Sreena Swaminathan
What Sreena Swaminathan did here
A Quiet Saturday of Drawing and Making
We had prepared a full afternoon. The children would begin with a word activity, choose books and read together in pairs, and then work in teams to invent something that could solve a problem they had noticed at home or around Kochi. But this Saturday, just one child arrived. We waited until 2:30 pm in case others were on their way. When no one else came, we asked whether he was happy to stay and what he would like to do. He chose drawing. As he had missed the previous session, the word activity was unfamiliar to him. Instead, he tried the Circles Challenge, turning the empty circles into faces, planets, balls and other pictures. Afterwards, he picked up Lights Out written by Vibha Batra and illustrated by Sahitya Rani, and asked whether he could draw his own version of the cover. We gave him chart paper and colours and let him work. When he finished, we cut strips from black paper and added them around his drawing to make a frame. He was curious about what else we could make, so we tried cutting and folding paper into a small cube. While his hands were busy, we talked. He told us about drawing at school and the prizes he had won. It was not the session we had planned, but it became a quiet afternoon of drawing, making and getting to know one child a little better.
In earlier sessions, we noticed that some children could read words aloud without fully understanding them. This week, we changed from paired reading to reading aloud together, pausing to explore unfamiliar words and discuss the story’s meaning. We chose Stage Fright, a Pratham Books story about Champa, who loves singing but is afraid to perform on stage. We prepared slides with selected tricky words, inviting children to guess their meanings from the story before revealing the Malayalam explanations. We discussed why Champa felt scared and asked who had felt like her before. Children shared their own experiences of nervousness, connecting the story to their lives and exploring the feelings behind the words.
This week at Curiosity Club, we explored a question: What helps us share our ideas when we feel nervous? We began with Champa from Stage Fright, a story about a child who loves singing but is afraid to perform. Her worries helped children talk about their own feelings when facing an audience. We prepared slides with prompts and examples, and set up a microphone for practice. We started by inviting each child to introduce themselves with an action. Afterwards, we asked how it felt to stand up and speak. Children described shaking hands, trembling legs and sweaty palms, connecting their experience to Champa’s. This led us to practise breathing to calm our bodies and shaking out our arms and legs to release tension. We then warmed up our voices with tongue twisters and tried changing our volume and expressing different emotions. A facilitator demonstrated different speaking styles, and children noticed the difference posture, voice and energy made. They then chose topics for short talks in Malayalam or English. We introduced PREP — point, reason, example, point — to help organise their thoughts, with paper available for notes. They then came to the front and used the microphone to share their ideas with the group. We closed by reflecting on how it felt to speak and what had changed after trying.
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We begin our Curiosity Club with free play as children arrive. They choose games and building materials and play together, giving everyone time to arrive before we gather for the guided activity. We had asked children what they wanted to play and added games based on their suggestions. They were excited to see their choices and began setting them up themselves. With six games going on at once, children could choose what interested them. Two older children attending for the first time were initially unsure how to join in. Our facilitator invited them into an UNO game with others. As they played, they became more involved and helped explain the rules to younger children. The group later learned dominoes together too. Another group prepared Guess Who for next week, helping each other when the setup became frustrating. Jenga, LEGO and Dobble were also very popular.
Malarvattam: Making Space to Share
We surveyed nearly 100 people in Fort Kochi and Mattancherry to understand what support the community wanted. Their responses highlighted a need for parents and caregivers to share experiences, feel heard and support one another. This led us to create and name Malarvattam ("flower circle"), a monthly parents and caregivers’ circle. For the first gathering, we chose a get-to-know-you conversation. The facilitators reviewed the survey together, developed discussion prompts and prepared slides. Their role was to make space for everyone to contribute, listen and summarise what participants shared, rather than give expert parenting advice. We designed a poster and shared it widely through partners and community contacts. On Saturday, the facilitators held a mock circle, working through the slides and practising how they would introduce questions and guide the discussion. They also prepared their own scripts for Sunday’s session. Two participants joined the first circle. Together, we explored memories of childhood, children’s lives today and experiences of parenting and caregiving.