18 Nov 2022

Dear Parents,

A warm welcome to all of you for the 2nd term of this academic year. I was hoping to send the newsletter last saturday but the week that started last monday didn’t end until today!

We started the week with lots of hugs and hearing stories from each other. As you can imagine there were a ton of things we all wanted to share, so the chattering continued till noon the first day we met. Following days we did a lot of circle time and tried to get a lot of our issues ironed out. We also got a few new rules passed.

Rest of the highlights are here…

Housekeeping

सेवा is the new thought and sentiment that we want to inculcate. We have decided to call our housekeeping and/or other duties as सेवा. An act of selfless service done without any expectation or reward. We have also made a सेवा chart where all the key jobs’ responsibilities are jotted down.

Rice harvesting

We went to Arpita and Nitin’s farm in Murbad near Kalyan. It's only about 3.5 hours away, accounting for all slow down due to the bad roads. The farm has a nice access from the main road and gives a clear vision of the majestic Sahydris. The Bhimashankar peak is apparently closeby. He had arranged a small patch of rice field about 50 ft X 50 ft which was ripe and ready to harvest. Golden and swaying in the morning breeze! We were given sickles and shown how to use them. The whole field was harvested in about 3 hours. The kids were working in pairs, one of them cutting and the other laying it down to further dry on the fields. We went to a place where few local folks were thrashing the rice stalks. We also went to the rice mill where the husk gets separated from the kernel and polished. All the detailed pics have been sent on the WA group. We hope to keep going to the farm for all kinds of different things.

Body Awareness

This is a session that we usually take at the beginning of the term. Blossoms had one of their first body awareness sessions this time. We told them about safe circles and who can be inside these circles. What is a good and bad touch? If something untoward were to happen then how to react and approach people in their safe circle.

Pups were told about good touch, bad touch and physical hygiene. Bodily changes during puberty and menstrual cycles in women. Also how women around them have menses every month. How it affects women like their mother, sisters and friends, physically and emotionally and how they can be sensitive towards them.

Friday Food

Today pasta was made with tomato gravy and lots of vegetables. During this task we made an attempt to avoid all plastic packaging.

Last week it was bhel, where again we made it with ingredients that didn’t come in any plastic packaging. We are making a conscious effort to source things that come without plastics and also asking kids to make that extra effort. This is not a rule but an effort at trying to be a zero waste centre.

Sessions

Problem Solving - For the pups we have continued with the same session in this regard. Analytical and logical puzzles. Also there is regular maths work as regards to 3rd/4th grades. For adolescents, logarithmic scales have been started.

History - We have started with the history of Indian Independence. For this we are referring to the NCERT’s book on Social Science, Our Pasts.

Body Systems - Respiratory systems in human beings. We learnt all different internal organs involved and its functioning. We also used a stethoscope to hear the sounds of breathing.

People & Places - This is a session where we want to highlight geographical characteristics, culture, economy, population about a particular region or continent. This time we took South East Asia, mainly Singapore.

Coding - This is a session where they will learn to do some computer programming. But to get them warmed up for the bigger task we have started Scratch. This is the easiest and most visual variety of programming.

Architecture - Adolescents are interested in knowing and exploring the field of Architecture and what architects do. We understood parts of building, primarily foundations. Hope to take them to some construction sites next week.

Computer Modelling - For pups we have started computer modelling, it's more like computer assisted 3D modelling. We are using Sketchup and TinkerCAD for it. Both are very simple applications to use.

Language - The opening session on Language has given the facilitator a nice spin. When she asked what languages they would prefer to learn they all unanimously said, Malayalam and French. One of them she knows and the other she has no clue whatsoever. So we are trying to use online tools to learn it all together as a team. Let's see how long we can keep this tempo.

Geopolitics - The biggest modern day Geopolitical conflict of Israel and Palestine is what we started during this session. Issues of religion and conflicts between Christianity and Jews were discussed. There is so much to cover in this topic that it will continue for a couple of weeks.

Guests

Welcome back Sahir, who has now grown much taller. Also welcome Parth who is 13 years of age and is coming for a trial period for two weeks. He comes all the way from Goregaon using BEST bus and train. All the best to him.

Calendar

3-5 Dec Bilimora Trip (announcements will be made by kids next week)

10 Dec 1st Let’s Samjhte He (Parents meeting at LC)

24 Dec - 1 Jan Christmas Holidays

8 Jan - Possible Trek with Parents (??yet to be discussed with children)

11 Feb 2nd Let's Samjhte He (Parents meeting at LC)

7 April Last working day of this term

8 April Annual Day

That's all for now, more later!