Phew !! Quite a busy three months it has been – and such excitement! 

This year, we invited quite a few resource people to volunteer at the library during the summer, taking advantage of more daylight hours and more free time over the summer vacations.

Happily, a few people responded positively and schedules worked out conveniently.  We hope to have have more such visitors in the autumn break and again next summer – the weather here is definitely more conducive than the plains!

So, what all did we do to this summer? Let’s find out!

APril: Construction of a Kooda-pit

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To spread the message of cleanliness, the children decided to construct a waste pit on the path to the village. The boys volunteered to dig the pit themselves and collect the stones, with great enthusiasm!  The hot April sun did not deter them and our hardworking boys completed the excavation work in a single afternoon. 

While dadda chipped in by procuring the cement and availing the services of local mason Prakash da, the boys roped Raju da in for transport and collected a load of stones from the nearby gadhera.  The pit was completed on a Sunday morning and a session well spent was closed with a hearty meal of khichdi and achaar – courtesy Mohan da and didi. 

APRIL: VISITS by sonal ben and megha

Sonal Modi, a Gujarati writer, translator and accomplished singer, visited Seem from 23 – 30 April. 

Fully prepared with a great playlist loaded on her phone, she introduced the kids to the basics of raag and taal and then taught them a few select songs in English, Hindi and Gujarati. They have now become quite good at these songs, and even performed some during the Annual Day celebrations!

Some children used this opportunity to interview Sonalben and included the details in their ‘Deewar Patrika’, published in June.  Surprisingly, some of our curious minds had already Googled her and collated background information before meeting her! Megha, another visitor, helped them in framing their queries and interview methodology.  

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Megha, a trained library educator, was here from 25 – 30 April. She held some reading sessions with the children.  

In addition, Megha spent a lot of time with Jaya on organizing our library resources and had some very useful suggestions such as library cards and book hospitals, which we are now implementing. She worked overnight to curate and re-catalogue all the books according to a simpler scheme, to make the books easier to find for the kids.

MAY: MAths, anyone?

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Rajiv, an old friend and a very passionate and patient educator came all the way from Chennai for 10 days from 7^th May onwards, with the intention of strengthening the Math skills of children from classes 3 – 6.

It was really surprising to see the enthusiasm of the kids! Divided up into  4 groups of 6-8 each, the kids used colourful kits, games and exercises to learn about concepts of fractions and decimals in an unforgettable way.  These sessions were conducted for two hours in the morning and evening. 

MAY: MEeting with an IAF pilot!

Samir, an old schoolmate and his wife Sangeeta visited Seem and had an impromptu session with the kids. He is a retired IAF Fighter pilot and now flies commercially with Indigo. The children were awed by him and had a quick session in understanding how he flew an aircraft and what it entailed – an exposure that we hope to further with some more of our visitors.  

What was more rewarding for us was that the next day the older lot were googling ‘gnat’ to find out about the fighter aircraft that Samir flew!!

JUNE: Annual Day Celebrations!

Dear readers,

We are 3 this June!!  

This year the Annual Day celebrations were spread over a week! 

Adventure Camp – The celebrations kicked off with an outing to Padampuri and Camp Sunkiya, near Mukteshwar  on 2^nd June.  A group of 40 eager children of class 6 and above and 3 chaperones boarded a bus to Padampuri, where a river camp was arranged. After breakfast the children did swimming and jumping off a 4 m high cliff and rappelling down a more than 40m high rock face. These activities were conducted by Jeevan and his expert team from Camp Sunkiya.  

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These activities removed the fear of water and heights from the children and it was difficult to get them out of the river in time.

Camp Sunkiya, near Mukteshwar was an altogether different experience! Set among apple and peach orchards this tented facility hosts groups for outdoor adventure. The children had never seen such a set up before and the lunch was a treat. The icing on the cake was the dessert of chocolate ice cream!

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After lunch the children participated in football and throwball and team building games including a very innovative treasure hunt. All three teams were the joint winners since they completed the hunt well within the allotted time! The sponsors also presented each child with a lovely backpack and frisbee .

Given a choice they would have preferred to stay overnight instead of boarding the bus back! An eventful day concluded at 9 PM after a few anxious calls from parents about the kids whereabouts.

Our sincere thanks go out to a very committed well wisher of Happy Children’s Library who sponsored the entire trip.

3 – 5 JUNE: Science Workshop

Our friends from Alliance for Science, New Delhi conducted their third workshop with us –  this time a 3 day workshop on making working models out of waste to easily explain scientific principles. Over three days, 50 children from Class 4 and above worked in 8 groups to develop 25 such models.  These were made out of waste and easily available materials and were used to explain the solar system, Newton’s laws of motion, laws of reflection and refraction, the human eye, centre of gravity, magnetism, etc.

6 JUNE: Vigyan Mela

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6 JUNE: Entertainment & Felicitations

Could the Annual Day be held without dance and music?!

After the Vigyan Mela, the gathering moved to the amphitheatre where children of all age groups presented dance and song items prepared by them. These included the latest and more popular Kumaoni dances, Gujarati and English songs and of course Bollywood dances!

The children who secured more than 70% marks and 1^st Division in their final exams were presented backpacks for school and all the kids were given notebooks, crayons and pencils.   

The celebrations ended with much-awaited snacks for all the visitors and participants!

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IN OTHER NEWS….

COMPUTER LITERACY CLASSES

Himani Joshi, a young girl from the village, has been assisting us with the computer literacy classes. It is a pleasure to see her lovingly and patiently teach the smaller children the basics of computers and generally oversee the classes on a daily basis on a small honorarium. She attends the computer centre 6 days a week and handles 2 – 3 groups of 4 learners in 4 sessions of 45 minutes each.

She presented a report on the status of the computer classes till date during the Annual Day function and informed that since Sept 2017, about 70 kids from class 4 up and 10 ladies and older girls have learnt how to handle computers and learn the basics of MS Office, while the older children have learnt how to use search and email.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING CLASSES IN DEHRADUN

We learnt of the  residential vocational training courses being offered by Himjyoti Vovational Institute, Dehradun and have been able to motivate some girls to opt for this. 5 girls will now join the training in Modern Office Management and Sewing & Fashion starting from 1^st July 2019.  We hope they have a fruitful learning experience and that this becomes a trendsetter to equip young girls and women from our area with some more skills.  

EMBROIDERY

Some girls approached Jaya to teach them embroidery during the vacations. Now whenever feasible, about 6 girls try to take out time and attend embroidery sessions.  An enthusiastic well wisher has presented us with all the embroidery material and even purchased prizes for a competition to be held later!!

VISITING COUSINS AND RELATIVES JOIN THE LIBRARY FOR THE SUMMERS!

The summer months in the hills can never be complete without cousins and relatives visiting from the plains.  The attendance in the library therefore increases substantially during the holiday season. Children from Haldwani, Delhi, Lucknow etc visiting their grandparents and uncles in our area are enthusiastic participants in all activities, including the tuitions!  They look forward to spend some time here and make the children of our area proud.