Colours of nature: straight to the palette

Imagine there isn’t a curriculum; solely curiosity driving the educational. Imagine there isn’t a preset route; solely exploration charting the course. Put these almost-Lennonesque concepts collectively and also you get a programme that encourages youngsters to discover nature and coax supplies out of it to make pure paints and gum and create foraged artwork. As ought to be evident to anybody, this programme militates towards the meeting line. There isn’t any telling what pure color could be turned out; the consistency with which the gum would trickle; or the form the paintings from foraged gadgets would take. All of those would take you to the doorsteps of a slightly uncommon (however not unlikely) world Juwairiya H has created for kids. Moored in Royapuram, Juwairiya (a Montessori-trained trainer, Zentangle artist and biotechnology graduate) conducts this programme in particular person in addition to remotely.

But first issues first. The programme is structured in a fashion that breaks structured, predictable studying.

Each session begins with the kids taking a silent nature stroll with unplanned pauses to accommodate a scavenger hunt. “We don’t purchase something,” explains Juwairiya. “Everything we use comes from nature. It is playful and unpredictable. Often, we have no idea what color will bloom and that uncertainty is a part of the magic.” The youngsters are inspired to carry leaves, petals roots and seeds. Back within the workstation, they get to work with what they’ve collected. The paint-making is supported by a easy base: maida flour whisked right into a slurry and boiled into excellent paint-like consistency. Multiple roads to creativity, some predictable and others unpredictable, prolong out of there.

“Turmeric provides yellow, limestone with turmeric makes pink, and flowers or leaves produce unpredictable shades,” Juwairiya explains. Seasonal adjustments and availability of elements in a neighborhood atmosphere affect paint colors, and experimentation is inspired. Blue pea flowers and bougainvillaea are regularly utilized in pure paint making. She collects each used and unused paper, turning it into pulp for brand new paper or practical gadgets like bowls for use to maintain pure paints. Children typically paint with fingers or brushes produced from twigs and fibres.

Gum making may seem to be a easy course of, but it surely teaches rather more than simply sticking issues collectively. “It’s very primary, actually—simply maida and water however the approach issues,” explains Juwairiya, who guides college students via the method. The flour is combined with water till clean, then gently boiled till it reaches the proper gum-like consistency. “Continuous stirring is crucial,” she provides, “in any other case lumps kind, and the feel isn’t proper.”

For her younger college students, understanding the right consistency is usually a problem, particularly in a web-based setting. “I give clear directions and test their work step-by-step. Sometimes, I ask them questions to assist them alter — including slightly extra flour or water till it’s excellent,” says Juwairiya. Safety can be a precedence, as the method entails dealing with hearth. “Adult supervision is essential, however we additionally encourage independence with out stepping in an excessive amount of,” she notes.

Juwairiya manages to copy the identical processes in her on-line courses, which attain youngsters in varied geographies together with Dubai, Singapore and Delhi. Parents accompany the youngest individuals on their pre-session nature walks.

“We start with tales, questions and provocations,” she explains. “If a toddler asks a query, we reply with one other query. It isn’t about solutions; it’s about sparking thought, letting creativeness run the lesson plan.”

Beyond paint, the “curriculum” will get into composting, bio-enzyme making, fabric upcycling and paper recycling.

“Adults typically fear it’s messy, or a waste of time,” she admits. “But when a toddler sees color emerge from one thing they picked themselves, their eyes mild up. That is studying that can’t be measured.”

Unschooling philosophy

At dwelling, Juwairiya, a mom of two, follows an unschooling philosophy, the place the kid’s curiosity leads. “Unschooling doesn’t imply isolation,” she clarifies. “It is about letting pursuits flourish. Sometimes, the best classes occur outside past 4 partitions and schedules.”

Her quest for significant schooling had led her removed from the hum of standard lecture rooms and into Nagarkoodal village in Dharmapuri, dwelling to Puvidham – an alternate faculty. Here, the philosophy is as earthy because the soil itself: youngsters create what they devour.

“It was Puvidham that modified all the things for me,” she remembers. “I realized tips on how to upcycle paper, make pure gum, and create paints from nature. Their give attention to sustainability wasn’t only a lesson; it was a way of life.”

Unable to put her youngsters there attributable to distance, she enrolled in Puvidham’s Learning Facilitator Programme (LFP), a programme that may quietly overturn her understanding of educating. “Children, particularly of their early years, suppose and be taught with their palms lengthy earlier than they have interaction with textual content. That perception reshaped my method totally,” she says.

The course immersed her in hands-on modules — from paper upcycling and foraged artwork to ink and gum making. On completion, she started co-learning with youngsters, letting curiosity, slightly than curriculum, chart the course. And she is constant to be taught together with the kids she teaches.

An artist’s tackle pure paints

For G. Sooriyamoorthy, a sculptor and artist with over 25 years of expertise, acrylics may stay the first medium of creative expression in portray, however that doesn’t cease him from appreciating the uncooked character that pure pigments carry to a chunk of artwork. “They give a fantastic, natural texture that’s onerous to copy with artificial paints,” he observes.

And one needn’t marvel that color could be obtained immediately from nature. He explains: “Take beetroot, for instance; as soon as the color will get in your hand, it’s onerous to scrub off. That sort of pure energy is outstanding.”