Aarohified - A week at Aarohi campus

Aarohified - Yet Again

When we started upon this journey of unschooling, we took the leap of  faith and decided to trust our instincts. Unschooling being a less trodden path, we had to find answers to our questions ourselves. Questions like 'What about future', 'How will they learn', 'Do we follow a structure or a curriculum' and more. One of the resources which has been a part of our unschooling journey is - Aarohi (Aarohi Life Education), through their multiple avenues like Jagriti, Saturday Open Learning AMA (Ask me Anything) calls, social media updates, opportunity to visit the campus etc. 

Last month, I had this surge of emotions- feeling lost, feeling 'I have to string everything together', we are drifting off our path, kids are listening, kids are not interested in learning, how to I balance my work and their learning journey- you get the drift! I am sure school or no school, these emotions hit many parents on and off.  

How do I resolve my internal conflict? Where can I get the answers to these questions? And my immediate response was Aarohi! Aarohi campus is a place where you can experience first hand open learning, a place without teachers, where everyone is equal, no classrooms, no rewards, no punishments. 

I have been to Aarohi pre pandemic a couple of times with kids (read about it here- Aarohi visit) and the vibes at the campus, the way of living and learning clicked instantly with us. It was Tejas's quarter end time, the right time for us three to get out :P  "Pack your bags, we are going to Aarohi for a week" I announced to our 7 year old twins! 

Sharing below my picture gallery, key learnings, and some 'Just for Laughs'

1. Picture gallery

Want it? Pump it.. Handpump for your water needs.

The place has wet and compost toilets. Being to several communities and places with compost toiles helped kids adapt easily even after a long gap.

Mornings at Aarohi start off with Sunshine- a brief workout driven by anyone who wishes to - age, experience, gender no bar. The next group meeting I personally found extremely valuable- the Planning meet. Where each individual is asked what he wishes to do, anything that a person loves doing, something never attempted before, something that was always on your wishlist? Anything absolutely! 

The road map is laid together by co-creating the daily rhythm integration all the 'What to dos'. After 'What' comes 'How' where you think about the resources needed to achieve what you want to do and lastly 'Why'- the driving factor for your 'What'

During our stay, we took up various 'Whats' like painting, wood doll making, free play, carpentry, playing with open ended toys, book reading, trying musical instruments, rock climbing etc some within groups, some individually, some with a facilitator.

The fun pace to be! Library in a bus.

The cooking project was particularly astonishing for me. I was the facilitator and the plan was to make Badam jaggery katli and Pasta the OPOS (One Pot One Shot) way- with a couple of grown ups and kids between 5-8 years who have never cooked this way. I thought to myself 'How do we make this happen smoothly'. But all it took was clear briefing, planning and  instructions on a board. Recipes were broken down to smaller tasks, teams were made and EXECUTION! Both the dishes came out so well and were licked clean at lunch.

Another project I undertook- making fire! I had never tried making one before and was sure out of my comfort one- I was not confident. Ratnesh helped me with a direction and said "Just try, experiment without the fear of outcome" I started off laying bricks and soon had two more join me! With some mistakes, with some trials and errors- fired it up! 

Meal timings, clean up teams, campus care all big-small tasks are well planned and communicated. The days are wrapped up by assembling for 'Thought Club'. In the Thought club all are encouraged to spend sometime journaling, sharing and introspecting about the 'What', 'How' and 'Why's of the day. 

2. Key Learnings

What each person takes away from this space will differ hugely. But for me, the biggest satisfaction was to get the clarity of thoughts which I badly needed. My 10 takeaways from the one week we spent at Aarohi:

1. Co-creation is a sustainable way of learning

2. Let children make mistakes, and own them

3. Boundaries are important 

4. Let the child own the learning journey while you facilitate it to the best of your ability

5. The environment is crucial for optimum learning experience

6. Learning is a part of living - each moment can be a learning experience

7. Don't give answers - direct them to find answers themselves

8. We all are 'Learning Disabled' in some way or other

9. Evolve and be flexible as per changing needs

10. The joy in learning is when one chooses the pace of learning himself!

3. Just for Laughs

Sharing some comic strips I created after I returned from Aarohi! Oh that's the 11th takeaway - 'Just Do it'. 

Have a good day ahead!