Category: Blogs

Baking on wood fire oven was an experience we would like to have again and again. It allows us to understand fire as cooking tool and baking as cooking process. Also baking at campus allows us to explore and experiment due to limited ingredients available. Brownies – One Child was leading the team to make…

Journey of Roti making:We started exploring ingredients for rotis and found that dough was made of wheat flour. We wanted to feel the wheat and looked at all grains to find out which is wheat. Each one had different visual picture in mind about how it looks and how it can taste. We finally searched…

They danced, they acted, they wrote story line and they performed. Shalvi, a young adult at Aarohi sharing her journey of making of “MAAYI”, a musical act at Aarohi this summer of 2016. The summer camp week started.On Monday, while I was sitting during the planning time, I wandered into my own world where I…

Safety training is part of starting living at Aarohi. How do we live in harmony with wilderness around us, how do we co-exist? When we understand them we take care of each other. Understanding is beginning of knowing our own actions in case of safety Elaborate safety training on emotional, physical and sexual safety set…

Bath in natural pond breaks many of the unknown beliefs we grow inside us. Nearby pond gives us opportunity to explore ourselves. Bathing in pond, we call it ponding is very popular activity at Aarohi. Cooking after bath and enjoying our breakfast adds up to the whole experience. Pond bed is SOFT CLAY – it…

Different age groups living together and creating spaces for self. It was amazing to see how each child, irrespective of the age could find spaces for self. Initially there was apprehension ‘how will kids of 4yrs and 14 yrs will stay together? Will smaller kids get lost? Will smaller kids get their space? These apprehensions…

What is an NGO? Some have heard , some had no idea. Anu and Navin of Headstream joined with their team to share about NGO they run. Well, they began with a small dynamic skit to share problems people face on society and kids came up with the solutions (drunken father, helpless mother, drugged school…

Snippets from our weekly documentation of self learning – Its amazing to see how each one looks at their each week. All are in the same environment, but take away is different for different children.They like to document their week differently – some likes to write long stories (what all happened), some likes questions, some…

I met this ‘engineered mind’ this week at Aarohi. He came for summer camp and first thing he touched was electronic box which contained many components. He was happy to know that he could use them. Second thing he visited was mud house which house many make and break things. Most of the so called…

Summer camp is no different for us at Aarohi than our normal living at campus. Community time brings all of us together for care of campus, meals, catching up with our talks, spending time with each other just like that. Sports is another place where we spend tome together and play with all ages, all…

This session was to explore things and people we rely on to make each day possible. We started with discussing about how a plant survives, what are the things they are dependent on. Kids participated eagerly… Then the whole class made a human clock with children in the place of the numbers in the clock.…

This session was to explore about how does comparing oneself with others help or not help? Each kid was shared a piece of paper and was asked to duplicate a face that was drawn on the board. Many started with enthusiasm and were into their drawing. They were told not to write their names on…

This session was to explore ones strengths and key qualities. Each kid was shared a sheet with different strengths and they were asked to draw a flower around the strengths that they possess and to draw a circle around any strength that they wish to have…. Then they used those strengths to decorate a picture…

Kids were involved in various projects at campus – we announced DEADLINES to finish. This created another opportunity to understand self – how do we respond in various situations. Some found it difficult, some took it as challenge, some were focused and determined, some gave up, some continued the way they have been working, some…

Week began with many promises, many opportunities to work and get indulged into. Laura and Phil visiting from Canada, Phil is videographer and wanted to make movie on community, Laura is primary school teacher and into music, wanted to make music with kids (may be a song). Various project were lined up- Starting with wattle…

Few months back we began running. There was mixed response – we all liked running and the freshness after running but many of us expressed ‘laziness to get up’. We have been working on our stamina in various forms, and various people who visit Aarohi further inspire us to continue our journey. Dhanya joined us…

Crazy Aarohi song – written, sung and enjoyed by aarohians. Laura joined us for a week at campus. She shared her love for music and we together created a ‘Crazy song’. Lyrics were written, music was composed, instrumnets explored and we sang many times in many forms. Thank you Laura and Phil

Lizards rating at Aarohi is very low, like any other place, lizards receive “ooh, yuck….” Treatment. In principal we respect all inscete but we lizards still makes us run here and there. Well, while we do not run with kids, we encouraged one of the child to take up understanding about lizards in campus training.First…

Watch the video to see how learning happens -OBSERVING, TRYING and ENJOYING This child (1.5 years) was at campus for a week, she would go around, observe people and do things on her own. She would reach out to her mother as and when she wanted comfort.She is no exception, watch each child to learn…

Bamboo frame work is ready.The walls are ready to receive mud fillingwe are ready to play and enjoy making our own walls 🙂Never knew we have the power to make our own spaces, create our own walls and use very basic material. We do not claim to be sustainable or eco-friendly, we never started with…

Ability to cook basic food is a basic skill. Some of the kids who wanted to acquire this skill, started with cooking chapati in our kitchen.Each one did it in Different timings, Different quality, Different mistakes, Different solutions, Different methods. Some found dough making tough, some found rolling and while some found roasting tough. They…

Basic skills are needed to live our life. Remember most of these competencies once learned or mastered do not need further work (just like you do not need to learn reading or swimming again). While life itself is deriving what one needs to live life, life does not define HOW you need to learn. One…

It was easy to see – thin slices of Thermocol, fold them and fly! It looked easy, but when we heard the story behind making of glider, we were in awe with the patience and creations behind that.Rajesh and Nihar who were working on this project, shared with us how they made their own Thrmocol…

Aarohi campus is situated in foothills, that allows us to have panoramic view as well as bring the challenges of forest fire. This year like any other year month of March was hot and had possibility of forest fire. This time we started our preparation a month in advance to understand. After doing many surveys…

Rameshwaram isan historic place with full of temples and beach anda crowded place . We enjoyed the view of beach in the night. We experienced glimpses of snorkeling and viewed corals , sea cucumber, sea lotus, etc. The person who took us for snorkeling shared that he would value satisfaction of children than money children…

Each year we visit Police station, just like that. Each year we come a bit closer to our own images of some people (profession). At the police station they shared how they work 24 hrs, what is juvenile and how their are different kids of sessions courts. Some were hesitant to shake hands, for some…

WHAT A REASON TO LEARN. Thepurposeof life is to havepurposein life. Saw these two pictures in Vistar, Bangalore.

One of the parents who was visiting campus, felt the need of toilet around kitchen area. They decided to make one. As they shared “we felt it would be an hour job, but as we started working we realized that there is so much goes in anything you make”. It took them two days to…

The journey of fore extinguisher started when we started exploring fire and safety from fire. After many trials, experiments, we made one of the home made fire extinguisher. We also realized that also gets expiry. We understood what is expiry and why? We explored what are the different chemical reaction? Why it extinguish the fire?…