NRITIJUNA NAIDU
Nritijuna is a Montessori child from Taraporewala’s AMI Montessori House of Children, Hyderabad. She is a trained Montessori adult and a Montessori trainer for adults. She has a Diploma in Montessori Primary Programme (to facilitate for children aged 3-6 years) and a Diploma in Montessori Elementary Programme (to facilitate for children aged 6-12 years) from Indian Montessori Training Courses-Chennai (Indian Montessori Centre) and a Certificate in Setting Up Montessori Playgroups (to facilitate for children aged 0-3 years) from The Montessori Notebook, Amsterdam. She holds a master’s degree in Environmental Sciences with a specialisation in Environment Education. Over the past 20 years, she has been working with children in various capacities. Her previous roles being Education Assistant with Bombay Natural History Society – setting up and running Nature Clubs in schools; Programme Manager with Schools of Equality – implementing and facilitating programmes for students to sensitise them to issues of inequality. Currently, she is facilitating the Montessori Elementary Training programme for adults at the Indian Montessori Training Courses – Elementary – Chennai. Nritijuna enjoys voluntary work in the fields of education and environment, but what she loves the most is working with and spending time with children.
SINDHU PANIKKAR
Sindhu is a trained Montessori adult, with a Diploma in Montessori Primary Programme (to facilitate Montessori education for children aged 3-6 years) and a Diploma in Montessori Elementary Programme (to facilitate Montessori education for children aged 6-12 years). She has extensive experience over the past 8 years in working actively with children in primary and elementary Montessori environments in Chennai. She also holds a Diploma in Communication Studies and has worked with a leading multi-national FMCG company in Mumbai. Her active interests include reading and engaging on subjects related with child psychology, understanding behavioural characteristics of children and young adults, storytelling and a constant quest for holistic and all rounded learning for the child. She loves spending her time with young children and has a natural connection with loving hearts and eager minds.
SUDHA GANDEKAR
Sudha is a trained Montessori adult, with a Diploma in Montessori Primary Programme (to facilitate Montessori education for children aged 3-6 years) and a Diploma in Montessori Elementary Programme (to facilitate Montessori education for children aged 6-12 years). She worked in Montessori schools before setting up and heading one for five years. She is Honorary Secretary of the Indian Montessori Centre – Tamil Nadu Chapter. In this capacity, she has been consulting and guiding Montessori schools all over Tamil Nadu. Currently, she works with a not-for-profit organisation where she coordinates the Montessori programme for Corporation Schools across Chennai and guides their teacher community. Her aspiration is to propagate and educate parents of all strata of our society about benefits and merits of the Montessori system.
WHAT OUR PARENTS SAY
During a very difficult transition from a poorly customized curriculum at a unprecedented pandemic situation, Aroha Montessori’s ‘Bring Montessori home’ programme came as a true blessing for us.
All the activities are truly in-sync with the Montessori methodology, they are age appropriate and use everyday practical and sensorial materials for learning. Most importantly, the team of facilitators strive to involve and engage both the child and the adult around the child’s surrounding in the learning process instead of outsourcing the learning to a digital medium were the content is alien and inorganic.
I am most happy with the consistent feedback- discission and interaction the team of co-holders at Aroha keep having with both the parent and the children. They have a kind, compassionate and sensitive approach to learning which is most essential during these times.
Parent of Siddhi
Both Aaranya and we (as parents) have benefitted from the ‘Bring Home Montessori’ Program from Aroha Montessori. We thank the team for all the efforts and most specifically for rolling out this program during the lockdown, where we were strangled to our homes and gadgets.
This program was rolled out seamlessly – 3 days a week, with focus on activities and learning on 3 genres – Math, English & most Importantly the life skills. The program was beautifully designed to start in a slow pace for kids to catch up and for the parents to get into the new routine of engaging children for formal education. The review forms gave us an opportunity to share the best practices and challenges, and the way the team handled the requests and responded promptly was remarkable.
The activities were designed with materials that were available at home and was fun to refer to the same at other times (counting number of channa/rajma while eating curry).
As parents we wanted to expose our child to Montessori methodology to help her learn through her senses, that which we believed would give her an opportunity to learn holistically. This BHM program also helped us parents to actually understand the nuances that were intrinsically planned / that which forms the basis for the particular learning experience.
On the whole, it was a structured way of engaging the child in a non Montessori environment but with Montessori methodology.
Parents of Aaranya