For the third After School session at Khoj, we read ‘Hamara John’ / Our John’ — a story that illustrates the warmth of community parenting and chosen families.
One spring morning a duck finds an egg. Unable to identify the egg, the duck seeks the help of his friends. The story unfolds to reveal what kind of egg was found, how the animals care for the newborn, and how each of them teaches him a skill that is unique to them.
Keeping with the theme of the book, the session started with an activity where the facilitators illustrated riddles on paper-eggs and the children had to guess what lay inside those eggs. The book reading was a read-aloud session where the children listened keenly and in-unison would sing out their favorite lines from the book. They all were on their toes to find out what comes out of the egg.
The session concluded with a self-reflective activity where the children were prompted to think of one special skill that they would teach their friends in a way to extend their care.
Before they left for their homes, the children enjoyed samosas and fruit juice at the Khoj Canteen and discussed what they learned from the session.
Hamara John is written by Veronique Van Den Abeele, illustrated by Emma de Woot, translated to Hindi by Amit and published by Eklavya.
The session was attended by Nancy, Somya, Aditya, Divya, Misti, Navya, Niharika, Nitin, Piyush, Tanvi, Yogesh, Khushi, Aarushi, Arpita, Shubham, Prince, Karan, Zidaan, Jatin and Aayush.
