Category: Blogs

One personOne lightOne idea And that is what we had for Varlakshmi celebration at the campus. Leela, mother of Yashas joined us at the campus to share her style of celebration of Varlakshmi (live station @ Aarohi). It was less about religion (for me) and more about the way things happened. One coconut and it…

Often when I meet kids at the park, all I hear about is mobiles, laptops, video games, shopping, travel, food and friends. Often when I meet people at informal places like office canteen, café, or parties – topics which I hear about are mobiles, laptops, video games, shopping, travel, food and friends. Hmmmmmmm I do…

At campus, We have been living together, we have been working together, we have been learning together………..sometimes we work, sometimes we do not, sometimes we are very conscious of time, sometimes we are not; sometimes we are deep into some work, sometimes we are not………. Last week we talked about the culture @ campus in…

We had a dip in our progress of Kitchen. Just when the girls trained the labourers in working independently to lay the mud bags, they left; they found another place giving them more daily wages. Just when the girls wanted to work on it, we began the process of shifting to campus Just when kids…

We were working on the plastering the courtyard. We have tried in many different ways, different proportions of mud and cement. We tried it doing in many different ways – thick, thin, with rubbing, with splash, with tools, with hands……………. But the plaster is not sticking – we make it and next day we find…

One of thing which we have is RICH RESOURCES within us (parents). We can create a HUGE learning environment – not only at our homes, not only for our kids but for the whole Aarohi community. Inviting parents to share their passion through different mediums. And we don’t need to do this only for children,…

At the campus we are bugeed by the culture of “booking”. It beagn with booking your place for the bath (we have one bathroom and 10 souls to take bath). I do not how the booking came in as a solution? Soon it has spread to Booking for who will sit on the eban bag?…

I normally do not work with all the kids at Aarohi. I get the opportunity to work during KAA, and every time I work with them after a long time, I am in AWE with what they do, how they do, their thinking……………..from calculating the distance, speed and costing of the trip to packing medical…

Any new projects which are announced for kids, or any opportunity of any new project/work/learning at any of the campus or Amable brings a natural wish from various people that “Aarohi kids should take part?” We bring these opportunities to kids through announcements as a part of exposure and leave it to the children to…

Dhrupad, wants to earn money to buy Archery set. He came to me and asked for “loan for the food stall”. He does not want to give me back the money, he wants someone to buy the raw material and he selling the food and that becomes his profit. During the interaction I came to…

Last year at the campus, we began with celebrating b’days with cakes. And we all decided to contribute Rs 20/- per month, so we have sufficient funds. But mostly it wa Me and Namrata, who were contributing Rs 100/- each and moving ahead. This year, after all kids had their one round of celebration, we…

One child tells me many things in detail. And many times I do not have mental space to hear and hear. One of the days I told him “I am not able to listen to so many things, so many stories, please do not tell me all the stories”. After some time he came to…

If Aarohi, is not a way, or a method or an approach. It is a space, an environment, an acceptance, a belief, a soil for the child to grow and glow”, Then, what is faculty’s role to make Aarohi a space, a soil and environment” for the child to glow? A child who says his…

This week in session math manipulatives were given to a group of children. I enjoyed the way they used the whole set.1st they just kept looking at it, one by one taking the things- I am sure they may be pondering over it what it was. Slowly at their own individual pace, they started a…

Are we based on Sudbury, Monetssory or progressive or KFI or………….? No, we are not; So what are we based on? Simple answer is “CHILD”. And what makes us follow the child – the answer is simple, that each child is ABLE, “I am able”. All we learn from any philosophy is about children and…

While planning for Grandparents day children thought of sharing about Aarohi with their grandparents.One child shared we can share about KNOW Aarohi. Another child was why do we need to say NO Aarohi. Many of us were ;looking at the child saying o Aarohi.Few shared before Manthan when we shared about KNOW Aarohi at Home…

We began the session by asking “do you want me to tell about the Reading skills?”. They wanted me to tell something new about reading. Together we read and each time we read with different focus Read for fluency Read for comprehension Read for Grammar Read to learn about a topic Read for vocabulary Read…

I did not know what history is, so I took history. For me history is past – like suppose yesterday I went for Cricket match, so that is history. Like Gandhi is history, Vivekananda is history and my playing cricket match yesterday is also history, because it is past.

One child was talking to strangers andthis was raised as safety concern. First the child spoke and spoke about what she wanted to do, during the interaction I shared with her “you can take interview of strangers on any topic to fulfil your needs to talk with strangers” and asked her to repeat what she…

I have to do something new in my session to make my life interesting for myself . Last week, I announced “I am not bringing any resources, you fetch for your own resources”. The whole week, kids found by themselves the books from library. Last week was reading week in word intelligence. Later asked their…

A beautiful week it was with many resources to read. Variety in books was a treat for children. They picked up the book which they wanted. Stayed with it for some time, sometimes the cover of the book created the curiosity and all minds were eager to know what the content was. We read for…

One child drank two glasses of Bournvita and told me “I am powerful now”. I said, “I am already powerful”. He said “show me power in your hands”. I said “My power is in my mind”. He asked “are you Buddha or what?” He scanned me completely with his sharp eyes. I said “yes, I…

The Trip to Chitradurga was not to teach History but to experience History. Kids had all kinds of goals “from shapes in the fort to layout of the fort”. Well, when kids came to know about that Hyder Ali, father of Tipu attacked the fort 3 times,…………….Kids were perplexed…………..British attacked Tipu, so they were enemy…

One child was carrying a bag, which looked “messy to me”. Second day I showed him the “proper way” of carrying the bag and I realized what I have done…. To correct my action I told him “this is another way to take bag, which way you would like to take?”He looked at me with…

This is what happened when I commented on one of the many necklace Anagha made. While I had jewellary in my mind and expected beeds in certain order, she had a city map in her mind

Kings and Kingdoms 1 Location: Chitradurga Starring: Aarohi Kids On Tuesday, Aarohi children (5 to 14 yrs olds) entered Chitradurga with their own Goal. In their eyes, excitement, desire to run around for deep exploration could be seen. Inside the chitradurga fort, despite having different goals, everyone stayed together. Together they worked on individual goals…

The session began with “what words come in your mind related to kings and queens. We all started throwing words in the jungle – the initial words were – kings, queens, war, ministers, kingdoms, palace, ……………………..soon more words came up like business, people, families, currency, temples, well, water systems, caring, rich, cities, civilization, trees, weather,…

After four days journey of rhythm one child of my session shares her journey of rhythm in her own words. Read below: My Journey in exploring rhythm On day 1 I listened to a Western Classical Instrumental song composed by Mozart. I Identified the rhythm with ease and enjoyed the music. I put the rhythm…

Come and share your MATHEMATICAL passion. We plan to bringMATHSCLOSER to chidlren and families by playing withMATHS. TheMelawill have differentMathsgames to play as family, alone………..to explore and construct various mathematical concepts. We will use “day to day material” – so this can be replicated at home.Melawill have something for ALL ages. TheMelawill be open for…

This year goal for me is to work on my fine motor skills. During project time I decided to work on stitching. . I took help from one child to get the sewing machine up. He sat with me observing what all I am doing. I was thoroughly enjoying my self exploration of the machine.…