The very thought of school brings a flash of various events to one’s life. Scary images of a teacher with a long stick, rhymes with unknown meanings, disinteresting stories and lots more. But can anyone forget a story told lovingly by grandma? Or can you forget a story from a book with lots of colourful pictures? But these days, many parents seem to think that computers, internet and encyclopedias provide all the information that children want, forgetting the importance of a good story that can stimulate young minds like nothing else.

Kara Kindergarten, which believes in the concept of storytelling and creative activities as a fun way of learning and creating interest in learning, organises storytelling workshops at Crossword Bookstore every third Saturday.
‘Kara Karnival’ as it is called, involves school faculty enacting an interesting story and later encouraging the children to perform activities related to these stories. “The real intention of the event is to make children self confident and skillful, to engage them in activities and also expose their parents to other possibilities of learning,” says Katherine Rustumji, CEO, Kara Kindergarten.

“We encourage children to read. Passion for learning starts with reading. But for this, we select simple and interesting stories that children can understand easily. The teachers are given weekly training for making these activities more interesting. Here children are free to lose their inhibitions. Parents are surprised to see their shy and calm child, shouting and laughing in excitement during the activities”, said Katherine.

The event is not exclusively for students. Teachers and parents too have space to come and encourage their children to participate. Teachers are trained to inspire the students by stories and activities. And humour is an important tool in these activities. The training helps to crack their ego and make them free to interact with children, entirely different from the contemporary student-teacher relationship. Parents are given a chance to watch these programme to get an awareness about this alternative learning method. The event will change the attitude of parents about learning as something serious, explained Katherine.

Deepa, a homemaker who was present at the workshop held on Saturday last, says, “It is an excellent opportunity for my child Sadhana to get engaged into some creative activities. We are looking forward to more such programmes.”

Katherine, British by origin, has been in India since 1992. Her own child’s learning disability prompted her research on alternative learning methods. She is not happy with the unprofessional approach to pre-primary educational system in India. “It is like the cottage industry. Anybody can start it. We lack professionalism. We have to bring better standards into it. Children are the most vulnerable members in society. So due importance must be given to this field.”