Today by far was a special day.What made it special was a visit to a special abode, some very special company & a magnificent realization. Imagine a place just 15 minutes away from the city hustle bustle, quiet & inhabited by some animals in need of support and shelter. I reached Jeevashram a little earlier, i could notice the focus of the team on genuine care and upkeep of the resident animals. Jeevashram is a 10 minutes drive from NH8, EXIT no. 19 and falls in rajokri. While i waited for the XSEED Preschool children and mentors to arrive, reading through the mission of Jeevashram kept me occupied. Jeevashram means "refuge for animals", like the name suggests it works for animal welfare and also has a veterinary hospital.
After a while i saw some young and bright faces approaching Jeevashram. Lead by their mentors and Principal, they immediatly caught everyones attention at jeevashram including the resident animals, doctors & volunteers. Among the mentors, Snigdha had led this entire initiative. Being an animal lover herself, she had propsed this field trip for children sometime back as she felt strongly about the fact that a focused interaction for children with animals at Jeevashram would be a great way to help children build lasting concepts about animals, especially pet animals.
After settling in initially, each mentor got children in a close huddle and we had three groups of children led by mentors & accompanied by the preschool support staff ready to go for a round of the place. The smile on children's face signalled excitment and anticipation of what lied ahead. Doggy, puppy, white puppy....and so on started the buzz among children. Peacock caught the imagination of a few, especially the way it walked with the neck going back and forward making it really facinating. Bunny, rabbit caught the eye of some whereas some children loved the cats and imitated with the sound of "meow". They next saw a donkey and some cows from a distance calling them out,with a "eureka" tone as if they discovered something live out of their books. The mentors were keeping a close vigil on each child, making it sure that children had their water bottles and rest in right time. Arti, Aditi, Sujata, Bobby, Shweta, led by Anjana & supported by Ajit made this experience enjoyable for each child.
While i could not help being happy & pensive at the same time, i imagined how would it look from a child's eyes, this truely was close to a fairy tale for the child. I realized the true value of experience and action in learning a concept. Just the fact that each child now saw these animals in a manner true to XSEED preschool philosophy made me realise the value of timing these field trips, closest to concept introduction so as to staying true to building lasting & strong concepts. Animal refuge, Jeevashram truely was a fairy tale of cats & puppies, rabbits & peacock for each XSEED preschool child. Today is special.....Thanks Snigdha!
Perfect summarization Nitin. After reading the same i felt as if i was also along.
ReplyDeleteIts certainly a fresh thinking and unusual concept to take children through this,unlike taking them to time worn places which they will any ways go through there history books.
This is absolutely a great learning experience and a perfect path for development.
A big cheers to Xceed.
Thanks for writing in rabia!
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