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Aunty, do you have any wish? Last week I was greeted with this question during lunch. Oops!!! I did not have any wish – Are all my wishes fulfilled or have I stopped wishing ? Well, kids with super enthusiasm asked me “if you had to ask for 3 wishes what will ask for?” I…

The story of campus care began with a range of mop/brooms/dusters. Most of us at O-campus were excited with different types of tools to clean – the excitement lasted for few days and when the reality struck, the work of faculty started. Many times a task is started with lot of excitement and it fizzles…

Making of wall painiting STORY of WALL PAINITING from participants – how does it feel?

I ponderI doI explore

What you do when a child comes to you and say “I have found a fossil of dinosaurs at the campus”. Well, one can say “Dinosaurs did not exist at campus ………………..”. OR ask “tell me more about it”. On one such occasion I came across a child who found a tooth while he was…

One child began his journey with sketching – He sketched things, people. He hated his own creation when he sketched live people. He continued. He started sketching (copying) cartoon (Pokemon) from internet. He sketched endlessly. He would sketch while we discussed, while we talked about planning, while we sang songs……………….he continues. He loves his own…

We adults – Parents and teachers should go to school to learn that kids can learn by themselves – all we need to learn is two things Firstly, a democratic environment where kids have freedom to learn what they want to learn and how and from whom do they want to learn Secondly, responsibility for…

Music continues Often in the absence of enough exposure we are stuck with one way of doing things. The consistent question in mind – how much and how long the exposure? Here is one more story The story of sunshine at aarohi began with “music” in our sessions. Initially it was just faculty bringing songs…

Campus is beaming with birds, butterflies and dragonflies. Last week we spotted Munia, Minivet Dove, Bulbul, Drango, Bee Eater, Parakeet, birds of prey………..join us for a lovely morning and bird watching any day at campus.

Again NehruPlanetarium? What? Again Nehru Planetarium? ….This was the expression on all faces when we announced the address of our Outdoor on 17th. What everybody missed was the word ‘opposite’. Our outdoor was going to the Outdoor Military Museum inside the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain compound. The sight of a gigantic Indian flag welcomed us.…

Our floucci of the week was ‘Debates’ . I announced the topic of the floucci and all but one child continued with their own work. This one child was interested to know more about debates. Together we explored ‘opinions’, ‘facts’, when, where and how of debate. We then shared examples of facts and opinion. During…

One child from village wants to learn English and Maths. His reasons are English – So I can understand what people talk, when I go outside Maths I want to work in shop, and I need to know addition to handle money. He is doing what he wants to do – small dreams, small steps.…

Onam celebration with Parents, initiated by parents. It was two days of living together, preparing for festival together, cooking together, playing game together and eating together. Previous day we began with shopping and then cutting vegetables. Next day one team went around to collect flowers to make Pookkalam, while some started with cooking, some kept…

It began with “design your own festival”. Last time we celebrated Baishaki at Aarohi – it was designed by faculty, we arranged all the resources, food items, music etc. During the session all the adults were busy arranging for material, putting up music, making Lassi and so on…………kids danced to the music we had selected………..they…

Singing from heart

Guess the tune

Often learning is confused with skills. During music week we did not work on skills, we worked on learning music. Deepa took us through various exercises to FEEL music, and experience music. Often when we talk about learning, first thing comes in mind is to develop that skill and next comes in mind is “learning…

It was a week FILLED with MUSIC. We sang, danced, lived, ate and drank music. Music was in air, music is still in air. Deepa opened up the world of Kabir, music, instruments, chanting, voice, and singing for us. While Smapoorna team made our day with melodious Violin, Carnatic music, Xylophones and various unique musical…

Five kids, one adult and two dogs on their way to veterinary hospiat for sterlization of two dogs. The whole event was led by kids and onwed by them inclduing fun on their way. Photographs tells the whole story.

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…