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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…

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…

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…

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…

Today Dhrupad had planned to cut b’day cake at I-campus. He ordered and I had to pick at 11.I forgot………….went for a workshop, while coming back I remembered.When I reached , he was jumping with his tablet. I asked sorry and he said just give me a kiss. I was sitting with him, after some…

On Thursday we reached till the roof level, the bamboo order placed after lot of search and negotiations………….and about to start roof work from Monday. On Saturday morning we saw, three walls collapsed, the entire structure was down. My first reaction “what can I learn from it?”One of the child who is working on the…

Rain started cutting our roads. First time when it happened, I called JCB and levelled the road. It was cut again, I took the help of labours and filled up the gaps, third time I used stones and patted with stone to make it solid…………….with every rain, road continued to cut and I continued to…

At the campus, the mosquitoes starts coming in by 5 pm and we start shouting from 5 to 9 pm – keep the door close, please keep the door close, heyyyyyyyy keeeeeeeeeeeeep the door closssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssed. I was somehow was not happy with this people reminding each other after every 5 minutes – “keep the door…

Paramesh joined Aarohi last month. We used to talk ?” trying to learn English. He is also trying to learn English……………all speak to him in English, He is also working on learning English. Soon we started thinking what next? How do we work ahead in “learning English” And then we began questioning self. What is…

Snakes at the campus have become another learning opportunity. I grew up and lived with fear for snakes. I am not now with the snakes at the campus, I have learnt that They cannot gulp me, no matter what is my size 🙂 They are not waiting for and bite me They may take shelter…

Recently we read about body language of kittens and puppies. Soon kids started guessing…….now the tail is up and down and the puppuy is happy and sad………….The first thoughts – let us make, draw, print the charts and display and this will be good reference material. I was also doing the same. I paused……….and asked…

Neem is the latest at campus.Yesterday we burnt neem leaves and kids saw a considerable differennce in mosquitoes. Kids super liked the idea. Since evening they were behind me…………..did you put NEEM ???? And all this led to Neem oil, Neem soap, Neem bandana, Neem bath…………………..we are neemed.

One child – I have to do this, this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and I have to be careful. Response – yes. Now let us look at it differently Saying YES, confirming that someone else (faculty, adult, other person) has confirmed and i am safe. So, how about saying “so, you want to be careful?” Where is the YES coming…

Consider this scene inside a restaurant: 20 children really hungry for breakfast. Two of them are to take everybody’s orders, collate and give it to the restaurant manager, and distribute the food when the order arrives. What will you do? The adult in me was itching to help, interfere, take over. I knew how to…