Hello from kochi.
I’ve volunteered to accompany a group of children from my daughters school on a trip to the kochi biennale. And here we are.
I sometimes like to say that my daughters school curriculum is like an office – they had invited me for a day of “observation” in January and what I saw was a lot of group work, collaboration, research, etc. I also know there is plenty of making presentations and reports. (there are no lectures)
And in an extension of “office life” they made the kids catch a 7am flight as well! Most kids woke ip ~3 to meet outside the airport at 5. While my initial reaction was “too early” the slack helped significantly in terms of taking the large group through the airport.
In any case, so far we’ve only been at the hotel and rested and had lunch, and yet to go see town (writing this in the interregnum between lunch and heading out)
Yet, quite a few pertinent observations so far
- Kids are resourceful. One has produced a pack of cards and another has carried a whole monopoly set (neither is my daughter)
- Kids are inventive. In the absence of playing material I’ve seen them invent a “pen cap hide and seek”. One counts while the other hides a pen cap somewhere in the room. And the counter searches. A hotel room is a small space to hide an entire person (however small) so this is a nice workaround
- This is a harsh lesson of growing up – in the presence of their friends, your children sometimes don’t really want you. Or want to talk to you.
- Left to themselves kids sometimes do “constructive play”. This morning one boy said to another “do you want to sketch?” And the other agreed. The first then produced a notebook and colour pencil box and the two quietly say drawing for the next half hour.
- The noise cancelling feature of AirPods Pro rocks. And can sometimes be a lifesaver.
More later!