Category: Blogs

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?…

We watched a video on compost. Children shared the story with thoughts. We also pondered what do we do with our food waste? Do we want to make a compost ? Do we want to use the waste food for our plants? Do we like to make one for school? They shared we don’t have…

Group of children wanted to explore first aid. They wanted to make a kit in their classroom. They pondered about how to make the kit? why do we need kit in classroom? They felt its good to have one in class room. Next week the group came up with first aid box filled with medicines.…

A group of Children volunteered to setup a library in a class. This decision left them with pondering questions – about location for library? where do we get books for library? what kind of books? Can we get books from library ? what if library does not have books ? can we get our old…

Elephants passed through campus. The news can bring shiver or curiosity. At Aarohi we became more curious to know about their movement. Many questions were floating Why did they come inside? What do they come in for? What did they? Where do they go? Can they harm us? Can we harm them? How to understand…

History is not only about kings, queens, and wars. If one thinks, there is history to everything, history is all around us. Mr. See, who visited Aarohi shared his interest in food and history. He likes to trace ‘How various food affected the world’. He shared ‘when I have interest, I read. I decide each…

Peaceful Warriors, movie based on real life incidences of a Gymnast, Dan Maillman. Many of our kids work on their interest and many times there are hidden expectations or messages to them to ‘be succeful (awards, medals) or an achiever’. Often even when kids talk about any interest they talk about ‘being best, being famous,…

Kahaani mein kahaani ‘Th’isclaimer – this story is written with some amount of hinglish. In reality a lot of kannadish, tamilish, telgulish, oompish, gibirish happens. We are being considerate enough to leave that out. In return please beer, bear, behear with our spell-ings and estyle. Fresh morning, fresh children, fresh theme, fresh t(ray) of books…

If you want to be smarter than me, work harder than me. Says, Mr. Seea scientist from Malaysia.Explored density with him…more than the experiment he emphasised on ‘ don’t give up’. He encouraged ‘you are future scientist, think hard, try more, do more ‘. Why egg or sand sinks and watermelon floats?To make a heavy…

An eight yr old sharing her expressions

CHAPTER 1 After a long night’s journey we reached the talguppa station. A very scenic place indeed. What a lovely feeling it was, to feel a nice fresh breeze blow on my face and the wet dew drops on the new saplings. We were hungry, not having any food on the train (as we were…

Once upon a night, the people of Aarohi got a chance to go to Sirsi and stay at George uncle’s farm. The journey started at platform 10 at 10 pm on a dark, cloudy night.Waiting were we until finally the train arrived,Bidding farewell were we,Awaiting us was destiny! There is a saying ” No pain…

The trip to Sirsi was to explore western Ghats by being in the place. Each one of us had the different experience, we went to the different place and we did different things. Yana trek -Yana is a village located in “forest of Uttara Kannada”. Which is known for its unusual rock formation. It’s located…

A few weeks back, we started DAILY REPORTER: One of us compile the news ad share in the evening. It can be anything – international, national, local news along with weather report etc. In weather report initially we began with 21km/h wind speed. That was the time we would fly at the campus with this…

Outdoor trips bring a different energy at Aarohi. No matter where are we going, we spend time in exploring, understanding and imaging via different sessions. Visiting Sirsi was no different – preparation began a week in advance only to understand our goal and purpose. Some read, some listened, some found more information, some researched in…

Using mind map for communication Using words to read without knowing how to read Using colurs to read Using various alternatives to how to find own path.