working with mud took up this project to give…

No planning, No occasion…It began with ‘Punjabi’ food in our menu’. It just needed a spark. Some felt like decoratingas Dhaba. some made til ka laddoo to go with the kite festival around, some wanted to create Rangoli, some made a kite and flew for days, and some just joined.

When you think of kite, what all words come in your mind? Some of the words – Space, persistence, friend, supports, challenges, control, thread, the wind, up, sky, high, technique, stitch, tail balance, color, happiness, interest, joy, precision…the list continues. ‘Kite’ was the theme for our planning. We reflected using the analogy of kite and…

Every person visiting the campus bring fresh energy and many learning opportunities for the community. Two Khoji’sfrom Swaraj were no different in adding value to our ecosystemof learning. Stanzin, brought a lot of harmony with his attitude for work and living in the community. He adapted to our culture within a day and was part…

When we think about community, often we think only about humans. In thought club, we explored (through drama) other members of the community…nature, animals, and other resources became alive and part of our community.

Few kids growing up – few watching others. Talk about sex are not very openly expressed, they get a hushed up space. Some kids at Aarohi are comfortable to talk, while some talk with hesitation about the topic. As we sensed the need, for one hour every day for one week, we read various books…

Rules are part of life, they bring direction in life and sometimes blocks in life. Most of the times rules are misunderstood and misused. When they stay as it is they start stinking. At Aarohi like anything else rules also does not stay as it is, they keep evolving. In the process we reject some,…

One child found a wooden stick, he made emotion stick for himself. Watch video to understand this tool.

Two kids working on Forest fire presentation as part of campus training.They knew all about the forest fire, they had experienced it few times, and they also had gone through the training. New for them was making of presentation, which involved compiling of all the information and experience they had in presentable form. It was…

Art is often restricted in our lives till the age of 6-7 yrs. Kids draw, they paint and then they forget. Few who believe that they are good, continue the journey, rest all discard the artist in themselves. We read about the artist, we see their paintings and often they are either a story for…

The govt model school opposite to our campus invited all of us their celebrations ofPONGAL. We felt welcomed, cared and part of this school’s eco-system. No words for the love and joy we felt together.

Each one has one paper, follow instructions (4nos) and see the different results. Each one sees the same dot and it tells many different things to different people….The planet, tip of a pencil, aerial view pond, cup, boat going around, bindi, round sand pit, ring, meditative point, top of a cylinder, balloon flying in the…

“You are dumb” “You are so slow” “Hey, you piggy” “You are not a fast runner” “You got burnt” Various expressions by kids to each other are commonly heard in conversation among kids. As kids shared “These are the expressions that fulfills many needs like revenge, jealousy, self-fulfilling proficiency or simply fun”. For example when…

It began with a session with Mrinalaini. It was all about questioning and understanding through those questions Why do we need nutrition in food? What is the primary purpose to eat? Why do we have three meals? Why do we get hungry every 4-6 hrs Have different species different food and timings? What happens to…

Bean bag needed a wash. That means emptying and then washing. The process of emptying created non-stop chit chat about the ‘beans’. What is bean? Are Thermocol balls beans? Then what are the beans which we eat? How many buckets of beans inside a bag?How many KGS of beans?How many number of beans?How much comes…

One question – How much money to carry to travel? This began with a need to know how much money to carry while traveling by train with a group? Initially, each one came up with – 1000, 200, 400, 200o and so on. Then we broke our journey – How much do we pay for…

Reshma, she started her journey with Aarohi to assist her mother in cleaning and washing. Seeing her age, we offered her assisting in facilitation in govt schools rather than working on washing and cleaning, She refused, she expressed she only want to do this work. Slowly she started getting involved in managing the kitchen. We…

The slide show above tells the whole story. If you want to see more photographs – see the video below I am personally excited that I would get slurry as an output every day – which would be a rich compost for our plants. The Kitchen should benefit from the bio-gas. Will update once the…

Few kids went to find the option of doing things together with government school, opposite Aarohi Campus. The principle of our opposite school expressed “you are close to us, but we thought you are closed for us”. When we announced ‘40kids from Model school coming to Aarohi to experience’, we did not expect that even…

I have adream of joy A Dream of all children enjoying their learning process, enjoying their jobs, enjoying their life. I have a dream; a small dream. A dream which values each small dream and deed, like the sun not just shines over the ocean it also shines through the tiny drop hanging on a…

We write and we write in many forms. This led to having a session with Sangeetha to master our writing. Five step writing process with Sangeetha, she began with asking a question ‘Why do we need to write?’ She shared “Ever wondered writings comes to us in various forms – Newspaper, book, blogs, instructions, advertisements…

This is the first time I ever made a story on story weaver. My experience was very interesting. The starting was very easy because I gave some random topic like dragons. Then I added some illustrations. After each illustration and page, I would add something to the story. That’s how I got this story. I…

Learning has no limits, no curriculums. Advay, 5yrs old working on making cardboard box. As a part of planning, he shared that he wants to work on ‘making with cardboard’. He was serious about his own commitments. He uses any opportunity to work on his goal of ‘paper cutting’. Exploring in many different ways, he…

Each child is unique, so the learning. Imagine a learning community for children (and adults) where there is no curriculum – because we believe that children can decide what they want to learn, how much they want to learn. So children effectively choose what they want to do or learn from whatever is worth doing…

How is my painting? How did I behave today? If people like my food, I get motivated? Does this happens to you…we pondered in thought club and we began with asking questions Does approval effect me?Can we live without praise, approval, and appreciation?What will happen if nobody knew or invented these words?What will happen if…

Last year in summer, Davin came up with his interest in PARKOUR. This word itself was new for many of us. He began with his fascination for ‘jumping building’.In the first practice session, he began with climbing a wall and jumping…something that did not click but we did not discard the idea. As our understanding…