Category: Blogs

It was a week of festivals at Aarohi. We began with planning (planning seems to be our trademark). Planning gave us a clear idea of what all we can do, what all we want to do, what each individual want… it was very noisy meeting, the noise level is directly proportional to our excitement 🙂…

With summer setting in, and most grass in the hillside getting dry – On Wednesday we had forest fire at the hill behind the campus. With wind blowing at a high speed – the Fire spread towards the campus . But the whole team at campus worked for few hours to tame the fire. Kids…

Discipline committee at Aarohi reviewed its working of six weeks. We shared what is working and what is not working. Three key points of discipline committee (DC):- Building false cases and campaigning for smaller issues is making DC’s work extra. DC is to help and support for safety DC is a platform and opportunity for…

It was 3:30pm in the afternoon when our vehicle reached back to GK. We all were tired. We all had a big bunch of memories with us about the experience we had. Few children got pick up cards as soon as we reached. I went inside and sat in jungle with few children. They got…

Recently we got a concern mail from a parent who accompanied few kids to travel by train. This brought an opportunity for us to review and be aware of role in safety. We read the mail together and analyzed the current situation of the codes as follows.. Train security codes – we analyzed the current…

Story with Dino toys, made by a child at home when he was getting bored.

HOM’s are habits of mind – They are habits of thought and action that allows me to know my self in various situations like known, unknown, uncertain or challenging situations. At Aarohi we began with using them in our conversation. Some of the common vocabulary includes – responsibility, perseverance, observation, planning, creativity with constraint, organized,…

We made booklets on Safety- in different places around us. Photos from that session. Each booklet had a logo, a slogan, a visual, my safety and safety of people around me detailing.

Experiencing Aarohi begins with the feeling of freedom. Last week we had few kids and adults to experience Aarohi at campus. Few kids began with making mud house, it took 4 hrs to collect three bandalis of mud and few stones. We did not have to tell them in their short stay at campus they…

Thanks to guest at campus, we got the opportunity once again to explore Barbecue at campus. It was a very basic set up of stones and one metal mesh. Our coals were wet, next time we would like to put them in sun before we barbecue. One of the guest initiated ‘barbeque’ we did not…

Ennai Kandriya mean “Knowing Me”. It is our local initiative in govt schools in Kelamangalam. What we do in this program – expose them to different kinds of activities to relate to self – become aware fo ones feelings, strengths , qualities, abilities, social skills, habits of mind like responsibility, independence, confidence etc. The children…

Some of the guest at Aarohi O-campus choose ‘fear’ as a topic for thought club. We used theater as a medium to watch fear. We began with what is fear? Kids and adults together acted on ‘unknown, uncertain, imaginary, absence of light, uncertain…’. The acting made the whole ‘fear’ fun. Kids and adults both expressed…

Historical victory of AAP is the talk of nation. I happened to be in Jaipur and watching all news channel, newspapers flashing the news …..Personally I do not favor any party over another, for me all are into politics in different forms and I do not subscribe to any party…….few thoughts about the way we…

Lets look at WHY Why you did not eat food? Why are you so lazy Why you did not come in time What does ‘why’ does to our children? Try to give answer to these questions, do they start with “because…..”.And it is followed by a reason. Often ‘why’ brings ‘a reason’, some calls it…

Often the phrase “kids do by themselves or figure it out yourself” is misunderstood and misleading. Let’s look at various version of ‘figure out’… Figure out what help you need – you want me to tie thread, or design for you or to read for you or just be with you? Figure out from whom…

It was a sunny afternoon, few kids got together to have fun and soon they were talking about a business idea of ‘juice stall’. The talks continued for few more days, dreams of business built for few more days. Next week they started turning dream in reality with their action. Day one was ‘building up…

Two kids approached me with a need to guide them in art. I asked “do you want me to guide you to paint, or teach you techniques or arrange for an artist / expert to coach you or help you to open up to art. They choose ‘opening up’. I committed to bring activities to…

Dance with your one thumb, one finger and tongue. Here are some pics dancing in sunshine with one thumb, one finger and tongue.

Conversation between two children in session. Child 1 :Can you help me in spellings? Child 2 :You always come to me for help in spellings and disturb me in my work, When will you start learning by yourself?. Why don’t you set your goal to learn to read & write? Child 1 : Pauses for…

In one of our session, we explored Potatoes as a part of fllocinaucinihiliphilification. Children were divided into groups and each group was given a potato to explore in different ways. One group made a slice in the potato and they sprinkled some salt to one half and turmeric powder to the other half of the…

We explored library in Karral Aarohi – this was kids first visit to library in Aarohi – We played a game to know what all categories and what all kinds of books we have in this library – after this all connected with books in their own way- One child was interested in reading books.…

We explored library in Karral Aarohi – this was kids first visit to library in Aarohi – We played a game to know what all categories and what all kinds of books we have in this library – after this all connected with books in their own way- One child was interested in reading books.…

Often we say ‘do not make noise’. At campus you will often see me closing my ears with the noises and screams with excitement happens around. I started sharing ‘beyond 80 decibels noise level, it is punishable crime’. Kids would ask me “what is decibel? How do you know?” One child decided to dig deep…

Without being judgmental about the quality and quantity of control, influence and conditioning that each (school, Media, Parents and Facilitators) tries to exert on the child – we yearn to create an environment in which each of these can be discussed, inquired into, reflected upon and understood by the child in his or her own…

Wondering why learning is separating from living. For many of us cooking has remained as a task and learning is remained task in classrooms. Its time to think “how, why, why not? May be we need to question various cooking process, what we add in our food, where does the food comes from, how things…

One child made a phone made with match boxes and thread. We began from there and together started pondering what all material can we use to make phone. What will happen with different thickness of thread and so on… He made mobile with tin boxes, old pet bottles. I insisted to use cloth pieces also.…

At campus we have three dogs and three cats. I am really puzzled by the relationship between dogs and cats. Usually I have seen dogs chasing cats; I have also studied that in life cycle. At campus also we have seen dogs chasing cats but is it a game for them? I have never seen…

I used to wonder what democratic environment is. One can always read about it and transfer knowledge of the same to others. How democratic environment can emerge? What type of environment can give every individual that space to speak? At Aarohi we have thought club, open house and expression time where whole group sits together…

These days one child is keen on finding out about dinosaurs. He draws them in detail, puts lot of effort in giving curves to each and every nails. He read about them in books. We had a small chat and he said there are no dinosaurs now in this world. This statement started a discussion…

At Aarohi, some kids have been playing with electronics circuits, some are curious… Rajesh joined as a mentor to ignite imagination and indulge into some more electronic world and madness. It began with “why we need to make something, why not buy from the market?” This was definitely not a trick question from rajesh, this…