Blog by George Mathew
Founder & CEO, The Wonder Years Primary Schools

The Home School Collective of Trivandrum group held a meeting at the Wonder Years Preschool on Nov 19, 2017. In the meeting it was decided to start meeting every week or once in 2 weeks at a common location with our children. During the meetings children can play and interact with each other through free or directed activities. To start with, it can be free play and then once all of us are comfortable with the concept and the kids get to know their friends, we can move to directed activities.

Directed activities are fun open activities that teach children, through fun games, stories, drama and other aids, about certain concepts. The directed activities should be taken in such a way that it keeps the inquisitiveness of children alive while not forcing a response from them. They should come for the activity on their own because they feel it is interesting.

A person who knows the subject and can articulate it in a way so as to keep children engaged should take the directed activities. If needed, we can bring in professionals in the field, the cost of which can be shared by the participating parents on a pro rata basis

Apart from the weekly meetings, other activities can be planed:
1) Field Trips
2) Charity Work
3) Farming
4) Heritage Walk
5) Creative Arts (Choir, Theater, Art & Crafts etc)
6) Workshops (Science, Robotics, Art, life skills, magic etc)

For these efforts to succeed, we need individuals who are dedicated to the cause and are willing to spend time and effort on this.

We would want to form a core group of people who will drive this forward and who can be responsible for coordinating the activities.