Category: Blogs

We share planning in the morning – and and some kids speak about the planning at the end. We make calendar at the end of the week, and some kids not take responsibility, but others have to invite them to raise hands…………..similar patterns at different places by different kids led to me pondering. I decided…

I do not know when did I learned about elephants. I remember knwoing them as a mammals, four legged animals, with a tail and a trunk. Fat children in schools were called elephants. I knew elephants were found in jugle, they were categoriesd as wild animals. I had not much relationship with elephants than this.…

A guide, a learner, an observer, an object in the environment. Sometimes I am with kids in their learning, their struggle, sometimes I distance myself and look at the bigger picture, sometimes I stay with minute details, sometimes I do not listen. I am available when I am needed. I withdraw myself when nor required…

Many goals, many learning opportunities – variety makes our session a fun place to be. A glimpse from weekly relflection – Children shared When the kitchen lab comes in my mind, I start feeling to cook, and when I start feeling to cook, I start feeling that I will burn my hand and I am…

One child shared – I worked on stitching and in that I was working on the sewing machine I read how it works and how to use and the machine itself. In solar oven project I was planning and me doing the project and why I want to take it. I had the belief that…

One child shared – This week I worked on library lab. I understood what library lab is then I explored the different types of books in the library. My objective was to get exposure on different types of books and explore these books through book review etc. I saw the variety of books we have…

One child shared – I made new spelling of reflection “Reflecsonito”. While making the barrier, I understood all ballies (bamboos) does not come of the same size –some were long, some were short. While making the parking I understood that all cars are not of the same size and some cars are made for special…

My comfort zone is my area, like jungle for a lion, I am king here.When I see my daughter I feel she wants to be in her comfort zone.Is she trying enough? what can I do to make her try different things? If I try to push her she used to refuse things. Me and…

Five year old settling in Aarohi. Many times will start with I don’t know. I don’t understand. Initially I used to try different things to see that the message went across. After some interactions I shared with the child please let me know what you know and what more you want to know. Slowly she…

With the chill and the festive spirit Christmas brings with it loads of joy. Santa coming and getting gifts. Wow, any age loves getting gifts. I definitely do love getting gifts. Children were looking forward to what they would get this year. The buzz of aunty what you are buying, is Santa coming, please give…

The Friday training on Facilitation was interesting. It helped to go back to the basics of what is my role as a faculty? Monday morning sunshine time got in loads of doubts. All of us were doing meditation. Suddenly in the background song from Chennai Express pops up. Few start swaying to the same, few…

Mugdha (Mother of 7 yr old Vedant) writes Learning with KAA … KAA trips are part of the curriculum in Aarohi. So when, as a parent, 2 years back, my 5 year old said that he wanted to go for his 3 day KAA trip, I thought that I needed to allow him, since it’s…

Last week in open house we explored – Monarchy, Autocracy, Dictatorship and Democracy. We reflected in Aarohi and worked on “coming and going out” process at Aarohi. This all began with “can a child by birth inherit faculty role like in Monarchy ?”. COMING IN Criteria – All to understand Aarohi. FACULTY – If you…

Few week back, I decided to not have a personal laptop – all kids in my session do not have personal laptops, all faculty in aarohi do not have personal laptops. I observed kids negotiating, bargaining, manging the timings and sharing of laptops – this was fascinating for me, as I think I have lost…

KAA at Aarohi have different forms every year at Aarohi. KAA trips are oustation trips with children. Each trip is about 3-4 days – all trips are weaved into an overall TRIP THEME. We learn History, Geography, culture, nature, etc by visiting the places. The idea is to stimulate the curiosity by being in the…

Samarth is part of sunshine from last one and half year. Last year, in the beginning Aditi had explained with visuals, the sequence and process of Sunshine. After that he was left in the environment. No explanations, no push, no demands, no hurry………………… We gave him space to understand the sunshine. Now he is part…

Yesterday we went to a musical instruments shop as part of our outdoor. I was standing in a corner and observing children. One person took us through the various instruments and shared details about the same. Our children were pouncing with lot of questions. The person was giving answers very enthusiastically. Two of them sang…

I am a spectator of one child’s journey which gives me lot of trust in aarohi as well as enthusiasm to work more. Five months back when this child was challenged at various places, she was ready to leave aarohi. She had formed an image that this place is not for me. Today the same…

It was a Saturday evening. Astha was working on her lyrics of sunshine song. She was keen to take Indian classical song. She was already ready with one lyrics and MP3 on Thursday morning. As she was challenged by Aditi, she decided to change the song. She asked me: ”maa, what is classical song?” I…

It was week of logic genie. Objective was procedural skills. I was ready with my stimulation which can cater various levels. My thirteen year old child comes to me and informs that she is not joining for stimulation and she is clear about her goal. I told “you can move ahead. I have a need…

One child at Ocampus comes from village and he follows Kannada, Tamil and Telgu. We realized that due to language he has not been taking part in any group activities like thought club, stimulation, labs, open house etc. We have now started bilingual sessions, we pause and one of us translate. The first bilingual session…

We started with installing various water systems at campus to create learning opportunities. Water system is one of them. Some time back it became many do’s and dont’s in order to maintain the whole system of water and we reflected “O-campus is a learning campus and if the resources are becoming an issue or coming…

Kitchen at campus has converted into a learning lab. Every week one child chooses to be part of kitchen lab. First week I was in Kitchen lab and my objective was “healthy food” and also look in cooking of many items for one meal……I brought one item for one meal, red rice, soups and salads.…

One child wanted to make a clay cup (to drink milk). We made it together, we decided to make 15 cm long/wide cup to match up with his steel milk cup. We made two sizes, we realized that we cannot make 15 cms now, we need to work more on our skills to be able…

Manthan @ o-campus, spread over 2 days (7th & 8th Dec), gave parents, faculty & children an opportunity to interact with each other. We kicked it off with Aditi walking us through what o-campus had to offer us for those 2 days including codes, safety holes etc… We then had introductions given the new faces…

Aarohiis an alternate open learning school. Its an organic learning center where the child drives whole of his or her learning – they decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn, when, with whom, how much and do self assessment of their learning. Aarohi is setting up a Open campus in a…

When I talk about open self learning that Aarohi provides an environment for, I often get this comment – “So this is an experiment”. Some go on to ask “Has this been a success, is there proof”? Let me make few points here: Most of what we learn – during non school/college years – that…

Twochildrenworking on making candles. As they started their journey, they started give us videos, I saw Yashas boiling candle etc. the question that what if you were inaworldthat you had to make this candle- what name would you give, how would you have made, what all process you would have used. Would you havemade the…

Two children aged 5.5 and 6 years talking about getting married to each other. They are planning to settle in USA. They are Ok if their parents are not there.I found this cute. Thinking how I would react/respond if these children were 12 years and above.Would I have just listened to them. Would I have…

Every Wednesday brings a new perspective in safety and security at the campus. We meet, we research, we discuss, we do role plays, and we discover self. This wednesday we talked about snakes at the campus. We explored what is fear and what is alertness. We talked about not only fire at campus but in…