Category: Blogs

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…

This began with a request from a group of parents and teachers from Malasia to visit Aarohi and experience learning at Aarohi. Our initial response was ‘are we equipped?” The second thought was “let us ask all in the community”. A notice saying ‘your opinion’, generated few responses ‘YES!, another learning opportunity, YES! Let us…

in MANTAN (churning sessions with parents, some call it PTA) at Aarohi we pondered on what is NOT LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. While each family and each learning space will have their own opinion about each point on what makes it learning or not learning. Isn’t it a choice of the individual to understand and decide what…

The baking session was announced with a requirement ‘Come with your own recipe (make your own or read and research). One five-year-old came with this recipe (see picture). At first glance, it looked like few lines, as he explained we realized the drawing clarifies ‘teaspoon and tablespoon’. He also very diligently wrote ‘1 ½’. Read…

We have visited Lal Bagh many times and enjoyed the rock at the entrance. Little we knew that the rock is a historical rock. Realized each thing has history, so do trees. Tree walk with Ulhas and Srini was to explore various trees, their history and most amazing was their adaptation for the surrounding. One…

Three kids wanting to work on maths. So the first question was ‘is it maths or logic?’They were clear MATHS!We read about logic and different ways to develop. They liked the idea of games to develop various mathematical skills. Why?“To use in daily life” they were clear. Now next questionwas How? -Games and Textbooks. Games…

Some life skills … like caring, compassion, passion, perseverance, responsibility, sense of humour, common sense, cooperation courage, curiosity, efforts, flexibility, friendship, initiative, Integrity, organisation … the list can go on. Few of these we wish that our kids develop. Each one of has a different wish list. Whatever is the list we can start with…

When we add ‘when, why, how, what, where else” to our planning – it helps us to go beyond the task to start thinking about the purpose. And reflection at the end of the day with reflective questions helps to think more. We gave a word and others came up with a question, We did…

Florence, from France traveling with her daughter Myriam (10 years old) to India to explore. As an artist (painter) she likes to share her passion. At Aarohi during her stay of two weeks, she inspired many of us with her passion. She worked on murals, wall painting, canvas painting, and charcoal painting.

Do you dream? Do you want to catch your dreams? The concept of Dream catchers come from the Native American people. It is meant to catch good dreams and confuse bad dreams. Amy introduced to us this art of making dream catcher during her visit to the Aarohi. It was a simple art but with…

Constraints are part of creativity. A small constraint can change the way we look at things and ourselves also. Often we get used to of doing things in one way and not even realize our slavery with that way of doing and we call it ‘normal’. We played ‘crocodile’ with kids. Its a very simple…

We eat chilly, a very common vegetable in our cooking, Harvesting them for the farmer couple whose land is near to our campus was a simple exercise in coming closer to the chillies. Small experiences can create understanding about the things happening around us.

Fridays are different atAarohi Wevisit places, meet people, go around in theneighbourhood, work in farms, plan learningmelafor theneighbourhood, go trekking and sometimes just stay at thecampus and work all together to clean plastic or just work in the garden. One of the Fridays whenweworked in garden – wecalled it ‘activeWE’. We thought we will all…

Group of children conducting sports: Few children wished to conduct sports. Only constraint given we all need to play one game and all are included in the game. They explored different sports item in school,listed different games and pondered on which one to play? Explored ground if we can play the game in the ground?…