Category: Blogs

No direct taps to get water in washbasins lead to many experiments to make hand wash system comfortable. It began with buckets and tumbler. Then small buckets and tumbler. But it did not satisfy us, we started looking for more. One child took it and tried different styles of tippity taps – he was given…

Two kids who were putting rice in solar cooker were wondering how to set direction for the solar cooker. We looked up, we looked around and traced sun direction. We drew, we guessed and finally we set solar cooker to wonder what will happen to our rice?

Why only adults are considered ‘teachers’ or rather when we think about teaching we think about adults. We miss out on a HUGE learning resource and that is children themselves. Informally they learn many things from each other including how to operate mobile to repair cycles. But when it comes to learning division or Newton’s…

Often we are asked ‘how do you manage fighting, conflicts, safety, and discipline”? Well, there are many ways the community handles conflicts and ‘helpmates’ is one of the way. Helpmate is a platform where one adult and few kids take the role of helpmates. Anyone can approach them for help, they can share their concern.…

One more trip, new learnings, opportunity to prepare, to learn and to understand the world around us. It began with three kids planning the trip with their mentor. Kanhaa Tiger Reserve was selected for various reasons. So after History now its turn for some Jungle adventure and we are fortunate that parents of one of…

We often express our needs through our emotions “I am angry, you made me angry, I am upset”.This often does not tell the listener what I need.We explored what all can be needs? We made our own bookmarks and kids selected their own needs form the long list. They want to be listened to, to…

Just few Bamboos…..few ropes…and a place to hanging. Kids working on “Building hanging skills”. Our firstdomeusing bamboos and rope – 8 feet bamboos (25nos), made by 8 people (5 excited children and 3 equally excited adults) in 8 hours – all thanks to some amazing and comprehensive instructions at this website –http://geometrydome.com/ Special Thanks for…

When they came, they came with their fear of dogs. They would hide behind their parents or any other adult for protection. We did not stop them. Whenever they asked for help, we gave, when they needed. They lived with dogs with their fear, we did not ask them to be fearless or be normal…

Every Monday campus training allows looking life in different ways. Kids work on various topics from first aid, animal safety, fire safety, self defense, safety at campus, safety and strangers….. One child expressed “I want to change my goal of first aid”. He expressed his discomfort for blood and dressing, Encouraged him to do mock…

It started with one child sharing about a news “I have heard that there are aliens landed in Mysore”. We announced “current affairs sharing which you have read in newspaper or other media (and not just heard from somebody)”. So children started searching for the stuff to present for 3 minutes. Some missed lunch as…

How does your body feels during the day while you do different chores? We all go through different body feelings – we are tired, energetic, in pain, stressed (body) and many more feelings our body goes through. This week we explored how differently we feel when we do different chores. We explored different body postures…

Battery of our car got drained out – first reaction was to call ‘battery emergency service’ to fix the problem. Second thought was ‘learning opportunity’. With kids we tried jump start – did not work. It took two days to figure out how to open bonnet. As and when we needed help, we called people,…

What causes us to steal – is it temptation? If we delve deeper into this, living together brings all kinds of social dynamics. ​At campus we are experiencing children getting tempted and taking food items that either belong to others or belong to the campus (to be used at other time – these typically include…

Workshop on Non Violent Communication with Shammi brought a new way of communication in our life at Aarohi O-Campus. Living together does bring conflict and opportunities to learn from them. As Shammi said “celebrate conflicts”. We celebrated conflict and went deeper into the human needs. It began with solving conflicts of what schedule to follow?…

Let me do this for 10 more minutes, 10 more, just five minutes more….does this sounds familiar? Often we respond in many different ways – threats are some of them (If you do not come now, we will leave you here), or negotiations are some (only five more minutes, no more. OR attack on the…

Outdoor Visit to “The chocolate room” We all have visited various restaurants, many times, but our visit to the restaurant “The Chocolate Room” gave us different views and dimensions about a restaurant. We enjoy restaurants as a customer by choosing, exploring variety of foods and at times even cribbing about taste and quality. This time…

Lincy with her team from backyard factory joied at campus to share their love of gardening, https://www.facebook.com/greenbackyardfactory?fref=ts It began with understanding about pest (that’s where we shift to chemicals sprays) and we liked the idea of 3G spray. Some of the kids are into gardening and growing – they liked the idea of 3G spray.…

Last two weeks we faced death and loss – two of our rabbits died. One died due to disease and another one was hunted by our pet dog. Rabbits brought joy for some kids – kids nurtured them, They mothered them – gave bath, made shelter, gave food, cleaned their shelter, protected them from our…

Basic skills is a focused space for the child to work on areas like logic, language, nature, the body and/or enhancing skills or doing a ‘deeper dive’ into a specific learning area through actual hands-on work or application. The child decides on specific learning goals and works on these. Some examples are making a story,…

Thank you Shivednra Ji visiting us at campus – we re-lived the era of ‘trunk calls booking’. For kids it was an alien story to know how we used to book STD calls and wait for the calls to get connecetd – almost felt impossible or fairy land story. You very humbly shared that you…

Tools are very important part of our learning resources. They allow us to explore and make things and see the ‘real’ things happening. At Aarohi we explore all kinds of tools – from saw to cut wood and Bamboo, spades and other digging tools, trimmer for electrical works – basically any tool which any adult…

Ten enthusiastic Malaysian teachers visited Aarohi for a day. We cooked, we sang, we laughed and we all enjoyed together. We talked about culture, food and lifestyle. “Live station” session is one in which individuals from different walks of life spend valuable time with children at Aarohi – sharing their life, their skills, or their…

25yr old, started her life as normal as how many of us did – schooling, college and then work. Then she started questioning herself, could not stay for a long in job and started feeling need to do something more. She joined ‘teach for india’ and continued her journey – here she heard about ‘alternative…

This session was to explore ones emotions. This time we used different facial expressions to greet each other…Kids were involved and excited to show different expressions. Then they watched a short video of a song depicting different feelings… few wanted to catch up the front row, few were getting up in the middle, few said…

This session was to explore ones emotions. This time we used different facial expressions to greet each other…Kids were involved and excited to show different expressions. Then they watched a short video of a song depicting different feelings…kids enjoyed watching, few were moving their body to the song… few laughed… few tried to repeat the…

This session was also to explore strengths using puppets. Greeted the kids with two puppets…Kids were excited and involved.. Then kids were made to play 5, 10, 15 Bingo!! Game… They played the game by themselves…. By then the place was set for the puppet show.. When asked “Are u tired after repeating numbers? Shall…

This session was to explore strengths using puppets. Suddenly entered the class with puppets in hand and greeted with two puppets…Kids were surprised and excited.. Then kids were made to play 5, 10, 15 Bingo!! Game… One of the kid shared the 5 tables and after explanation of the game, they played the game by…

This session was to explore Multiple Intelligences using bottle caps. This session started with greeting each other with thumbs… Then we played the game, Do what I say and not what I do….Kids participated well… Then asked, what is intelligent? Many said brain, some studying, some playing, some singing….. Then a chart with different people…

This session was to explore the different Multiple Intelligences using bottle caps….The session started with greeting the person to the right and the left using the thumb. Kids did it with smiling faces… Then We played ‘Do what I say and not what I do’ game. kids participated well…. When asked, what is Intelligence? Some…