Exploration at Aarohi Summer 2015 - Aarohi Life Education

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They liked the feel of mud, the concept of building by self and playing with mud while building it. They worked in team, they worked with Seenppa uncle…they wanted to make more.

Once again we tried opening our jammed car door..it was an opportunity to understand how doors in the car worked…many things which we either take for granted or we stay away from them, repairing car is one of them. We tried opening many times, watched videos to understand how car door works…we have yet to make a trip to car garage.

Some cooked Gulab Jamun and first round it was gooey, somewhere our measurements went wrong. Making syrup for GulamJamun we debated on liters and grams (sugar was in gms while water was in litres). ….some cooked omelette and felt ‘we can cook’….some made Puri together. One of our guest make hot hot vada for us…cooking becomes a great place to learn many things including why Puri’s are hard to chew and usage of chat masala to measurements to chemical properties of different materials.

Hill behind campus inspired some to go for night trek. Getting ready for night trek was an experience. In the beginning it was fear (of snakes) which ruled, they climbed with fear using moon light and torches. When they reached at top they did not want to come back as they enjoyed cool breeze and hill bathing in moon light. They wanted to do more.

Few kids stayed with origami for few days. One started, others got inspired and they worked non stop, on their own, using youtube and peers. They tried, they inspired, they failed, they taught each other.

It began with one of the parent sharing her wish to do something for community. We planned to clean up Kelmanagalm railway station. After talk with the station master we understood various issues including missing dustbins. So we had the challenge to install a dustbin which has no resale value at the same time collects garbage. Two team worked – one to make dustbin and other to clean garbage thrown in the bushes at the side of the platform. At times it felt yukky to pick garbage (diapers, plastic, paper cups) but the team continued. Weather was hot, some took breaks, some continued…

We drove 10km from our campus to a quiet, cool and full river.

On arrival quickly sticks were found to estimate and depth of the river at the banks and it was declared too-deep-too-dangerous-to-enter.

So we embarked on a walk along the bank exploring dragon flies, butter flies, collecting seeds of trees growing and even uprooting some wild flowering plants to grow them at campus.

One team got snacks from the car and we had a picnic under a tree while we watched birds and banks mixed cold drinks which tasted “worse then cough syrup”.

We came back wondering if we can use our campus raft safely to do a downstream trip in this river.

One child who came for two weeks wanted to prepare songs and dance for sunshine, he was mentored, he worked throughout the day to prepare and he felt achieved. Sunshine with music and dance continued to be part of our daily routine at campus.

It began from nowhere. One of us startedmaking a see sawand it became a project for some kids to get submerged in. They discussed endlessly, they worked hard, they took help, they planned, they imagine andthey did it!!! They used concept offulcrum to balance the beam, took help of Seenappa Anna to get those fine cuts in wood, they painted to getaestheticsand they worked togethertoget that thrill of “we did it”.

Musical Chair This summer play musical chair with your kids. Play with a twist ‘no one is out’, instead many people can sit on one chair … at the end when you have many people but one chair – experience the fun and may be a demand ‘lets play again’.

We made a solar cooker with cardboard, it worked well enough to boil egg and vegetables … we are encouraged to make one more with wood this time. During summer some of us explored making of solar cooker

Some wrote letter to their parents, made own letterheads and they did not want to send by courier but by post. Visit to nearby post office was a realization how different services works…
Cloudy weather inspired some of us to paint on canvas…
One wanted to stitch a pink and white frilly dress but got stuck to draw the shape, shifted to making stitching hand gloves, another child got inspired and repaired a torn pillow. Small rocks and stones inspired us to paint on them, some choose to paint dogs while some painted house and trees.
One just tried making a swing to use hand drill machine.
One was busy with making a card for mother with Madhubani painting.
In the midst of all this we continued to work on campus care with cleaning and mopping.