Category: Blogs

Reflecting at the end of the day was part of experiencing Aarohi. It began with simple reflection – reflect on the day with few words like ‘like, boring, crazy, new….’ Every day we added more complexity – like comparing our day with a tree and finding what was like fruit or leaf in our day.…

It began with a need to make energy efficient water heating system. Rocket oven was one of the choice. First was to experiment with hollow brick blocks….a day;s effort in experimenting with the same…ry .some more research, some more experimenting lead to making ot with bricks, Visit to brick factory to buy brick was bonus…

It was about ‘coconut’ – one could make food with it or make craft with the leaves or just simply climb coconut tree or just feel it. Some choose to make sword with it watching a video. Next day one of the child taught many more….made many more. Or it was teaching boomerang or shooting…

Trekking to nearby temple on the mountain was initially boring (climbing steps) but then it was challenging to climb rocks and even jumping 9 feet down 🙂 Explored how a sleeve is stitched … tailoring became fun with measurements and adding those extra inches for stitching from 3/8th to ¼ inches. Made musical instruments with…

Morning all coming together and listening to music, playing with music, singing and dancing….It was an experience they went through when they came to experience Aarohi.

Kids spent three days making, wiring and installing LED bulbs (using cold drink cans) outside our community kitchen – it did not work!!! They tried, failed, sweat, discussed…..it was hot, it was tough, it was tiring…it was an experience they went through when they came to experience Aarohi.

The challenge was to land an egg safely when dropped from about 40ft (our rooftop) onto the concrete below. There were weights and size imits to the contraption – as well as limited budget. All came in team of 3-4, no age barrier – all worked as participants. Few eggs landed safely, some got cracked,…

Aalam joined to share about his novel that he has recently written. He shared his journey – writing, not writing, moments of boredom, editing, taking feedback, including illustrations, and finally publishing. He shared “I did leave in between, when the ideas would just not come in my mind and go back when ideas were flowing”.…

Sixteen years back, in 1999, we pitched our tent called Geniekids in Bangalore to explore children and learning. Well, sigh! we have packed up our Bangalore center this march-end, to embrace our new off-the-earth base camp – called O (open) Campus (60km from Bangalore). So here we are, with some musings, which we picked up…

The list below is Complied from the discussion initiated from Aparna on alt-ed-india yahoo egroup. For sake of privacy we have only mentioned the contributors name not emails etc. Pl visit alt-ed-india yahoo group for more details Here is Aparna’s email “My daughter is 11 and studies school textbooks as part of her studies at…

Various things to assemble, creates different learning opportunities. Kids choose to assemble from their imagination, they assemble to repair (food processor), they assembled what they dreamt (car), they assembled what they imagined (aeroplane), they assembled what they needed (tent), Assembled a leaking roof, Assembled a Jammed car door….

It was all about understanding campus through campus training. Safety training was about expectations from each member to take part in safety of self, others and resources. Water training was all about to know how the water come to campus and where it goes – what happens to greywater and blackwater, what makes water grey…

It was about painting on a canvas. We just put up a canvas with different types of color and asked to just paint, not only paint but play with paints. before one gets into techniques of painting, one needs to play to understand paints and various paints….age no bar. It was an experience they went…

Prabhat from Hyderabad Joined at campus to experience Aarohi in action. He Soon was part of leanirng community – doing, making, failing, expressing, participating, discussing, watering the trees….It was an experience he went through when he came to experience Aarohi.

Sameer from Pune joined at campus to experience Aarohi in action. In few hours he became part of the learning community doing, making, failing, expressing, participating, discussing, watering the trees….It was an experience he went through when they came to experience Aarohi.

It was hot, many wanted to get into water – we went to nearby pond and splashed with open heart…age no bar. Began with simple splashing, got into mud bath and mud play. It was an experience they went through when they came to experience Aarohi.

We had fun planning, organzing, thinking and packing at I-campus… Cricket match added a bit of spice in our work… We called ourselves ‘tapes and scissors’ pvt ltd… Some had strength in packing fragile items, some planning, some following, some stacking, some ensured we are fed nicely……we together made the day memorable… One said ‘I…

I wonder that our kids hear us talking about traffic problems, gadgets, shopping, homework……but they rarely they hear us talking about Geography or Maths in our daily conversation…..the result is that these subjects are confined to classrooms and exams. Read the article “saying helps”. http://mathfour.com/math-around-us/everyday-math-exposure-just-saying-it-helps Recently came across this article shared by a friend. Thank…

Last month Aarohi received a gift..it was gifted by Munish, one of Aarohi friend. He shared ‘my wish is that these equipments which are not very easily accessible to reach out to many kids, to reach out to many’. Once the novelty at your centre is over, send it to another place or share with…

Each one us is a wonderful story and children benefit by getting exposed to our stories. Story Mela at Aarohi had stories from different walks of life . We did not want only some stories but story of childhood, occupation story, interest story, story of native pace or a place visited, story of religion, story…

Medicine disposal is not taken seriously by most, however how you dispose your medicines could save or destroy the environment. While hospitals, clinics are mandated by law to dispose medical waste in a safe and Eco friendly manner, disposal of unused and expired medicines in the domestic sector, that is the household sector has not…

Last Friday was International festival at Aarohi. We had one constraint “any festival other than India’s festival” – this was part of our objective of understanding the world around. It began with researching different games, music, food (recipe) of different countries. We read stories from different culture and enacted with puppets. We found out significance…

We started homeschooling our daughter when she was 10 yrs old. We began with ‘homeschooling’ means we continued with teaching at home – Ofcourse we justified ourselves by adding fun and various activities to make it interesting. She showed interest in dance and art, we put her with vigorous classes of art and dance with…

Games to Learn – Actually the title should be re-phrased as Games for fun and to learn. Learning being the by product of having fun. Games are amazing as learning tools (do we need to elaborate?) because: all of us like them we get fully involved we love the challenges we play them endlessly they…

The mystery of “internet” continue to come in our thought club at Aarohi. We began pondering over “how do we know how much we can download?”. We realized that while we have been using internet for a long and for various usages, we have very less understanding about it. We have experienced its advantages while…

It all began last year with fishing in the village pond. When kids could not fish much, they wanted to make raft to sail in the pond. The project kept on getting postponed, but the desire was alive. One of the child expressed ‘I think its a little difficult for me to make”. Last week…

For me geography was restricted to science of climate and seasons. Further earth science was only bounded within formation of rocks and its types. Recently went for a trip to Lucknow with Aarohi kids to explore rocks……we began with thought of exploring rocks and realized how many things are connected. We found the treasure of…