Newsletter 7; Yr 20-21
Hurray!!!!
Pleased to tell you all our LC family is officially extended. We are glad to welcome Moksha and Kiara to Sadhana LC.
With this announcement, would also like to bring to everyone’s notice that they follow Jain Food Style, so when someone is getting Gurukrupa Samosa or some treat for all of us, pl make sure we get separate Jain Food :-))
Along with this, it will be interesting to share what happened in one of the morning meetings.
Last to last week, ‘maggie’ was planned, but since it happened to be Paryushan Week, a request was made to postpone the maggie plan. The food minister did so, but was feeling odd since his pre-decided wish was not fulfilled. The topic was brought up for discussion, and we all delved deeper into it.
Since LC wants to be inclusive for all the children, it was decided to communicate the plan well in advance with everyone, and in the planning phase itself, different needs would be taken care of, as it happens at home when we have guests coming. :)) Everyone was not just happy with this decision, but next Friday’s maggie plan was communicated to respective parents and another acceptable variety was brought. Everyone relished it too.
The learnings come from so many different ways.
This week’s attractions
1. Painting
Painting Jungle gym and the rest of the stuff at LC was a long time pending job. It was started this week. Kids were asked to choose their partners and were given one corner of the jungle gym to paint. They discussed how to start, colour combinations, division of work, experimented with turpentine, fought over boundaries, expressed disapproval of work, found out corrections, played in paint, so on and so forth. It is suggested that they keep their painting clothes at LC itself, since this work will go on for a few weeks
2. Poetry
Rhyme and rhythm is so attractive. The poems we read give us so much pleasure. We feel poetry is not an ordinary person’s cup of tea. This challenge was given and accepted by some members of LC. It was wonderful to see meaningful poetry coming rt from 6 year-olds to adults on different topics like Pet turtle, Walk through the Jungle, Dinosaur in car, a cat and (a very difficult topic like) Anger. Many of the children were seen absorbed and experimenting with different words.
3. Friday specials
Fusion based music was played and it was anticipated that they will all join in for singing. They did, but each one with their own flavour. Some bollywood songs, some Harry Potter based song, some patriotic songs and some twisted one. Soon everyone started dancing and had a great time together
4. Games
This week children tried different game, Mafia. A few knew it already. A few were completely new to it. The game did not turn up as it would in case of adults,, but it brought in a lot of fun.
5. Guets
We had a few guest children coming for the trial period. As happens with everyone, children volunteered to show them place around, explain rules, and introduce everyone. Also, we found that the guests were quickly settled in the environment. One of the learners was found asking guests, over and over again, how they found LC is. Though it was too early to ask the question to anyone, that particular learner was very sure that the guest likes LC. The differences in the routine school and LC were also plotted by children.
6. Sessions
As usual, Hindi word formation session was a big hit. A bit of geometry was explored in the form of lines, angles, triangles, experiments in finding properties of isosceles triangle. A few of the small ones are attracted to Fractions and are found asking for worksheets of Fraction addition and subtraction. For the big ones, concept of multiplication of fraction was introduced. The word problems based on logic, multiplication, division were solved in groups and also confirmed with hands on experiment.
7. Reflections
This weekend we tried to reflect on weeklong activities. What children liked, did not like, what could have been better. An interesting feedback was, ‘Muze laga, hindi sesson mein bahut questions honge, isliye main kal aaya nahi. Par jab aap ne kaha, you missed me, toh muze bura laga’ As facilitators we were so happy that a child could be so true and fearless with us. In reply, we told, ‘there is no compulsion to attend any session. You can walk away until the session interests you. There is no need to remain absent.’
One of the learners is found to be enthusiastic during sessions and eager to answer to an extent that facilitators get disturbed. When this point was brought to that learner’s notice, she could express her own mind and was also found to be open to interference by others in her sessions.
What we love about these discussions is everyone can be true to their feelings and needs and can express their minds, so also, are learning to take up the criticism.
Weekly meeting
- Safety issues while using jungle gym were reinforced.
There was a problem in winding up at the end of the day, where in spite of alarm ringing, people were found procrastinating. While we expressed our feelings, children expressed that once winding up is done, if they still have time to play, they need to take out the mats and start lights and fans again, so actual windup was of no use according to them. Hence a solution was found that we wind up and lock 2 rooms and remain in the playzone till the time of dispersal.
2. AV time was brought for discussion once again. An observation was shared that some learners, after entering in the morning, head straight to the computer. Whether this is acceptable or not? Some voted that until the learners are not breaching the agreed time limit, its completely acceptable, when someone wants to utilize AV time. But then what about others, ‘who just stand behind’ the one who uses the computer?’ So one of the learners expressed, ‘Lagta hain mere pichhe magnet laga hain’ ;-)
As a solution suggested by someone, children are now going to work in pairs and keep vigilance that their partner is not exceeding the time. Lets see how this method works.
3. One of the learners said we need to move the leaf-composter inside because he needs to sharpen pencils frequently, and feels he has to go outside to throw the dust, just too many times. The solution was found out.
4. One of the learners said, always the pencils and crayons are mixed (not kept in respective boxes). Everyone agreed to take effort for this.
As we walk the path of democracy, we see children becoming connected with their needs, feelings and also, becoming vocal, fearless. Also, each new member joining the team brings his/her own flavour and its interesting to see the dynamics change.
We are looking forward for more such changes and even more connected, fearless, expressive and yet, accommodating members.
Stay tuned and become partner in our journey!
Cheers!