29 July 2022

Dear Parents,

What a weekend, need we say anymore! Those who joined us, hope your spirits were high throughout this week. For those who couldn’t, we hope the pictures on the WA group gave a good idea of what you have missed. Every trip at the end has left us feeling, ये दिल मांगे मोर | This only implies we need to do more such trips. Gettogether of this kind also makes us feel like we are part of one family and the residual emotion is a warm fuzzy feeling towards each other, like co-travellers. Alright enough of making others jealous…

Here are the highlights of this week:

Project Day

Few kids did better since they were asked to repeat their project in comparison to their last performance. The others did as always. As usual the topics were varied, Study of Mehendi and demonstration, The Unsinkable Titanic, Sea Snakes, Swimming styles, Summer Camp Ethnosphere, My trip to Vanvadi, My Farm-Murbad, Card tricks, Crochet and demonstration, My trip to Karnataka, Paper, Happy Birthday on Keyboard, Srilankan Crisis, Loom bands, Origami and an Interview with an Author.

Rahul, Abhishek and Uttara aaji were guests this time. Unlike all other guests during previous times, they received critical feedback and homework from one of the guests. In the end during circle time we discussed mediocre performances and how to improve them. How to motivate and find “the” thing that keeps one motivated? This will be discussed on Monday.

Math Session

Excitement for new things doesn't last long. We were wondering if that's what’s going on with the Math session for adolescents. They were quite gung ho about it, but turned up without doing much of the homework this week. Should you remind them to do their work? Then will that be called self motivation? Where do you draw the line? How much of a nudge is constitutionally defined as “nudging”? We, the facilitators, are walking on a tightrope. We don’t want to push our agenda, only wish we knew how much is enough.

Sound of Music

We finished watching the rest of the movie, which was an utter drag due to our sloppy internet connection. But the kids were patient, didn’t want to quit, they kept on trying different things. They displayed all those qualities which we would have rather seen at some other contexts. Uninterested kids slipped into the jungle gym to play their games. The movies are not getting as much traction like last term. Maybe its the choice of movies or an empty play zone looks more enticing.

Friday Food

Frankie with rotis brought from home. The भाजी for stuffing was made here. It turned out quite well and kids were coming back for the second serving. The vegetables used were also from Deev’s Healthy Bazaar.

Gymnastics

Besides the usual stunts, they played games and were split into two groups who were competing against each other. We have noticed that still some kids don’t show up early on fridays.

Sessions

This week we observed World Hepatitis Day. The discussion revolved around what is this disease and its various types (Hepatitis A, B, C). What is the function of liver? Why do people look yellowish when they get jaundice? Also how it could be prevented through vaccines.

In the language session, biggies have been asked to write a spooky story.

As you are aware of already, few of our adolescents have launched their businesses. They are making the business plans, working out estimates, doing market research with comparable products, advertising, selling, accounting, yes the entire scope of works. You will see their posters selling products/services in our WA group.

Guest

Uttara aaji has been spending time with us for the past two weeks. She helped us create nice covers for our cushions. Her ways are very affable. She was minding her business and then interested kids turned up to help her. Now there are a few who can manage to sew on the machine.

Reminder for coming week

On Friday, gymnastics is going to begin at 08:30 am.

Project Day is on 24th August.

That’s all for now…until next week,