CHENNAI: A plethora of traditional games — from Aadu Puliyaatam, Ashta Chamma, Kattam Vilayattu, Pallanguzhi, to Chaupad — all neatly arranged on a wooden rack; mini seashells and several pairs of dice scattered on the floor, and the giggles of five tiny tots filling a sunlight-suffused room. Four years ago, when we visited Jhoola — an activity centre in Naganallur — we were in for a surprise. Unlike several run-of-the-mill after-school activity centres, Jhoola had a mission beyond simply engaging children.
“The idea is to promote a gadget-free childhood while enabling kids to develop social and life skills — all in an unstructured way,” said an enthusiastic Deepika Arun, the brain behind the one-of-a-kind activity centre. What started as a humble home-run centre in 2015 with just five children soon grew leaps and bounds.
From a spike in enrolment to moving into a bigger spruced up space in the same neighbourhood — with a book corner, a game room with both modern and traditional games and space for children to unleash their artistic potentials — Jhoola was being recognised by parents across the city for its novel approach in teaching children life skills. Cut to 2020, Jhoola has closed its doors due to the pandemic. Albeit temporary, a strong stand by its founder — to not shift the centre’s activities online and thereby not tainting the principles of Jhoola — has garnered the respect and admiration of parents and other patrons alike.
“We closed Jhoola’s doors even before the lockdown was officially announced. We are a place where children come in and engage in activities as a team...as a group. Social distancing was close to impossible. So, we didn’t want to take any risks. I didn’t even consider shifting our functions online, “ says the educator.
Offline activities
Instead of depending on technology and gadgets to keep the children engaged, Deepika decided to involve the parents. “Since summer vacations were approaching, I thought the lockdown could be an opportunity to make parents spend time with children. So, I digressed a bit from the original plan of ‘unstructured learning’ and chalked a new plan,” she says. Every day, Deepika would send a structured activity in Jhoola’s WhatsApp group, requesting parents to spend time with their children while practising them. “The activities were structured in such a way that it would allow parents to spend a minimum of 30-60 minutes with their child and understand his/her socio-emotional skills “ she shares.
After a month of sharing activities, positive reviews began pouring in. Deepika was equally ecstatic and puzzled. “Some parents despite sharing good reviews didn’t want to continue doing the activities. Curious, I decided to find out why and was made aware that they had enrolled their children in various online classes (apart from those conducted by their schools). Some parents also shared that the online classes were making their child irritable, gave them headaches and also led to meltdowns. It made me sad that children had to endure this but it also made me more grounded to my goal — of keeping Jhoola offline,” says Deepika.
The new normal
With strict social and physical distancing in place, Deepika says she realised that it will be a long time before normalcy prevails. “We are all living a new normal. I realised that even if the lockdown was lifted, schools will be the last place to get back to normalcy because it involves young children. So for an activity centre like Jhoola to go live again, I knew it would take more time,” she shares.
After days of contemplation, soundboarding the centre’s future with her family members and trying to figure alternate routes to keep it going, Deepika chose the only viable option in front of her — to close its doors. “Paying rent for the place and other maintenance didn’t seem feasible in the long-run, especially when there was minimal or no usage at all. It was a painful decision to make. Jhoola is my baby. I spent several weeks handpicking everything — from the furniture, the Yin Yang bookshelf, the 1,000-odd books to all the games. To even think that I will have to tear down the place, pack everything and leave is sad...but it’s the right thing to do and I don’t regret it,” she shares.
A utopian world
Despite suggestions from several parents to host online classes, Deepika has decided to not give in and to stay true to the core values of Jhoola. “Why does a five-year-old have to know to turn the Bluetooth on, why do eight-year-olds have to attend virtual classes...why do kindergarteners have to learn alphabets online! I feel parents and educational institutions should be mindful of the impacts screen time will have on a child,” she opines.
In a post-COVID world, Deepika wants to start a centre that is not bound by walls — an open space where parents, children and anyone looking for some unstructured learning and lots of fun can drop by. “No technology, no gadgets. Just some good old games, books, art, activities, and interactions under the sun. I don’t know how, when or if I’ll have the means to do it. There are so many questions that I cannot answer now. But given a utopian world, where I can execute this, that’s what I would like to do,” she says.
Bonding
Activities including habit tracker, coping skills, journal writing, mindful eating, decision making, consequence calculator, emotions memory game, apology, family bonding games, wants vs needs, manners tracker and conversation starters, among others, were shared with parents on Jhoola’s WhatsApp group.