The summer holidays are on, and enriching activities are on at full swing in Asha projects.   This is a time to go beyond academics and let the children’s curiosity and creativity flourish.

At Deenabandhu a three day art workshop following the theme of “No rules, full freedom” made the workshop very special.  Renowned artist Shri Manu Chakravarthy from Tumkur helped the children create beautiful art, assisted by Mr. Madhusudhan, a prize winning artist from the Soliga tribe.  Here are a few examples.

At Madurai Seed Narpanigal, children were involved in a variety of activities.  Hiking the Alagar Koyil hills and taking a dip in a natural water spring helped them escape the summer heat and observe nature.  A discussion with Teacher Siva Kumar on questions students had about what was real and what was fake – heaven and hell, souls, ghosts, horoscopes – focused on developing scientific temper, along with a session on the Science behind Magic from from Mrs Vennila and Mr. V Chinnappandi of the Tamil Nadu Science forum. A paper craft session to create paper flowers and origami butterflies brought out their creativity.  A farm trip took them to a mango farm where they spent time singing and playing games (and eating a lots of mangoes!).  Rounding out the week were sessions on drama and theater at the local Gandhi Museum, led by Thanjai Vijayakumar, during which students worked on developing specific scenes, using available stage space effectively, creating different poses, practicing the opening of a drama, and incorporating dialogue.

Education is not just about passing exams.  It is about opening one’s mind.