Dear Parents,

Apologies for the late arrival of this time’s newsletter. 

Circle time

The week started with a lengthy circle time where basically kids shared what they did over the weekend. Few kids went on and on while enjoying their sharings. But it kind of stretched for a long time. Some like to share and some like to listen and some like to chatter with their neighbours in their mini circles!

कर के सीखॊ

This time we decided that we will try some electrical and electronics projects. Zubin had prepared a presentation with various doable small projects like table lamps, hanging lights, torch and hand sanitizer that operates on sensor. Kids were to select what they wanted to do and get on with the job. Few of them finished and some started working towards it. Few kids who had signed up for it, seemed disinterested. This was picked up later in the meeting.

Judiciary

This time’s judiciary was interesting. It went on and on. We are revisiting one of the rules that we made at the beginning of this year which was “No video games in LC”. The rule basically says that no one is allowed to play any kind of video games, watch any cartoons, see movies, sitcoms, or pornography. In addition to this, everyone will get an hour of AV time per week which can include any other kind of internet browsing. Things that were not included in an hour's time was Khan Academy, TED ed videos, research on a project, Scratch and Sketchup. We understand that there are lots of loopholes in this rule and which was put to test when kids started watching horror clippings. When brought up in the judiciary, it was allowed since it didnt belong to any of the categories mentioned. 

Now the contention arose when one of the child got to know that video games were allowed last year. So then why not this year. It seemed that kids who voted for no video games have now changed their positions. Now we are yet to see what will happen. Fingers crossed!

Farmers’ Protest Fallout

All of us know what happened on 26 Jan at the Red fort. Since we had already had a fantastic discussion about it while Shakil and Kabeer were here. We thought it would be good to initiate an unbiased discussion. Few of the kids were very agitated when they came to know what happened, they seemed confused and unsympathetic now to the farmers’ cause. What we have observed is that it is difficult to sometimes express the opinions in an unbiased and non political way. But our attempt has always been to do that. Any diversion from this path will lead to biasing the kids’.

Gymnastics Session

It was a jolly good session this time. Vinayak, the gymnastics instructor really knows the pulse of the kids. The session started with warm ups, stretching and quick exercises. Facilitators also joined in during this time. He also got weights 5 kgs and few 1 kgs and we loaded it up on the tyres for strength training exercises. Kids pushed and pulled these tyres. It is a sight to watch some of the 6 yr olds. They did head rolling, cartwheel, staggered rolling and many others. (names of some are still unknown to us..:))

They ended the session with a game of kho-kho. We thought kids would be exhausted but they were left with high energy for the reminder of the day. A note to parents: While you drop you kids in the morning, if you care for a little bit of a warm up and stretching, then feel free to join us. It will be fun!

Friday Food

There was no friday food this week. I presume there was lack of planning and some of the older kids interfered and cancelled it for the worry of fiasco. But after a high energy gym session, the kids were hungry, so we got water melon and cucumbers. The kids relished the water melon, some of them said “this is the best water melon I have had in my life.” Now we all know anything tastes nice when the time is right!

Food for your Thought

We are currently attending the ANKUR session conducted by BeMe. This time’s session was on Respect and Equality. What does respecting a child mean? How does one equally treat a child? It is quite a deep concept and something that is wrapped in many layers. When I say I treat my child equally doesn’t necessarily mean that I expect him/her to start earning money and take care of the house. But it means…

...that we allow the child equal rights to make their own hypothesis, test it out and then conclude for themselves through their experiences. We allow them the freedom to decide and respect their decisions.

Let us know what you think,

Until next time!