Category: Blogs

Stories are wonderful. Stories from real life experiences are even more wonderful. And our parents stories are just awesome to hear. Each Friday in thought club we have stories from here and there. This week kids got ‘Stories of parents’ – this brought excitement in our story session – stories of their childhood, struggle, joy,…

Nothing stays same at Aarohi, we keep experimenting to create challenges.Last week was ‘reading’ during wait until dark (after dinner). Most kids fell asleep by 9:30 tucked warmly with their books.This week was journal writing. Few found it difficult to be with self, few stayed with self, few slept early while few stayed awake but…

Sound can itself be feedback Started with activity – observe what sound it makes when we do our regular job like …scratching head, turning page, typing, reading, writing, walking, running. Observe next time how you run..sound of our shoes can tell us how much force putting and how that can effect our knee in future.…

Imagine Aarohi which guarantees one definitive outcome – that learning will be self discovery. This week we tried new recipe of Stuffed Spinach. When me and Varhsa read the recipe, we felt ‘capsicum without cooking will not taste nice’. But we both decided to go ahead – it turned out to be DELICIOUS. In kitchen…

It joyful to celebrate together

Khojis sharing their journey of Swaraj -Samyukta says she Learnt a lot about self.Jawahar wants to live his dream so in Swaraj.Self Directed Learning was new for Abhiram. They shared, program at Swaraj is semi structure, because many of them come from main stream and it’s difficult for to switch completely into self directed. Program…

Togetherness – Forgotten board games – community games – Exploring various medium of entertainments,

One of the area we need to work as community is on our personal hygiene. This topic is vast, based on various feedback and needs, we have tried to define community hygiene requirements.

Can a campus Teach? Yes, We believe a campus can be the very lap of learning. It offers constraints to us which make us think, do, learn, and live differently. Making of hot water at campus using Chulha which is based on rocket stove principle require all of us to understand the working of rocket…

Longest toffee eating experience in mindfulness session. mindfulness ˈmʌɪn(d)f(ʊ)lnəs/ noun 1. the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. “their mindfulness of the wider cinematic tradition” 2. a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as…

This week our community sports saw ‘measured grounds’. Nanadini and Advay were set to organize community sports. Each day Nandini researched on various measurements of grounds – During the day she was seen with long measuring tapes and some drawings of how to play that game. She brought visual explanations along with verbal instructions. In…

Using different tools helps learners to discover self – Some of us use visual planning tools (mind map), Some like logical tools (step by step process), some like tactile tools (fortune teller). When we used fortune teller to plan our day we used – strengths I will use for various task, adverbs I will use…

In our path of self directed learning process, some of our actions acts as BRAKES, while some actions as ACCELERATOR. As a group we reflected on these two: BRAKES – Overconfidence, auto pilot, not open to take feedback, procrastination, laziness, Demotivated, distraction, anger, lack of interest, not taking feedback, not doing, not accepting, lack of…

Had wonderful and thoughtful music jam this week with Lakshim and Avani. We all danced crazily on the tune of “”Tak Tak Dhum Dhum” and loved watching craziness. One could never think that kids will like and dance crazily on this music (very old song from movie ‘Do ankhen barah haath’ made in 1957) –…

Aniket gave NIOS secondary last year and took part inthesession to share his experience. Chetana and Anoop have beenworking to makelearningmeaningfulforchildrenfor last many years at Aurinko. TheystartedAurinko aftersomeyearsofhomeschooling, Aniket didn’t fit into mainstream as mutually they didn’t offer what each other needed. The Aurinko Program focuses on the Whole-Child. The curriculum is integrated, emergent and…

Often when we see a problem – either we ignore, or we find our own solutions. When it comes to finding solution for children, adults normally suggest a solution – the key is to involve kids in solving their problems. Often when we involve them, understanding of any topic becomes that much deeper. This time…

Do we loose our path? Do we get distracted? Do we have self doubt? Do we always take complete responsibility of our learning? Yes as self directed learners – we do miss our marks, lose our track, gets distracted, forget about our goals. Manthan and Reflection allows us to look into ourselves – This Manthan…

Good News – This Wednesday we did no have any one topic which was prepared by all of us from parent communication We announced a talent show and each one had 30 minutes to prepare (including having dinner). Show began in half an hour – some grouped over dinner and prepared a quick comedy show.…

Hygiene is always a debatable topic or rather very subjective – How does one define basic hygiene levels of individuals and at the same time ensure all needs are taken care. Children at Aarohi comes from various families and each family has their own concept of hygiene. We keep on pondering “Is bath requireddailyor not…

Kaa travelogue The travel: We started traveling around at 7:30 am. And while traveling we all were playing games like hand cricket, bluff, card games and verbal games. soon we reached a restaurant which sells thatte idli in bidadi. For 45 rupees we could have two thatte idlis with some butter and chutney of course…

My TRAVELOGUE ! Hello everyone ! I want to write my wonderful experience in Ramanagram! We boarded our bus from Lal – Bagh at 7:20. and after that we left Bangalore, We had our breakfast on the way.from Tatte IDLI, the Idli were so big and that was my first time I was having such…

Meeting Artisans has always been humble experience. Meeting B V Kumbhar and Kumar to learn about pottery and patri (making wooden beads) was no different. At first looking at that pottery wheel and pot coming up looked so simple, but did not feel simple when we started making. Making one article with hand was so…

Every Thursday playing team games/ cooperative games allows us to connect with ourselves – we discover leaders inside us, our own breakers or accelerators and various roles we play as player.

At Aarohi music jam is part of every evening…music, songs, singing, dancing, jamming, prayers, chants, musical games, instruments and live music. Prashanth sharing “It’s interesting how music gets created by everyday objects…. I was surprisingly not aware of it before Aarohi. We try to do a Music Jam every now and then these days when…

Planning is important element in our learning process as self directed learners. We meet as community, we plan our day, we share our planning, we coordinate with others, we also know what all is happening and we bring clarity in our purpose and planning. Its not only planning and writing what will I do, getting…

Running campus democratically is no small business, we take it seriously and sincerely…..each week meet and review our working, reassign duties, give feedback to each others and our leaders. These weekly meetings and reviews helps us to pull ourselves, relook into our working and work on feedback. Each team has one mentor, one leader and…

Healing is a medium to connect with others. Healing session with Sunitha have been very therapeutic and connecting. This time she also introduced ‘gratitude stone’. Its nothing else but to keep reminding us to be grateful for what we have. What we are today is because of many things around us and we remember their…