Auroville Pre-Creche

 The parents can find here a supportive place to meet and share their experiences about raising children. We aspire for a multicultural environment where parents and children of different nationalities can interact and get to know each other in a healthy and supportive way.

Being part of the Auroville system of integral education and free progress, we aspire:

• To create a vibrant atmosphere of peaceful joy, attention and wonder, where the youngest 'students' of Auroville are welcome to come for discovery and progress;
• To maintain a place where teachers and parents don't forget why we are in Auroville and what is our aim;
• To offer the kids possibilities for stimulation and growth of all the different aspects of their personality physical, emotional, mental and inner.

Today, the pre-crèche is well established with its specific atmosphere. It is a never-ending process of evolution as different teachers and parents contribute, sharing their various points of view on raising children. Our growth since the beginning has been very much according to the needs and the attitudes expressed by the community for child care. Now we have about 40 children in two programmes centred on toddlers and babies.

Toddlers Group

This is a regular activity where kids aged 1.5 to 3 years old stay without their parents. Great care is given to help the children settle in gently, feel safe and loved, get used to the team and the place, and slowly learn to be separated, in a harmonious way, from their parents. Due to the tender age, we try to keep a good balance between free play and organized activities, offering a flexible structure, but mostly following and channeling the flows of their energy.

We aspire to nurture the self-awareness and independence of the children, their active involvement and interest in the play, the development of various skills and growing vocabulary, as well as their gentle interaction with each other. As our group of kids is quite big and we rejoice in a large spacious space, we offer different areas of stimulation at the same time where they can be in smaller groups: playground with sand pits and climbing structures, slide and walking path, arts and crafts, water games, concentration games, indoor games, baby dolls corner and books corner. We enjoy our regular group walks to the adjacent Matrimandir gardens, which are meant to be a place for silence and contemplation. Kids are encouraged to learn to follow some basic discipline and develop good habits. It's important to offer them time and space to do things with concentration. Calmness and an atmosphere of sweetness helps all of us to keep in touch with our inner space.

Babies Group

This class is for babies from 8 months old to 1 ½ years old who are accompanied by one of their parents. The group gathers 2 to 3 times a week in a supportive place where they can share space and time. The babies enjoy some stimulating activities and experience the collective atmosphere, while learning to gradually increase the distance from their parents, to mingle, interact and share with others. We put a lot of importance on the interaction not only with children but also with their parents. Parents happily report about changes in the habits and characters of their children once they are regularly participating within the enriching environment of the school. Teachers do much to guide and suggest to parents positive lines for bringing up children. The pre-crèche helps in establishing a very important parent-teacher connection which forms the basis for future schooling years.

Reflections

The atmosphere for the kids is formed by the personal atmosphere of each of us present with them and this is our biggest responsibility to bring the best of ourselves while being with them. They serve like a mirror for us and if we are in the right attitude, they are fine and they progress very fast. At this age, many of them live predominantly in the inner space, so it's up to us to be in contact with the truth inside of us. "Let them be", says the Mother, and for that, we need to Be.

The strongest motivation and source of fulfilment in our work is to see how they gradually gain self-confidence and bloom in joy and expressiveness and to see more and more of the light in their eyes coming out.

An important part of our success as a school is to encourage all our children to a healthy interaction and communicate from a very young age. It is our sincere hope that these precious impressions of school, for many, their first exposure to the larger community, will be the first step in exploring the wonderful riches Auroville has to offer.