Tag: Facilitation

  • How can children deal with boredom – Question from a parent

    How can children deal with boredom – Question from a parent

    A parent raised the following concern in our WhatsApp Open Learning Community “ I’ve been feeling a bit bored lately and sometimes I just don’t feel like learning or doing anything. Has anyone else felt this way? How do you stay motivated and make learning fun, especially in Open Learning? Any tips or advice on…

  • How to create a Curriculum for homeschooling / open learning

    How to create a Curriculum for homeschooling / open learning

    In one of the communication groups of Parents from the Aarohi community, a parent asked “What is the best curriculum for homeschooling children”? In her words “My child is saying better put me in building school as I don’t know what to do at home and get bored. What is your suggestion here” The curriculum…

  • How does my child manage my learning inability?

    How does my child manage my learning inability?

    Our Open Learning journey is full of fun, surprises, and challenges. My biggest challenge as a parent is dealing with my internal conflict. It is like walking on a forked path always. One path leads to the safe environment of the “known” and family/friends. Another path is traversing a beautiful “unknown”. My mood for the…

  • Environment – Shapes a Child’s learning

    Environment – Shapes a Child’s learning

    Our interaction with our environment shapes us as a person and our learning abilities. We have the power to build an environment which facilitates growth and nurturing. Read further to know about what creates such stimulating environment.

  • Nudge – A subtle tool for parents pursuing  Open Learning

    Nudge – A subtle tool for parents pursuing Open Learning

    How gentle cues of our environment shape our behavior. We know them as Nudges. Let’s explore can we use Nudges to enhance open learning.

  • Reflecting on Daily Investments – for parents and children

    Reflecting on Daily Investments – for parents and children

    Do we need to reflect only in terms of our success or failures. Can we use reflective practice just to bring self-awareness and being more observant of ourselves. How about getting deeper insight of our day? Self-reflection opens up new windows to provide a better view of ourselves.

  • Divided by Subjects, United by Knowledge

    Divided by Subjects, United by Knowledge

    Can we break our knowledge into subjects? What happens when we imbibe the knowledge without these boundaries? Let’s explore

  • Exposure-Exploration-Collaboration – Ikigai of Learning

    Exposure-Exploration-Collaboration – Ikigai of Learning

    Exposure sparks curiosity, and what ignites our interest becomes the fuel for exploration. Collaboration shapes and aligns the exploration to our learning goals.

  • The gift of “I don’t know”

    The gift of “I don’t know”

    Children readily accept both knowing and not knowing. We, on the other hand, often prioritize knowing above all else. Yet, in this intricate world, the unknown is what truly fuels the joy of living. The uncertainty of not knowing empowers us to ask questions and challenge our existing beliefs. Why is it so difficult for…

  • What did you say – Planning is Boring?

    What did you say – Planning is Boring?

    Planning dread? We all go through various phases of planning. Open learning is easier if a broad plan is in place based on learning focus. Planning can be fun and need not be a chore.

  • The Art of Listening Vs Hearing – Experiential Learning

    The Art of Listening Vs Hearing – Experiential Learning

    We often do not notice the profound difference between Listening & Hearing in our world filled with constant noise and distractions. Here is a snippet of Experiential Learning through Reflection For one of our Reflection Activities during Thought Club at our campus of open learning, we all shared our thoughts/ experiences/ awareness about Hearing Vs…

  • Children can be great mentors, this is what Learning Mela taught us

    Children can be great mentors, this is what Learning Mela taught us

    What happens when children mentor adults? Here’s the story….. It all started with a Santa seeding the idea of Learning Mela, 18+ year olds (adults) of the community would conduct the workshops and 18- year olds (young ones) would be the mentors to adults. All parents, teens and tweens of the community got together for…

  • Fear and Children

    Fear and Children

    Fears often multiply more with collective anxiety that a group of people experience together with lots of questions/ fears triggered by various factors such as uncertainties, health upsets, external situations or challenges. Recently we had this amazing period of 10-12 days at Aarohi Campus where out of 6 people four were partially/ fully sick and two…

  • Stop Teaching to Activate Learning

    Let’s stop being Teachers to Start learning for Children. Our job is not to teach or preach but to reach.

  • What matters

    What matters the most for an child? Is it Home or Educational Institutes or Society? None. What matters is “The Child”. Let the child become the institution of his life, let him lead and let him learn.

  • Homeschooling journey – by Sharmila

    Being part of a journey is more important than destination. If journey is joyous and satisfactory with all its ups and down , the destination may not be very different from it.

  • Reflective Questions

    Reflection brings clarity. One of the way to reflect is to question. Let’s create our own question bank to reflect on various aspects. Ask question to oneself and to children. Have a conversation around such reflective questions with family and friends.

  • Facilitation by Questioning

    The quest of learning results in questioning. Shall we stop questioning after seeking the answer or instead of seeking the answer ask more than obvious questions.

  • Facilitation by observing

    Observation is one of the most powerful tool to learn and to facilitate. As an observer are you a CCTV camera or a cameraman who instructs you what and how to do.

  • Facilitation by Creating

    To live is to create. Facilitation itself is an act of creation. Let’s explore creating some aspects of facilitation which can open kaleidoscope of possibilities for whom we facilitate and for ourselves.

  • Facilitation by Reflecting

    Reflection is all about exploring ourselves , our perspectives and attributes, our actions and interactions. It enriches us with many insights which helps us to improve in all our endeavors.

  • Best way to teach

    Is there any one best way to live life? If no then can there be one best way to teach. Children are dynamic and they need dynamic facilitation. Breadth of facilitation will provide depth to understand a child.

  • I refuse to live out of conditioning

    “I am conditioned” is like living in coffin. Living out of choices is like a river , always flowing. Enhance living out of choices by opening new windows and refusing to use existing ones.

  • How do I Get My Child to Comply?

    Is it sometimes difficult getting your child to do what you want him or her to do? Do you often get exasperated over compliance? Did you wish you had some magic wand to get your child to follow you? Here is a piece of insight.

  • The Myth of (bad) Habits

    Each habit serve some purpose. Good or bad habits are relative perceptions. More often parents and children lock horn on habits because of this relative perception. Let’s question some of our beliefs around bad habit and burst the myth around bad habits.

  • Fundamental of Disciplining – Respect

    Hierarchies create a social divide. Families are no different. Treat children at par. See them as fellow human being and interact with them with same respect as you would to any other adult and experience the magic.

  • Guidelines for Guided Visualization

    What is Guided Visualization (GV) Why we do GV How GV is Done A typical Guided Visualization (GV) is 3-5 minutes – that not a limit – but a good time period to start with. It always starts by relaxing the participants. So the first few lines is how will you relax them – deep…

  • Purpose of Education

    We hear this about this fear “I am scared of children (who are in the alternate system) feeling they are superior to others …. “ We feel scared only when we are expecting a result in binary(0/1). Expectation feeds fear. Is education supposed to deliver on predefined outcomes like grades, 1st division etc.? If its…

  • An open letter to Teachers

    Teachers impact children’s life to a great extent. Does teaching happens from textbooks or from books of life. In that case are we all not the student in class of life? Let’s all the life in the same room of class.

  • Acceptance Frames

    Does a bad behavior indicates bad intention? No, it does not. Behind any behavior the intention is always good. Focus on change of specific action will be fruitful than judging the intention. Accept intentions and guide for actions.