The Future Nobel Laureates of Timarni

As I spend these last days of summer holidays in the beautiful lake city of Bhopal with my niece, nephew and son frolicking around, I wonder whether their Intelligence is in-born or the environment, education and learning opportunities will have a huge impact on it. A quick internet research on this topic indicates that genes do have an impact on intelligence but both nature (what you are born with) and nurture (environment, education, learning opportunities) are highly intertwined in creation of an intelligent human being. Our intellectual reality is not even close to our intellectual potential, so there is a lot to gain with right nurturing.

On this trip, I had the opportunity to visit Timarni, a small bustling town four hours to the south of Bhopal, where Dayalbagh Educational Institute is doing excellent work in the field of education and nurturing young energetic kids towards a bright intelligent future.

Our post this week is on these 

“Future Nobel Laureates” of Timarni.

This is an invited blog post by Vandana Prakash, who runs the Junior Children’s Recreation Center (jCRC) at the Dayalbagh Educational Institute’s Radhasoami High School, Timarni giving these underprivileged kids an excellent start.

Regards,
Anurag
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Vandana wites...

jCRC was started in June of 2015. The center is meant for three to six year-old kids. The center is based on the philosophy articulated by Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi of “Tod-Mod-Jod” or "तोड़-मोड़-जोड़", i.e. learning through designing, joining, adding, assembling, dismantling, shaping, redesigning, reshaping... This method of learning is in contrast to a conventional nursery or kindergarten. Here students walk in without bags, no pencils, no writing and no rote learning.

Humankind's biggest gift is the power of imagination, which typically gets subjugated by the hundreds of no’s that we hear each day, hampering our creativity and our desire to explore. At jCRC, the curriculum is designed to help kids retain their curiosity and become explorers and creators and to boost their ability to think.

The curriculum focuses on the following aspects of development:

1. Physical development- gross and fine motor movements
2. Sensory development-auditory, tactile, olfactory and visual
3. Mental development- cognitive and language development
4. Emotional and social development
5. Inculcation of values

The initial activities get the kids to play with soft toys of their choice, sand play, a walk in the garden with gardening tools...as they love to water the plants, sowing seeds and they are given the responsibility to water these plants daily. They learn to make tree-bark impressions and understand the importance of nature, about preserving nature using the center's story bank. The kids play around trees and hug them, they learn the names of the trees, various associated words like the trunk is wide, narrow etc. These activities focus their sense of touch, smell, help in understanding various textures, look at the various colors, helping in language development and conception.

As the kids get settled, they move onto working with simple 2D and 3D block puzzles, do sorting, seriation, tangram, joining pipes, clay models...here there is no right or wrong. As the material is scientific and self-correcting they find out the way on their own.

The kids thread beads and make various patterns, with various shapes and colors being discussed. Once they are ready they are given dressing frames and are taught to button, unbutton, use Velcro, ribbons and laces, this boosts their confidence making them independent!

After a month, the kids move away from soft toys with the day starting with exercise, rhymes and action songs, once a week they play with ball or Frisbee. While exercising they learn about parts of the body, function of each body part, and hear stories on good habits, and get encouragement to eat clean and healthy food and drink clean water. Puppets are used to make these stories and learning fun for the kids.

Over time, the kids move on to tougher and more complex puzzles. Counting using abacus and dominoes is introduced and spindle boxes are used to introduce the concept of zero.

One of the topics of the month is where names of various fruits and vegetables are covered, taught through a game where the mentor becomes the vegetable/ fruit seller and the students become buyers. Here their favorite fruits and veggies and various preparations are discussed, e.g. what all can we make with tomatoes? On the fruit and vegetable day, the fruits and veggies are washed, peeled, cut and eaten together. Later they color, print or paste fruits and veggie images on worksheets.

The kids learn about transportation using toys like trucks, milk vans, cycles, dump vans etc. They are encouraged to ride cycles, and told about how our dear earth is getting warmer, also understanding some of these environmental concepts through cartoons.

Festivals and important events are celebrated with the kids, and the story behind these festivals is told through stories and cartoons.

A short story with a learning/ value and a short prayer ends their day at the center.

This was about Level 1 jCRC, there is a Level 2 jCRC for Class 1 students.

In Level 2 jCRC the activities are similar with the puzzles, blocks and topics becoming more complex. Topics covered are about earth, plant life, and animal kingdom and in much more detail.

This is how these kids are becoming little explorers, nature lovers and creative humans.