Dear Parents,

The week has flown by so quickly and here are some of the key highlights...

Judiciary

Surprisingly for two consecutive weeks we had considerable attendance during judiciary meetings. A couple of them who anticipated consequences didn’t turn up on Monday, but their friends were smart enough to understand this and still put them through the agony. So this week it was conducted on tuesday..:) The most exciting thing is when the complaint box is opened and read. Who gets how many complaints against them is everyone’s business. Also before issuing the consequences the kids are asked if they would pardon the accused, many a times they do.

In the agenda there were the following items: Can you get your own gadgets at LC? The need could be taken care of by the equipments we have at LC, hence it still remains a ‘No’. One of the facilitators complained to have prepared for a session at the request of children but they didn’t turn up. But no resolution was found for this.

कर के सीखॊ

One of the kids during the last session opened a camera and started enquiring how it works. And that became the theme for this week’s activity. The team got magnifying glasses, mirrors and transparent sheets for the job. Few of them made paper cameras and few made periscope and all of them made holograms. Clear OHP sheets were cut to make truncated square pyramids and placed over a hologram video. All the kids went, “Wow”. Many tried to catch the illusion with their fingers. Few curious kids did an exercise to understand if a hologram of their friend’s head could be projected. They took pictures of all four sides of their friend’s head and tried it. 

Next week the plan is to make kaleidoscopes. Lets see how that turns out.

Grammar session

Almost everyone takes the grammar session. Hindi as well as english grammar are taken simultaneously since the rules are very similar. This week’s session included understanding prepositions and past/future tenses. Kids were asked to form their own sentences to highlight these concepts. The most peculiar and interesting thing about this session is not how much they learn grammar but how much is their fascination towards poop and potty jokes. What is potty called in hindi? Is it poopy head or poop head? The cow did potty over his head or on his head. These are the questions kids ask. The facilitator seems completely immune to grossness now and doesn’t mind till it's grammatically correct.

Friday Food

A bunch of boys at LC have never participated in food making. Never before have they shown any interest. The point of inspiration arrived when one of them who seemed to have a developed taste for junk delicacies proposed to make it here. So there it was by wednesday on the blackboard, written clearly who has to bring what and how much. The facilitators were found clueless about the ingredients and also whether or not this needs to be cooked. Soon we found out as instructed by one of the boys that this is only a job of mixing. Put the ingredients and stir, बस इतना ही। So now we have the most popular friday food of this year, Chinese Bhel. Children along with Vinayak Sir and visitors all relished the food. Cleaning up afterwards was a challenge which will always be. It is an unresolved matter…:)

Visitors

We had Priyanka and Hitanshi along with their children who had come to visit us. They have been homeschooling their children and want to start a centre like ours in Mulund. We wish them good luck and a mountain of perseverance and patience. 

We also had Prembhari, Shailesh and their daughter Mira, 4yr old who came from Juhu. They are lawyers by profession and passionate to explore alternative education for their child. 

Vaishali with her daughter Kritika, 9 yr old had come for Kandivali. They are explorers by nature and Kritika aspires to start her own school and is on the lookout for a very green space close to nature.

This friday again, Ketan had come with a box full of painting materials and stationery. He has been playing Santa Claus for the last two weeks. His demeanour is so calm and unassuming that kids have completely accepted him. He lets kids do whatever they want and they all stick to their activity in hand. Kids made paintings with different themes. 

One more person visited us yesterday, but he was tucked in the corner of our library and silently reading. The book he was reading is one of our favourites, Free at Last by Daniel Greenberg. He was not bothered by anyone and no amount of noise distracted him. Uday, one of our co-parents, had finished almost a third of the book by the time it was 1’oclock. If anyone is interested in reading this book please let us know, we have an e-copy. 

That’s all for this week, until next time…

Take care!