18 Feb 2022

Dear Parents,

This week started with a bang with new ideas and suggestions from the parents’ meeting. It was really fruitful, which only means that we should do this more often..:) We all are co travellers in this journey, and evidently at different stages. So we need to look out for each other and hand hold if need be. Together we will make it work!

So let’s see what we did this week…

Judiciary

All the suggestions for the project day were discussed with the kids. We asked if there was anyone who really didn’t want to do the project day, even if they understood why we do this. There were a couple, but they later conceded to it.

Garden

We all went to a different garden closeby. It is much bigger and has plenty of playgyms in working conditions. At the previous place we always needed to hide, in case the cricket balls came flying. So it was peaceful here! Maybe we will continue going here for a few months.

Circle Time

There were a few hot issues this time, like I mentioned, this has become our expression circle. Some of them mentioned this time that there are a lot of harsh words used against each other. Language used is very acidic, and it wasn’t like that before. Demeaning others a little bit for the sake of fun sounds ok and may not be a big deal in this kind of environment but where do you draw the line? Slowly it is amounting to insults too. Where is this need coming from? Are we trying to show off? I am of the opinion that kids think profanity is nothing but an act of courage and maybe they are emulating the adults around them.

Trip to MIG club

You might have seen the pictures of our LC cricket club members at the MIG club. All of them were excited to go, except a few all relished the whole experience. If it's one of your first times watching the game so close by then, all of a sudden the cricket field looks very huge and the players seem lost somewhere. So few kids were counting the players, just to check if there were 11+2+2 umpires. Also the season ball looks pretty big. The “tok” sound of it hitting the wooden bat is very loud and clear. Few times when the boundaries came flying at the pavilion kids ducked and few moved their hands to catch it.

Community service

Again this week kids did cold calling at the apartments adjacent to our centre. They knocked and explained about the plastic waste segregation. Some kids gave a lengthier explanation for the “why”, while some try to invoke the need for the greater good. I don’t know if they feel the need for this purpose or if they like this opportunity to step out of LC and show off. Either way we hope something good comes out of this.

Friday Food

There was no friday food this time. It was going to be pani puris, but the food manager forgot to notify everyone.

Talk to mentor

We spoke about having a good work ethic. When asked if they knew about ethics? Few of them said it's our way or it’s one’s style. From ethics we started talking about values, morals and then what are core values? With illustrated examples, we tried to explain how these values are used in our daily life. Where do we get these values from? Many interpreted it as something that they would like to do in life. So when we asked everyone to share their values, we got a mixed response, “I want to learn to fight”, “I would like to be the best cricket player”, “I want to be an honest person”, “I want to gain knowledge”, etc.

Dance

We danced to the tunes of music this time. Majority resisted at first, many gave a cold response and only a few seemed excited about it. Despite the response we set up the music system and cleared the play room. We took the cue from the Summerhill book. Every Friday evening A. S. Neill puts on music and quietly leaves the room. The kids go berserk and dance their hearts out. It's maybe a way to release their stress or tackle their inhibitions. After 20 mins of music, I started getting recommendations. Nobody could sit still, they were all red faced with exertion after an hour. Finally they all came to a consensus to have music and movie clubs on alternate fridays.

Guests

Priyal with her mother and daughter, Ritvi (4.5 years) came to visit us today. She has already been unschooling her daughter and wants to do a trial with us.

That's all for now....stay safe and healthy!