Category: Blogs

One child wanted to share his thoughts in thought club, he began with telling mixed up things from different topic. I asked him “compose your thoughts and share”. After some time few more children shared their thought and I had forgotten about this child. Suddenly he said “I have composed my thoughts – my thought…

When I started working on speaking, it was about speaking a language. As I moved exploring speaking in word intelligence, I discovered many other facets. Speaking is not about saying anything, one of the child shared. Another child shared, speaking is about thinking, composing and then expressing. In one of the activity, we read our…

We began with water lab to explore water and its systems at the campus. We began with understanding our water needs, we measured different containers and for two days every drop of water was measured. We traced the source of water at the campus. And then traced where all the used water goes and how…

Biorhythms were introduced in stimulation activities as a part of rhythms and instruments. It was just an introductory activity. The resources provided for the same was having formula for finding out the value of rhythms. The formula was having sine, cosine and pi in it. Lot of questions started coming. I did not answer them.…

I was working with a child on menu making. First we both discussed what all he wants to explore in kitchen lab. We came up with menu items for the coming week. This child was writing in Tamil in his notebook and I was translating in English. We have a soft board where we display…

I usually talk to the child what he/she likes to do? Then planning happens for the child from there. For example: One child wanted to work on rainbow. Now whole planning of the week came from the child, like: draw a rainbow, colour a rainbow, cut the rainbow, make poetry and read story/book associated to…

One child in session was working on making of a car which can move. In reflection, he shared: “It all started when I saw a video of conserving energy and my peer making a rocket. Then I got the idea of making a truck which transports small things without a need of moving us. So…

Today in Math lab we were exploring “written math problem”. When it was 1500 subtract from 2000 – it is a simple math problem and can be solved using process of subtraction. But when I say Rs 2000/ deposited and Rs 1500 withdrawn, what is the balance – it needs comprehension skills. SO before we…

During the exploration of Professions, we got an opportunity to interact with Rani, the flower vendor who sells flowers outside the temple nearby. We would see each other every week and would acknowledge each other during out ground trips. Everybody was interested in knowing her own story. This was a bilingual live station. She spoke…

Sharing my musings about my journey with “Socio-Emotional Responses” ( our weekly objective ) During my preparation for the week, I experienced this objective at many different levels. Like A.Rehman’s music, it grew on me. As I was reading about emotions, responses, responses in various different environments, I felt like I was diving into deep…

Two kids are working on tree house at Aarohi. They began with loads of dreams sharing, ideas, inventions and so on. They spent hours on discussing with each other, what it should what all they will do and how and so on……………………..finally they came up with a design. I did not interfere with their design…

When we decided to explore Dictatorship in open house, my first feeling was “cruelty, ruling…………….As we explored more about the Democracy, we identified the characteristic of a leader. I have started looking at Dictators from different perspective, I can learn from them and here is what kids identified skills of a leader, we saw “gold”…

This is the 11 minute TED talk on youtube, this reminded, many kids at Aarohi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY About the video – A teenager was pulled out of school at the age of 9 by his parents, they thought school is blocking creativity. When asked what he want to be when he grows up, his reply is…

Leaders role is to take responsibility of their task. A leader role is to set goals for the responsibility and have confidence in what they are doing. A leader can demand, rely, communicate, listen and take inputs from others. A leader should be open for feedback and open to change the decision. Leader can be…

I was working in kitchen lab this week. Every meal we were using 2-3 tubs full of utensils for cooking. At the end of the day the child who was working with me shared with exclamation “Manji akka washes so many vessels in a day, me washing only my plate after meal does not feel…

One child came with a complaining tone to me “aunty they all are breaking the coconut” I asked her “what do you want to do?” With a smile she said “I want to break and eat it”.

We added one more chapter in making of Aarohi government. First we understood about Monarchy in open house – we watched a video of Mughal-e-Azam, read history books on kings and rulers, we also read Amar Chitra Katha as resource. While kids were sharing about their understanding of Monarchy – one child shared “Once you…

Few days back my phone broke and I was showing to kids. One child shared “I also dropped binocculars one day. And I am feeling bad about it. I am asking my mama to buy it, she is not”. I could resonate the feeling with this child:)

Today we were reading book called “all by myself” and kids were hooked in to it. The story revolves around a boy who is scared and still dives from the diving board all by himself. Nobody pushes him, nobody compells him. One child said, “beacuse he wanted to do it!”. So true when I want…

Just saw “Music and lyrics”, on Romedy Now. While I was watching it, Anagha was working on her Music and Lyrics.This year, Anagha is proactively involved in gathering resources for weekly music of Aarohi. She has been actively looking for songs, googling for lyrics, singing, downloading, etc. It is her turn next week and she…

This week in session one child took literature as the content. I was happy yeah, I had done little work on this and was already to share my gyan. I started with listening to the child and as I became aware I realized I was not listening to the child. At every sentence internally I…

This week we were working on Writing. writing does not mean good handwriting – Some. expressed, they do not write because it is not good :-). Some expressed in reflection – it is surprising to know writing is not about only spellings and good handwriting, one said,“this left me thinking”. I shared. for me it…

When I was talking about literature with kids, I realized that I still a child, I have not grown in reading – I have not read many of the children’s literature. I want to catch up with all that fun of reading. I want to grow up reading.

Two kids in session were exploring new words. They read, found the remaining, used in different places and in different ways. While I was interacting, I also realized that me too needs to work on new words. I too use very limited vocabulary – I do not use much of math vocabulary or scientific vocabulary…

One child went for buying chicken for the pets. We both observed the shopkeeper cutting and cleaning the chicken. On the way back he shared “I wonder what motivates the shopkeeper to be in this business, is it money or what? I also want to ask the shopkeeper “how does he feels in this business?,…

In the morning on Friday Ratnesh with Irritation in his voice showed my son the food fallen on the floor. With anger and anxiety in my voice I asked Ratnesh to check his images, if his response would be same If he was meeting our son for the first time? I realized I was talking…

I feel static, when I am stuck with one approach, one thought, one style in my facilitation. Every interaction brings a different kind of challenge for me, demands variety in my facilitation and a new approach from me. One child at campus, in session was screaming for two days. We listened, acknowledged needs, but did…

What is literature? How do we decide what is literature? Are stories literature? Why jokes and cartoon books are not literature? We began introduction of literature with some of these questions. We explored that there is much more literature available than just Harry potter. Many of the kids are reading Harry potter at Aarohi, kids…

Two kids were observing “dogs behavior and body language”. They recorded She was active? She was playing more She liked it? So, how do we decide “like, active, more”? After this question, they recorded data , this tiem they recorded with- time, before the action, during the action, after the action, duration, response…………….and so on.…

This week, during session I was conscious to not to decide the end goal for any child as per my needs or expectations. I gave inputs to all, but did not decide end results. Gave picture to one child, when she was stuck with drawing, gave her idea to cut the picture in shapes and…