Is it possible to complement efforts of schools with learning settings within the community? A second home – a place where children or a adult learner can spend an hour or two?
If you, like us, settled in a rural area, but with demanding WFH jobs or freelancing gigs, and a farm/garden to look after, is it still possible to host a learning space for children, young and adult learners in your neighborhood?
YES! Here are some ideas we are trying.
- Buy NCERT Mathematics, Science and English books from Class 1 to 10. Text books are available online for free download. Prints are cheap (100 INR per copy, usually, and available on Amazon/Flipkart). Distribute them to children around. Give them, say, Class 1 Mathematics and English books. Once they complete it, and after you had a chance to review and give them some feedback, give them Class 2 Mathematics and English books. This can be a good way to help with their English too!
- Gift or loan children Kindle devices. Amazon.in lets you buy kindle eBooks for others. Buy them a book. If they finish reading it and write a review for you (or blog about it, if they are young/adult learners), gift them another book!
- Or give them Kindle Unlimited subscription (costs INR 170 per month).
- Download some good quality worksheets. Twinkl.com, Education.com, HP Print Learn Centre have some good collections. Print and give a student some 50 worksheets to do. If they finish and return them, review them. And print another set for them.
- Keep a collection of Board games they can borrow and return.
- Keep a collection of books and magazines they can borrow.
- If you have a large TV or Projector, screen popular documentaries and good movies on Saturday evenings or Sunday evenings.
- Organise occasional discussion circles on topics of interest to learners.
Last but not the least, giving our mentoring time to youngsters confused about their college or school options might be the best thing to happen!
altLearners.com
Many of us come out of school and even college without good self-learning skills. This is a tragedy. We started altLearners.com to offer some self-learning capsules and streams to anyone interested in improving their skills for future world of work.
The learning capsules are designed around four core skill areas: Cognitive, Digital, Interpersonal and Self Leadership skills.
altLearners.com is used by some of our neighbourhood students (Class 11-12, B.Com and B.Sc students). For those who are unable to afford own laptops, a couple of computers (Monitors + Intel NUCs) are made available for them to drop in (8 AM – 6 PM) and work on this curriculum.
A Vision We Hope To Gravitate To!
A space that can lead children directly to basic skills and habits of learning
Is it possible to imagine spaces where “students” actually help the “teacher” to do something or solve some problem, which he is working on anyway? Is it possible to have physical settings which make this master-apprentice relation possible and natural?
Is it possible to keep the joy of learning, as much as possible, in the hands of students with some adult guidance?
Some more worth-while ideas :
- Call for help to build a small room at farm house with eco-friendly technologies – this can help them consider using eco-friendly technologies when they build their own home in future!
- Call for help to grow medicinal herbs. This can show them how nature can provide most cures!
- Call for help to design and manage a natural farming based farm. Learning how to create a food forest can be a essential skill for all children and young?
- Create mentoring opportunities. Identify locals skilled in art, pottery, carpentry, electrical and plumbing work and arrange for some learners to work closely with them on some projects.
sadhana.farm 