Category: Blogs

Fun and making of Barrel oven – plastering was never such big fun.!!!

As a part of “Aarohi volunteers”, to create opportunities to work at different places during holidays we spent two days at Sandesh. The experience was unique. Sandesh is a community for young people with intellectual disability, where along with the assistance of staff, they make their home. Sandesh helps them to grow to their full…

As a part of “residential projects”, Dhanya (mother of Shreyas) invited for “fish cooking project” @ her home. We began with cleaning fish – this was the first time for me, I could not touch raw fish, most of the kids did 🙂 Dhanya started with a video – it showed the recipe. This helped…

Toliet codes inspired by the butterflies on the campus.

Barrel oven inaugurated at campus. Making of oven was initiated by Ratnesh and Amit at campus. When they were making oven, few kids took part in making of oven, some announced “we will only use oven to bake, once it is ready”. Last week Ratnesh initiated – this was enough to kick start the project.…

One child was busy exploring sketching. He has taken some lessons from people/artist who has learned to sketch. He referred to few books on sketching. Recently he has got into Pokemon – watches videos, play with cards and so on. Last week he got his Pokemon cards to sketch. Initially he sketched simple Pokemon. To…

Once again welcome surprised me -:) Mirror was part of welcome. I kept one broken side mirror of a car. It was written on the mirror “objects in the mirror appear………………..”. I was apprehensive “just see in mirror and that all, what else will be done with this material in welcome?” But I moved ahead,…

Wikipedia describes fear as “Fear is an emotion induced by a threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in brain and organ function and ultimately a change in behavior, such as running away, hiding or freezing from traumatic events. At Aarohi we say “FEAR is also a choice and choice from limited options…

During Emotional Intelligence week we began the session with painting our emotions. Few paints, brushes and bowls were kept. All were asked to take material to paint till they were “satisfied” with the material they have taken – and at the end we painted feeling of “satisfied”. Initially it was difficult to paint “satisfied”. Kids…

Self defense against Knife Our self defence team was discovered that the size of stick which we take is big for defense. We need to reduce the length. Also they showed us some more techniques to save when we are faced with a knife. One of the thing which our leader emphasize “do not get…

Jerry (father of Aaron) with his team joined us for live station at O-campus for a week. They were working on developing a software product on self assessment and hiring new people. They began with sharing what all they are doing and how they are doing coding and testing. Jerry took us through the project…

We can see caterpillars and Butterflies @campus.

As a part of stimulation we explored thinking skill analysis. We got introduced to different analysis tool like: fish bone diagram, swot analysis, cause and effect diagram and so on. We used mean, median and mode to decide convenient height of the handle for front as well as back door. We also explored why questions…

Till now, for me,Space was restricted to solar system and names of planets.Astronomy was only some stars in the asky and something unapproachable.Astronauts – image of astronauts in that white huge spongy suits.Rockets and Space shuttle – vocabulary which comes from another planet, not belongs to me at earth and only for NASA and ISRO.…

We started with getting introduced to the word space. We watched videos and went through a presentation to know about how astronauts live in space shuttle? What are the challenges? How do they do their daily chores? What type of clothes do they wear? Then we decided to make space costume for us. We decided…

Glimpse of children doing different things.

We continued the case with a questions “Was 50 sit ups was a consequence ? What could have been consequence?” Some of the thoughts dicussed during case Q – How did we decide that this is the time to give punishment?Response – We did not think too much at that time.Q – Did the problem…

One child expressed in thought club “how do we decide when to use soap nut and when to use detergent to clean”. She also shared, “when I want to have nice smell I use detergent, rest of the times I use soap nut. I use soap nut because it does not have chemical – but…

“I do what I want to” is misunderstood term. Often we get confused what does it mean? How does one defines “child led” learning? I was discussing open house goal with kids – one of them expressed “I want to play in open house”. Open house is a place where we are evolving government at…

My first Job was in Mumbai – I had to speak to clients in English as all clients were from international banks. With colleagues I had option of English or Marathi. I continued speaking with broken English (I was pure Hindi medium student). When I came to Banaglore, I had to write many letters to…

Often when we shift from schooling to homeschooling, the anxiety of “not missing an opportunity” can put a lot of pressure on parents as well as on to the kids. Here are some ideas to begin and slowly fond your own way to move ahead Everyday bring one planned exposure for your child – something…

Manthan – Churning together, an occassion to be together and connect with each other. This Manthan was different.

One child is keen to earn money. He looked at Aarohi mela as an opportunity to earn money by putting stall. He started exploring making boats. The theme of Mela being “eco” he used leaves and reused plastic bottles and caps. Two more kids joined him, For a week they worked endlessly on boats. All…

Thank you Saji for teaching us this African song.

Do you wonder “how will my child read and write”? Here is learning with Experience, Exploration and Expression. None of our activities claim to teach anything to any child – all the component of Aarohi cubs (Sunshine, Reading time, Weekly special, Daily diet, Activity and expresso) are designed to give rich experience and allow child…

One child using F word and S word. Some kids brought in thought club. The meaning of the words were discussed. Some went to dictionary to find words. Some shared what they know about the usage and meanings. One notice was put on the board Topic – “F word and S word”. Complete the followings…

Gardening team at i-campus was troubled by ‘infections’. They made an organic insecticide for their kitchen garden. Chilli and garlic paste and that looks more like yummy spicy chutneyto us. We got our share from it, 0.85 milligrams.

During reflection few kids shared “I enjoyed stimulation, it was different”. Today we had stimulation on “Thinking skills – questioning”. Hmmmmm liked it, then what? Announced “how about doing thought club with questioning?” Some had immediate response “noooooooooooooo”. Some said “how will it be to share thoughts with questioning? This set the stage for the…

This outdoor was quite different. We visited metro rangoli. It was an open space. We decided to use one vehicle and multiple trips to reduce the cost of outdoor and be in budget. Our goal was to observe and observe in detail. Every outdoor brings new learning for me as a facilitator. There was a…

“WAR” This word is so huge for me. As soon as I hear the word history pops up in my mind. I want to run away from it. As a part of flocci I was supposed to introduce the topic. I was so nervous. I started reading about wars, different strategies of war and so…