As Comini grows, we are looking for full-time facilitators! Interested in working in education? With kids? We don't hire based on degrees. What do we look for? You can hear from the kids themselves!
Apply now at ini.in/hiring (link in bio too)
Our journey as an alternative school has brought us in touch with many kindred spirits over the last 4 years, but experiencing @lovetheworldtoday.in struck a particularly special chord!
Our microschoolers visited their workshop and heard from founders Dipna @movewithjoy and Dipti firsthand about how their clothes are made — from working closely with artisans across the country, to the surprising amount of maths involved in designing collections, to the painstaking care tailors take in bringing each piece to life.
What stayed with us most was hearing the story behind LTWT itself — how personal memories, needs, values, and lived experiences became woven into the fabric of the brand, and what it truly means to run a sustainable clothing label (“at the end, you just have to make less!”).
Thank you, Dipna and Dipti, for sharing your morning, your stories, and your work with us!
As one child exclaimed the moment we left:
“That was awesome!” ❤️
FARMSCHOOL — AUTUMN 2026
A slower education for a faster world.
What if childhood had more mud than screens?
More silence than stimulation?
More real life than rehearsed outcomes?
This autumn, Farmschool returns to the land.
Children spend time growing food, cooking over fire, understanding water, swimming, climbing trees, observing insects, listening to birds, working with their hands, and learning how ecosystems actually function — not as theory, but as lived experience.
In a world moving faster each year, we believe children need spaces that regulate rather than overwhelm.
Spaces where nervous systems can soften.
Where curiosity returns naturally.
Where learning happens through relationship — with land, food, weather, community, and self.
This is not a retreat.
Not an outdoor activity camp.
And not school recreated outdoors.
It is time and space for life-based learning.
For children growing up in cities, especially those within alternative and international learning environments, Farmschool offers something increasingly rare:
a direct relationship with the living world.
Autumn Semester applications are now open.
For children aged 5-15.
Based in Palghar, Maharashtra.
Apply: link in bio
Autumn Farmschool Registration
Learn more: vrindavanfarm.com/farmschool
Farmschool at Vrindavan Farm
#AlternativeEducation
#SlowChildhood
#NatureBasedLearning
#ConsciousParenting
#ExperientialLearning
#MumbaiParents
#ForestSchool
#OutdoorEducation
#regenerativeliving
#Farmschool
When should kids stop playing and start learning?
How about never?
Sai Gaddam @che_che_beardly our co-founder and a neuroscientist, on the natural order of learning, and on the years he spent missing it himself.
"Everything I had done in neuroscience for my PhD was in the service of mechanics and measurement. What are the techniques used to measure neural activity? What sequence of sciency things will lead to a journal article or two, and then a doctoral thesis? I didn't really make sense of anything except knowing which parts of the brain light up when someone's talking or doing something. It's easy to make that sound fancy, but it's like knowing where pasta or paneer bhurji get made in the kitchen, but nothing else about cooking."
Meaning has to come before mechanics.
Most of what we call learning today is really just performance. None of this means kids do not need to learn to read, multiply, or write a clean paragraph.
They will, mostly on their own, with a little help from everyone and everything around them, if they need it.
With thoughtful design, even the mechanics can be made playful. Drills are not the only path to fluency.
Mechanical fluency yes, but not meaningful fluency.
You can read the full essay on our blog (link in bio)
Curious about alternative education? Curious about Comini?
We’re opening our doors (and hearts) this May to children aged 2–12 to spend a week — or more — with us at Comini.
Your child will join our community and experience days filled with play, exploration, connection, and our focus on meaning before mechanics in our playschool (kids between 2-6) and microschool (ages 6-12)
If you’d like your child to spend a few days at Comini, experience how we do things, get a feel for the environment, and see what learning can look like here — fill out the form in the link in our bio.
Spots are very limited, with preference for families actively exploring alternative education.
We had the honour and privilege of hosting the Deputy Consul General of Finland, Eva Nilsson and intern Anna Kuittinen visit the microschool this week! I
Eva and Anna spent generous time interacting with the kids, answering curious questions about Finland (the small population but large number of lakes, the "wife carrying game" and of course the Finnish translation of 6-7 :)
It was a delight to show and discuss how the seedlings of Finnish education are being tended to and grown in the Indian way at Comini.
Looking forward to building on this to make a world-renowned education model come alive for our kids.
Kiitos paljon @finland_in_india ! 🇫🇮
A war far away can change petrol prices here! Are our children ready to understand why?
From the ancient markets of Sopara and Panvel to today’s wholesale systems like APMC, trade has always connected places and people. In this interactive workshop, children explore how markets began, how value is decided, and how goods travel from farms to our cities.
Through stories, trading games, and real-world examples, they discover how global events—like the current oil crisis—can influence everyday prices and the choices we make.
It’s a thoughtful introduction to markets, value, and the invisible systems that shape our daily lives.
📅 Tues, 17 March | 10 AM-1.00 PM
📍 Comini Learning, Bandra, Mumbai
💰 ₹1500 per child | Parents/companions welcome to join
🔗 Register: https://www.localgyan.in/workshops/wpid-1773379974
📞 Details: 9082147716
Comini is 4 years old!!
And our little community mela, FleaPlay, was a celebration of this journey — and an invitation for those outside Comini to experience the Comini Way. Through music, games, puzzles, art, science… but mostly through the power of community.
Over the last two weeks, we’ve received so many warm messages about that morning. @virdas hearing the kids sing from his window was also such a highlight. It truly fills our hearts that the morning was a happy one for so many others.
FleaPlay wasn’t “outsourced.” It was built. From scratch. By our children, facilitators, parents, and friends of Comini.From décor to music, marketing to the yard sale, lucky draw to registrations, on-ground coordination to social media, programming ideas to filling last-minute gaps — everything was of and by the Comini family. No external vendors. No external inputs. Just a community that came together to celebrate in our own unique way.
We started Comini 4 years ago because we wanted a better, more purposeful education for our own children.
The last four years have been resounding proof that it can be done.
FleaPlay was a celebration of meaningful connections, in both learning and relationships. Thank you to everyone who has brought Comini to life ❤️
Onwards and upwards!
AI can ace every exam. So what should school actually focus on?
We think the answer starts with seeing the whole child, not reducing them to a score.
At Comini, our facilitators write 200+ observations per child every term. We use AI to help weave these into rich, multi-dimensional portraits that capture who a child is and who they're becoming.
Here is a peek into what our actual term reports (names changed) look like right now, and what we think assessment could look like in an AI world.
The phrase experiential learning gets thrown around a lot. To truly do it justice we need to understand that learning from error and learning from experience are two very different modes. And our schooling and the systems that support schooling all focus on the error-mode. The learning that this mode enables is quickly being commoditized by AI. We need to understand how to enable learning with experience.
Our Co-founder Sai Gaddam @che_che_beardly shows us a way.
