It feels amazing to know we have completed 9 out of 25 100^th Monkey sessions each for both 8^th and 9^th Standard children at Siddivinayaka School, Karki. The children of 9^th Standard have already gone through our intervention in the first pilot phase last year. There is a great difference in their receptivity and reflection from the first pilot phase to now. It is the same for me as a facilitator of 100^th Monkey. The 4-day training for trainers held at our Centre for Experiential Living (CEL) in Kundapura by Ms Ashwini and Mr Rohan prepared me as a facilitator with the right tools and methodologies for experiential and play based learning.

I have observed a kind of transition in the children over the course of these 9 sessions. The first few sessions were energisers and cooperative games to build a space of joy and encouragement to interact and bond with the group. The successive sessions involved team building and trust building activities which organically evokes connections and a sense of community in the group. The children have moved from being scattered as a group to a community that can connect and work together as a team.

After the 6^th session, we thought it was a good time to introduce the session on Health and Nutrition awareness to the group.  So, the following 3 sessions were on Bodily Awareness, which educated the children with simple tools and techniques to take care of their health and well being. The first of 3 sessions introduced simple exercises, yoga and meditation techniques to practise daily. The children were also given a daily tracker to keep track of their food intake, physical activity, and meditation and sleep hours. The beauty of this module is that it has very simple and easy techniques for any child to follow and incorporate in their daily routine. Meditating every day has innumerable benefits known to everyone, now. So, the kids were encouraged to meditate everyday for minimum 5 minutes. They all agreed to do so.

This session was followed by the food and nutrition session, which excited them immensely.  As an interactive group presentation, the students related to the session with the food pyramid and their lesson on food and nutrition in class. Surprisingly, during the 9^th session almost everyone had filled their daily tracker. This session was a food carnival where the entire class together prepared healthy snacks, namely Churmuri, Chooda and Salad. The food was freshly prepared, using local produce and ingredients. Thus, giving them an impression that healthy can also be tasty. This insight was brought out as a reflection during the debriefing of the session.

As a Facilitator I am thoroughly enjoying myself during every session. I feel like a TEACHER BY MIND, FACILITATOR BY HEART.

I’d like to share some of the feedback I received from the children:

Kshitij: FSL India session is very nice and we have many programs in our school, but the 100^th Monkey sessions are unique.

Rajeshwari: Every week I just wait for the 100^th Monkey session. It is completely different from what I have seen or experienced before. Thanks to our school for bringing in 100^th Monkey Sessions.