It has been more than Four months and around fifty sessions with children of Vigyan Khel Ghar. It roughly goes to around 100 hours. I am not sure whether this should be called only the starting or now it has been long time. But I am still far from what I expect to achieve with the children. Though the center is called the 'Vigyan Khel Ghar' or Science Toy House, I haven't touched Science or Maths or any other subjects the way I intended. So I am experimenting different ways of implementing what I had in my mind.
Meanwhile the class size has now reduced to almost half due to various reasons. Some are not coming either due to their change in schedule and class timings not matching, while two have shifted their home to another community. Some seem to have lost the enthusiasm in the activities which they had earlier. Also it was decided that there would be a monthly fees of Rs. 15 for each child, which again made some to leave as they did not want to give the fees. So right now there are around 8 -10 children. Though it is quite possible to add new children, but I have decided not to add any more up to a month until I get free of my academic commitments.
Many things have happened since past month. Various management techniques used in sessions especially the use of artificial currency had been stopped since that seemed to create more chaos due to difficulty in managing them in a more organised way. Also lesser children did not needed such tool. Children had been planning to have a party with snacks, decorations and songs. It was decided to collect money for the same. But slowly due to reducing children and many of them not willing to contribute money it could not happen. However I had been working on another plan meanwhile. Though I can provide money for the party, I didn't wanted to do that and instead utilize this opportunity to motivate them to earn money by selling toys which they made. This ask them to make better and more perfect toys. Here comes the need to learn and apply mathematics concepts and know science wherever necessary. This was another experiment that I wanted to try to motivate since that forms the basis of incorporating hidden learning aspects of toys and is one of the main objectives of the project. With this aim, the children made their first toy of magic fan which was sold to a local balloon seller. Though we are still not sure whether it was sold since we could not meet the guy after that.
I am simultaneously working for training the teacher for managing the sessions. I am giving most of the planning and managing work to her such as deciding the activity and how to conducted it by giving required instructions. Due to lesser children, she is better able to manage and I give her inputs during the sessions itself. I have been able to communicate the learning objectives behind such activities which she wasn't aware earlier.
The focus right now is extracting the learning aspects of the activities by making better and better toys. Due to lesser children, it seems this objective is taking shape as seen from past few sessions. Children have started using measurements in their own way while working. Its now my responsibility to structure it in an organised way.
Meanwhile the class size has now reduced to almost half due to various reasons. Some are not coming either due to their change in schedule and class timings not matching, while two have shifted their home to another community. Some seem to have lost the enthusiasm in the activities which they had earlier. Also it was decided that there would be a monthly fees of Rs. 15 for each child, which again made some to leave as they did not want to give the fees. So right now there are around 8 -10 children. Though it is quite possible to add new children, but I have decided not to add any more up to a month until I get free of my academic commitments.
Many things have happened since past month. Various management techniques used in sessions especially the use of artificial currency had been stopped since that seemed to create more chaos due to difficulty in managing them in a more organised way. Also lesser children did not needed such tool. Children had been planning to have a party with snacks, decorations and songs. It was decided to collect money for the same. But slowly due to reducing children and many of them not willing to contribute money it could not happen. However I had been working on another plan meanwhile. Though I can provide money for the party, I didn't wanted to do that and instead utilize this opportunity to motivate them to earn money by selling toys which they made. This ask them to make better and more perfect toys. Here comes the need to learn and apply mathematics concepts and know science wherever necessary. This was another experiment that I wanted to try to motivate since that forms the basis of incorporating hidden learning aspects of toys and is one of the main objectives of the project. With this aim, the children made their first toy of magic fan which was sold to a local balloon seller. Though we are still not sure whether it was sold since we could not meet the guy after that.
I am simultaneously working for training the teacher for managing the sessions. I am giving most of the planning and managing work to her such as deciding the activity and how to conducted it by giving required instructions. Due to lesser children, she is better able to manage and I give her inputs during the sessions itself. I have been able to communicate the learning objectives behind such activities which she wasn't aware earlier.
The focus right now is extracting the learning aspects of the activities by making better and better toys. Due to lesser children, it seems this objective is taking shape as seen from past few sessions. Children have started using measurements in their own way while working. Its now my responsibility to structure it in an organised way.
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| Children with the 'Magic Fan' |
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