Category: Blogs

He told me, “I am fidgety”. I said, “I bet you are not” He said, “I am different, my brain wiring is different station and its not straight”. I said, “I bet its different for all and straight for anyone”. He said, “I cannot sit in a place”. I said, “I bet you are sitting…

One child celebrated his home coming b’day at home. This was a new reason for many to cerebrate, so the curiosity was high “what is home coming b’day?” This child decided to share his adoption journey with all other peers. He designed a session 🙂 He began with asking us “what is adoption?” Then he…

They have been making movie for last two years. They make and again make and reject and fail and make again. They plan and shoot, they imagine and shoot, they visualize and shoot, They search for locations, they look for props, they shoot and again reject it, They shoot the movie, edit it, fail in…

This session started with trying to listen to any sound that we hear…Initially there was some sound in the class…. Slowly they became silent and started to hear sounds of people and things outside… Then we started an activity of drawing what they listen… I was dictating a few simple things like lines, circles, curves,…

One child was working on various activities like painting, crafts, paper Mache, dancing, makeup. She found her passion towards dancing. She practiced dance every day after lunch. At times practiced dance alone and at times with friends. She wanted to teach dance and so volunteered to teach dance to government school children. She prepared dance…

This session was interesting, one child from Aarohi joined to demonstrate making of a synthetic ball using glue and borax. The session began with introduction. Each child introduced themselves with an animal action mentioning their name and something that they like to do or dream about. Then a music was played and kids danced with…

This session is to explore problems and how feelings change at different times. Started with the word ‘PROBLEM.’ Many kids shared their explanations and examples of problems. Then introduced them to a Problem meter where they rate their problem from 1 to 10 using a paper needle. They also drew how they would feel at…

Learning from this project is not to learn about electronics…….physics and mathematics but “how not to give up”. Nihar, who is 12 yrs old, is also one of our resource person at Aarohi. He shared his learning of making uni cycle and his journey. He shared ‘every time any circuit blew off, I learned a…

We play sports, no matter how much we (Adult) not like competition, kids bring their own spirit of competition. Football is played with pure competitive spirit. When one makes goal, other one sulk, when one team wins they celebrate and other cry….we see hatred, competition, jealousy and all other emotions.While we not stop any of…

We use Wifi..almost a life line for our learning. But when it is not working, Ratnesh was our life line each one of us would go to him and ask to do something about it’.We realized that while we all use internet, we barely know about its functioning. One of the child took this in…

Often no means nothing or means many things but no. Kids expressed that inspite of saying no, others would continue….teasing, repeating, name calling, disturbing (actions).Well, the helpmates came up with the root problem “we actually do not take “no” so seriously. One poster was made and displayed prominently “no mean no”. We still don’t take…

Visit to Hasmukh farm was inspiring for some of the kids to start working with Bamboo. They saw tool stand at his farm and tried making brush stand at campus. Drill machine, safety goggles, adult supervision and get set go!!! One child is very innovative with paper work, keeps reproducing different models in paper –…

Two months back we made an open air urinal – specially to use the urine as fertilized-water for trees. Now the question was how to get it ALL the tree saplings most effectively. Bruno – our plumber man from France – thought that Drip irrigation would be perfect. A trip to local market, some innovation,…

Bruno from France, calls himself a plumber with pride. He was at the campus to make a solar water heater. few kids joined him and it was done in a day, including work in the moonlight.What appeared to be done in a day, took a month’s groundwork. Bruno contacted Aarohi when I read that we…

Small hurts, scratches, throat pains, cough, cold, light fever, and light headaches are part of our living at the campus. We all get sick or get hurt, and that becomes a learning opportunity to connect with our bodies. Whenever someone is feeling sick, Or campus medic (child on job) first collects the data – when…

We wished for a Telescope. We asked people to contribute. Our wishes were fulfilled by Asher-Simi, Kanchan, Mini, Navdeep, Nimmi, Poornima, Rajani, Rohini, Rupa, Sangitha, Sonal, and Srikanth. We ordered the Telescope – Skywatches added a bonus of free delivery just for Aarohi. On Thursday (18th feb16) children assembled it. Then these excited children got…

Fitness Routine Warm up -10 minutes – any music any dance 2 times Tabata workout – 10 minutes, squats, hop and back, push up, mountain walk, plank walk, crunches, fish out of water Surya Namaskaer- 4-5 rounds Relaxation – 10 minutes (start with chanting a, u, aa and then relaxing each part of the body).…

Every year Sankranti or Pongal comes at Aarohi O-campus to bring joy. The celebration creates space for all – to play, to cook, to decorate, to play music, to sing, to eat and laugh together. Priyanka and family joined us to add magic with their music. While we explored some simple musical instruments from Rajasthan,…

There are many different ways of looking at anything, including our soap:) Yes, few years back, we never questioned “are there other ways that I clean my body? or why do I need soap? what goes in soap? what else? Well, presence of people from different walks of life allows us to re-think. Ramji shared…

It was more about using the same material in different ways than making mask. Ramji shared about making mask using papier mache – soak paper, make pulp add Methi seeds and mix it and make creations. This sounds simple! It took 2-3 days to process the papier mache, mix it, and make a dough and…

Anil joined Aarohi for a week to experience Aarohi. His presence inspired us to look at things differently. He has been working on converting vehicles into pedaled vehicles. He shared how he worked on converting a truck into a truck which can be pedaled by three people. Apart from his vision of working on making…

Liza and Anya from Russia, passionate about movie making, announced about their wish to make movie. Soon the movie enthusiastic team was in place. It began with making a story with collaborative efforts. We came to consensus that we will make a horror movie. Script was made after many if’s and but’s. Then it was…

We started with saluting in different ways…..Then we took partners and each partner worked as a mirror to the other and repeated the actions of their partners… and then partners interchanged their roles.. Was interesting to see kids doing it with enthusiasm.. This session was to let kids choose a goal, think & plan different…

We started with raising our collars, ears, eyes, nose, lips, face, hair, shoulders, hands and legs. Kids participated enthusiastically. Then kids were asked, what is confidence? Few said it is a strength, and some didn’t know, some wanted to know… Then when I asked, what are the things that you think you are sure that…

One child or three years wanted to make painting on the wall. She took paints and brushes and made some blobs. After making it she wanted to rub as it was DIRTY. Mother took another brush and just made few outlines and took the child at a distance. The child exclaimed with joy “its looking…

Liza and Anya, two sisters from Russia, passionate about movie making apart from music, construction and drawing, painting and observing. Travelling alone to India to inspire kids to look at life beyond obvious. Travelling on shoestring budget, working in different places in India as volunteer to fulfill their dreams, etc. Thank you Liza and Anya…

Ramji introduced Jin Shin Do (body mind accupressure) to us. It began with first knowing our own body and then understanding how the acupressure works on us. Few continued with longer session, while others choose to continue with some other works. Kids and adults both took part with the same curiosity and interest. Thank you…

Nora from Germany likes to move…she likes to build and create…sculptures, construction, landscape gardening and exercising are some some of her interests. Casper from Denmark was wanting to make his own music, carried some recording devices as experiment, drumming, mixing music, bouldering (climbing rocks without ropes) and cooking are some of his passion. It was…

‘It Starts With A Seed’ as we began with Ramji for making jewelry with seed. The workshop began with to ponder “What can you one do with a few humble seeds, some wire, and bits of paper?” A lot! we made jewelry that we treasured and most important now every seed looks precious! We created…

Bouldering is about climbing rock without rope or any other safety tool!!! Does that bring excitement and also apprehension? We too had that mix of expressions when Casper announced bouldeirng session. He began with ‘this is not entertainment, this is serious’. This was enough to set the tone of the adventure we had signed up…