ARISE Summer Camp : Summary

Context: Summer Camp conducted in the Sneh Sadan.
The camp was shortened due to an administrative problem and lasted only 10 days unlike the planned 20 days. To compensate for lost time we doubled up the time spent, some highlights include



Computer Classes taken by Ryan, he came every day for the whole week and he brought in some learning software. Children learnt a lot of geography and GK in a very short time.
Class on Leaves proved that children knew much more about leaves and plants, as in Sneh Sadan has an excellent farm like environment. Each child bought 10 different types of leaves to class and we had a small quiz on the same.
Alpho and Naveen from MindTree took a class on Astronomy and taught the children about planets and gave them an idea of size of each by making a model in class. Children affirmed the learning by making an animated presentation using Microsoft Powerpoint the next day (with the help of Ryan).
Alpho and Divya took an excellent class to improve English using games. (Word Antakshari, Pictionary, Building Words from Big Words)
Rahul Mohandas from MindTree shared with the children his fascination of cars and his curiosity to find out how things work. How did he teach this? By simply opening the car’s bonnet!!
Srivatsa from MindTree came down and took a class on Painting and Origami.
Cricket Match was played on one evening. Team was captained by Santosh and Prem. Prem came up with class shots and Alwin did some cool spin bowling but Santosh and Father Roy’s team beat our team 2-1.
Apart from this some other classes on History, Science and Maths were also conducted
The children daily played with toys (on loan) brought in for this camp which included 3 blocks set, 2 train/track sets, 3 animal and birds set. (Seeing the way kids enjoyed and came up with really out of the box design I think one day I will open a Toy Library)
Rahul’s son and my two children came down on last day. The youngest group took them around their home and showed their bunk beds, classroom, dining halls, animals in the farm, different types of fruit trees and they loved playing with the baby rabbits.
Trek to Savandurga has been postponed to July as the schedule turned out to be very tight.
Overall it was an enjoyable and enriching experience for one and all. Father Roy did a lot of running around to coordinate the whole event, playing cricket and making sure all who came felt “very welcomed”.
Special thanks to the cook of establishment who sacrificed her 10 days vacation to make this event happen.

Finally three cheers for these wonderful children who inspite of their difficulties are able to share their joy and enthusiasm in even studying in the summer holidays. Overall the children are very bright and what was pretty evident was that they are very sensitive and soft at heart and not all that tough as they like the world to believe.

We have just scratched the surface, we will need to spend much more time with these children in a similarly planned manner if we are to make a positive impact on their careers and life in general. As of today I am sure the children have taught us more than we have taught them !


Thanks for one and all who contributed in making this Endeavour a success.

ARISE Summer Workshop

I am conducting a Summer Camp for children of Sneh Sadan. There are 30 students in this home , the age is ranging from 6-15 years. They understand English (otherwise with my Language Barrier this would not have been possible) . Two MindTree minds have shown interest, but more help is definetly required. This would be a great oppurtunity for you to give back something to the system !! . It could be as simple as 2 hours on a particular day !!

Arise

Context: I am organizing a summer camp for the children of Sneh Sadan (off Bannerghatta Road). The returns in conducting any program with children has so much returns that to put a dollar value to the ROI is simply not possible.
So are you interested in spending time with these children and to make your time count?
On 8th March 2009 I conducted my first workshop with the permission of Father Roy in the premisis of the Sneh Sadan. There are currently 30 children here for whom this is their home.
We divide the group into three batches, each class one hour and the agenda was
Group 1: Ages 6-10 years
· Ice Breakers: Spinning the Top
· Book Appreciation: Book of Buildings around the world
· Building Tallest Tower (Using Jenga Blocks)
Group 2: Ages 10-13 years
· Ice Breakers: Spinning the Top
· Book Appreciation: Book of Buildings around the world
· Building Tallest Tower (Using Jenga Blocks)
· Implementing their own design (House/Apartment/Church/Monument etc)
Group 3: Ages 13-15 years
· Ice Breakers: Number 1- 50
· Book Appreciation: Book of Buildings around the world
· Implementing their own design (House/Apartment/Church/Monument etc)
· Team Building Game : Tap Tap

The children seemed to enjoy the games and said they are looking forward to the full fledge summer camp. I was completely exhausted by the end of it but did enjoy playing with the children. I plan to conduct these introductory playing sessions on the remaining Sundays of the month of March. Summer Camp is scheduled to start in the first week of April.

The Agenda of the camp would include (5 days a week, 1 hour a day, 3 batches)
Team Games
Individual Motivation Games
Presentation Skill
English Speaking Skills
Subject Appreciation
Astronomy / Maths / Physics / Computers / English
History / Geography / Zoology / Biology
Book Appreciation
Loads of fun