Like any other learning opportunity at Aarohi, KAA trips are not only limited to its contents – the overall travel and being in the place brings a lot of different kinds of learning opportunities and every child grasp the opportunity in different forms.
The average age of children traveling for these trips is 5 to 16yrs – all in one group, ready to go for their learning journey.
The learning begins with the place we are visiting- Where are we going, why we are going, what we will, why will do, how we will do, what else, what more………….the stimulation about the place brings a lot of different perspective about the learning – some imagine, some read, some talk, some find more, some share, and some just be like that. Different children set different goals including just visiting the place and being in the place to enjoy the trip with my friends.
The packing list brings a lot of thinking and planning – the list comes with constraints and a note for parents “allow the child to pack by self”. And this creates a lot of thinking and discussion at different levels – which clothes, why this and why that not, which cream suits me and which footwear are appropriate. The glimpses of such discussions at home at different levels come back in the trip with kids sharing their experience of packing.
The second destinations of learning begin with all kids taking different responsibility for the trip. Three groups work on –
scheduling, resources and boarding/lodging. This brings responsibility to plan what to carry for the trip – what all stationery we need, what first aid we need, how much water we need, do we need extra bedding, do we need extra food, what will be the weather, what kind of place to stay, what to do when missing parents, hw.r o much is the distance, what route we take, what is the bus driver number, who will ensure safety, what will be meal timings and the list is long, All mistakes are
learning opportunities so we plan for breakfast for 45 minutes and we end up 2 hrs, we plan to visit 3 places and we get extra time for two more places, we calculate 150 km will be covered in 4 hours and we end up reaching in 6 hrs (oops! Forgot to plan for those su su breaks). And this all is done by kids. Normally on a trip, we 15-18 kids with two faculty. If kids are not the owner of the trips, two adults will definitely be less for 18 kids including many 5 to 7yrs.
The journey of freedom with responsibility starts at the restaurants for the first breakfast of the trip on the route – what to order for my needs, I can order myself and I am also responsible for the leftover or overeating. Most of the meals at these trips takes one to two hours. And every meal brings different challenges – accounting, planning, managing all needs, listening, interacting with strangers and many more things – all done by kids. Every child carries a different learning experience.
Journey by bus/ train/ taxi/ local bus/ jeep/ bullock cart/ are all experiencing life in real with heat, cold, rain, dust with excitement,
boredom, happiness, disappointment and hope to reach and rest or see the places.
When we reach – all come in action 1. The boarding teams, ready to take charge and arrange for boarding and lodging. The scheduling team ready to take charge of meeting people and finding out “what all we can do” and plan accordingly to our needs.
and the Food team ready to plan out meals for the trip.
You must be wondering the trips are to learn about content as per the theme like river, or history, but I have not talked about them till now. Yes, the learning journey begins much before we reach our contents and continue even after we leave the places.