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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…

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.…

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.…

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…

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…

One of the learning resource at Aarohi is the environment itself. Kids in Karral Aarohi have been exploring solar system, water system, kitchen garden, swings, etc as learning tools in different session. Initially it begins with touching, asking, ‘what is this’? In next session we convert the curiosity in learning experience During one of the…

Kids expressed the need to learn computers. Well, first thought was to ‘teach’ them, second thought was something different. In Karral Sunday session we brought laptop as a learning tool – we used it for writing attendance, expressing feelings and recording songs…..We did not teach them yet they explored it. We did reflection using laptop.…

During a session in Karral Aarohi kids expressed that they want to play with ball at campus – We started with hoola hoop and stayed long with it. Later explored ball in different forms of games, we smelt the ball, felt the the ball…excitement in the environment to throw higher and higher and return faster…

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…

Two kids expressed “we want to do painting”. I tried to understand what do they needed from me. They did not need anything, they only needed assistance in setting up material for their task. I as a bit tired and tried offering sheets to paint instead of painting on the floor – but they were…

Two kids came to me on Sunday morning “lets do some kitchen science”. Hmmmmm I had planned some rest day for me, but their enthusiasm excited me. We began with discussing ‘what is kitchen science’. One of them shared “its about chemicals”. Well, the next pondering question was “what is chemical”. One of then said,…

Some asked us What is Aarohi? A space to learn Some asked us What is your philosophy? We said we had none Some asked us What are your methods? A thousand and one Some asked us How do children learn? All by themselves In that case What do you do? With them we also learn…

One child was working on making of her own dream house; where she can read books, sleep, play, have peaceful time. She started with the size of the house : “How big it should be?” Then she thought let me design (Draw) it to be clear. She started with drawing and lead towards thinking for…

Visit to a Machine component workshop We visited GG Industries in Rajajinagar, thanks to Selvi Aunty. We saw machines which could run on electricity and also machines which do the same work manually when there is no electricity. It was wonderful to see how a small unit can hold so many machines and can complete…

Mr Rakesh is cycling across India to understand ‘gender equality’ in India. As he says “we have stringent laws to stop crime against women, but the crime still happens.’ He is trying to find what social dynamics leads to these crimes and how we look at gender in our society. His interaction at campus raised…

Waste plastic is one of material which keeps challenging us – we keep looking for ideas to reuse, reduce the plastic. We tried making – pillow, bed for our kittens, roof sheets for sona (cow at campus). Stitching plastic sheets was interesting experience – this gave exposure to sewing machine.