Volunesia Diaries – Musings On The Journey So Far!
This week, our Chief Content Officer, Anjali, shares what we’ve learnt over the last few weeks of conducting Volunesia at the Brindavan Tent School.
It has been a month since Jaideep introduced us to the Brindavan Tent School. When we first visited the school, met the kids and tentatively made plans to bring in volunteers, we weren’t sure what would come of it. A month later, we can see tangible changes – not only in the school and the kids, but in ourselves and our dedicated volunteers.
Getting Started
Our last few Volunesia circles have been a little chaotic (never a dull moment with these kids!). So this time we approached the event with a different plan in mind. Our interactions with the kids made us realise that this is their only opportunity during the week to exercise their creative muscles. Though we can teach them their ABCs easily enough, it’s also a real pleasure to introduce them to concepts and ideas that are outside the box.
This week, we began our session with an important lesson – the value of patience. Every time that we allowed the kids to play around with colours, we received very rough work. We realised that this was because they were totally unused to having so many materials at their fingertips. For their sanity (and ours!) we decided to set boundaries for them and give them specific tasks.
First, we gave them colouring pages to work on and told them that the more attention to detail they injected into their work, the better they’d do at the task. The minute they understood that they had to be a bit more patient and make the most of what they had been given – their work changed completely! Gone were the hastily done scribbles. We had some real works of art!
For our next activity, we decided we’d ask the kids to make simple greeting cards. Though we suggested cards for Deepavali and Christmas, the kids were allowed the freedom to choose what they wanted to do. Some of them made gorgeous festive cards and others chose to focus on expressing their affection for their parents and friends.
Introducing New Concepts
Now that we have been conducting Volunesia at the school for a while, we are seeing some familiar faces mixed with the new. This has really helped break the ice with the children, who are thrilled every time they recognise a ‘Miss’ or a ‘Sir’. This week, our more experienced volunteers, Preethi, Swathi, Manu and Sayantini helped us hold the fort while we introduced Kiran Sir, Megha, Aarti, Roopa, Nithya, Megha, Roopa Bagi and Raghu to the organised chaos that surrounds Volunesia. Binita, one of our Cubbon Park Volunesians also joined us at the school for the first time, and we were thrilled to have her energy back in the circle!
Even though the majority of them had never taught little kids before, they found themselves enjoying the experience, unhindered by language barriers and inexperience. We have a feeling we’ll be seeing them at future circles and we couldn’t be more thrilled!
Sharing Our Thoughts
If you’ve ever been to one of our events, then you know that the closing circle is when we reflect on the entire experience and share our thoughts on the matter. This circle was especially interesting as we had a lot of feedback and observations to take into consideration. The last Volunesia taught us that all the kids should participate in similar activities (the grass is always greener!).
However, this time we realised that the first and second standard kids needed less complex activities and more tasks to tackle. This is simply because they find it harder to concentrate on one thing for a long stretch. That being said – they did a really good job despite their lower attention spans. In fact, Mahesh, who was in Kiran sir’s group, was such a meticulous colourer that he spent the entire session working on a single sheet of paper. At the end of it, Mahesh’s work was picture-perfect!
Another thing we’ve come to notice is the little things that the kids have absorbed from us. Last week Pranita taught them the importance of asking rather than just grabbing or taking. And this week our session was filled with pleases and thank yous. It’s a small step but such a satisfying one!
Ripples From Volunesia
We, at KnowYourStar, believe in sowing seeds with a lot of love and dedication, and then just waiting to see what emerges. But when the fruits do show up, and that too in a very short span of time, we cannot but thank the conspiring universe and the kindest hearts we are blessed to have connected to on a deeper level.
One such story is of Preethi Shetty. This was a consecutively second Volunesia circle she was a part of, and what an amazing teacher she has been to the kids! She was so influenced by the work happening in the school, she started exploring more ways to help. When she found out that we were crowdfunding to raise sponsorship for all the kids of the school, she took it on herself to raise whatever she can through her family and friends. Within 3 days, she convinced 15 people to contribute!
We couldn’t but match her excitement, share it with her, and now here we are, sharing it with you!!! If you also want to be part of this labor of love, we insist you join us for Volunesia this Saturday (15th July, 2017) or sponsor a kid for INR 1400 for this academic year.
Our week-day volunteers have started Alphabet/Phonetics lessons for the kids this week, thanks to Akanksha and the lovely folks at Tarkeybein! Our kids are very happy to be learning from big, bright and colorful books, that have been bought from the money we have raised till now. We are extremely grateful for your contribution. 🙂
Link to album with more pictures!
You can sponsor one child from this school for a year for INR 1400, which includes the basic cost of stationery, books and other materials that will be used throughout the Mentor India course.
Liked reading this? Then you might also like to read Volunesia Diaries – Value-Based Education Through Art, Fun And Frolic!
If there’s any story that needs to be told, we will tell it. Write to us at contact@knowyourstar.com with your story lead, or contact us on Facebook or Twitter.
