Category: Blogs

Searching for places to trek in surrounding areas – we got to know about Raikotai fort via some blogs written by some generous travellers. Here is what we did on this outdoor Ate an amazing breakfast at Rayakotai (iddlies, puries, dosas and bisi coffee) Trekked half way up (half hour) – fond a huge cave…

Some Children, specially in emotional state of mind, tend to sometimes use – what is considered by some as abusive language – words like Fuck, Asshole, this Sucks, Holyshit, what the heck, etc. The other children pick this as something fashionable – hence curse words like above are becoming more common. Well, its confusing. May…

Few interactions….. I was working and a word OPTION caught my attention.One of the child was talking to grand parents “You have three options, one is you can come and give my b’day gift here at campus, second is you can send by courier and third is you can give to my parents when they…

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results. John Dewey Pocket Money…the concept is brought in our homes to bring awareness about value of money. Many times this concept brings the feelings among kids ‘why should I control…

Keeping resource in place is one of the issue resource team faces :). After several announcements in planning, finally It came in ‘my voice’ as a concern ‘finding difficult to manage resources , need community to work with consciousness. While it was raised as a concern, and expressed to get community participation, there was no…

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 we…

Each week, few kids take part in conducting various sessions… Dhrupad, 11yrs old in daily diet…bringing different puzzles including visual. Keeping interest alive with discussing in planning and thought club. Pratyaksh, 11yrs old conducting thought club sessions on REthinking – should we have coaching or not, how to rethink on what we already think.Brought different…

Session on Levers… Many of us know what is lever….but the trick lies in using them in day to day life to be able to kick football better or cut vegetables. This was the premise of lever session, started with a ruler and something to balance. One Ratnesh is equal to 11 Ratnesh – how?…

Little joy in life….nothing big, just a celebration of our existence here makes us feel joyful and sharing that joy with others in the community.

Often when one is showing interest in any skill, we rush for coaching, Coaching is great way to learn but only when one is ready for it. Kids at campus are showing lot of interest in football, they have made teams, they play, they practice, they play matches….we started pondering “what next?” DO we need…

When learning is defined by living, anything comes on my way is worth leaning. Stay at campus requires us to work on our own safety – each week we spend on campus training…..safety training (alternate week). While we have basic safety codes to start with….we continue to work on different aspect and get deeper in…

What you do when someone is ill? Thought club on illness and how can I take care of others when they are ill…..the group came up with many thoughts…take care, give medicines, be with the person, do something to make feel nice, listen, accompany, build our immunity (so we do not get ill), So when…

All meals at Aaorhi are served common, menu team ensures different taste buds are taken care. But snacks timings are different – some gets ‘personal snacks’. Just when some of us started getting comfortable with the thought of personal snacks, instead of working on community need,s started working on self needs, instead of looking for…

A 20ft feet long 4″ pipe, cut into two halves….collected 1000 liters water in one rain. Every drop matters. Add to that – we got the 1000 ltr water drum – from a junk shop – for just Rs1000/-

AFL – Aarohi Football League at Aarohi to explore how do we respond under pressure….experiencing winning, loosing, practicing, reacting, responding, blaming, accepting, listening, competing…along with excitement, disappointment, anger and jealousy. Exploring co-operation through reflection.

Some children like to lead, some think leadership means commanding. Sports brings anopportunity for them to experince leadership. Many likes to conduct sports session for manyreasons Command over others Bring sports of my choice In case of conflict ;I am leader, you listen to me”. In case of decision making ‘my decision is final, I…

Am I German or Indian? Am I German, just because I stay here? What is German? What is a country made up of? Left with a thought what a country is? Family of four from Berlin, Germany. The parents, son is 8yrs and daughter 6yrs. Both kids attend a free, democratic school in Berlin which…

Outdoor trips are part of learning system at Aarohi. Sometimes we do wonder why are we going week after week on outdoor trips? This time again we asked the same questions ‘why do we go?” Based on the experience various children have gone through, the group came up with a list Understand Working Experience first…

Exploring language through music – Dancing to the tune of Dandia music for Gujrati OR to dance on Oriya music OR Spanish music OR simply chanting chants in Sanskrit OR a simple Music march.

At Aarohi, coaching or teaching is not the only way we learn, it is need based rather a requirement to learn. We began working on fitness by our own understanding, we brought many fitness format based on what we read, learnt from different people. After some time we needed some more inputs. Fitness expert, Praveen,…

It began with a need to have clay station – proposal was made for the place, one child sketched the space, the layout and arrangement of clay station. Soon it was working – We explored making clay with pond mud and also making our own toys with clay. It’s fun to play with toys, it’s…

Sterilization of Coco’s (our pet dog) … From the finding of vet doctor, calling, fixing up an appointment, preparing for the visit to the doctor, stayed at the clinic during operation, understating medicine plan, giving her medicines … that’s a lot of work. Typically we would think this is work for an adult but here…

Sometimes when we see Pepper pouncing on Coco, we get worried for Coco’s safety. We started observing more and this is what we also observed…..how lovingly he is letting Coco play with him…..watch video

We read comics, we enjoy, we share….Dirk from Germany who is professional comic book writer joined Aarohi to share his skills of making of comic strips. After a demo session comic course was announced with the commitment of 90 minutes daily for four days – all ages took part. Each one had their own story…

Each week quiz clubs on skype teaches us something new and different…..one of the week Sangitha talked about not only only revealing facts but also reading question well to pick up the main clue. Break up terms to understand better, see patterns, learn some basic suffixes and prefixes, arrive upon a few answers, eliminate options…

Campus training on sexual awareness. The session was interactive and had lot of inputs from children. While this topic is very vast, we could only work on awareness regarding our responses, our thoughts and beliefs regarding some common sexual situations, on body parts, good touch – bad touch and sexual touch. Recommend parents to take…

Lot happens during the week at campus…..not necessarily structured as curriculum but curriculum from life. We pick what comes on our way as we live our life Planning various things – Outstation trip – schedule, travel, connecting with resource people, identifying and finalizing the places to visit, stay arrangements and communication. Team of four consisting…

Gift Outdoor – As part of outdoor, it was turn to work in neighborhood. We began with idea of gift outdoor – spend some time with people in the market, work for them, eat our breakfast within limited budget, save some money and buy a gift for our helpers (station master, doctors in hospitals, police…

Adults at campus have been managing kitchen, buying grocery and food quantities. I as an adult never tried to understand how we learnt this organizing. I think we did not need to know, as we grew in our experience, we learnt more.Now, one of the child has taken up the role, she is our kitchen…