Parent Experience

I have been a ‘Gaia Parent’ for 2 years now and it has been a wonderful journey. I am a mother of two girls, Rutvi ( Grade 12) and Tashvi (Grade 5). I would like to share my experience as a parent of ‘Gaia Students’. I would like to share how Communication Skills and Art class has changed their outlook and brought joy to their lives.

I enrolled Tashvi in communication skills because I felt that she loves to be around people, however, she has a fear to confront an audience. It is difficult to enrol her into different classes as she tends to lose interest very fast. Surprisingly, she is with Gaia for nearly two years now and she still eagerly waits for her next class every week. She has connected very well with Shanthanu and Jesika, her teachers. Any advice coming from them is like a command and she willingly does it. Thanks to their support and care as she is much more confident now and she willingly participates in school events. She also received an award for her performance in a skit in school. Getting recognition and appreciation has made her believe more in herself. Besides her school progress, I have also noticed a change in the way she reads books. She now reads it with voice modulation, expression and confidence. The best aspect that she enjoys at Gaia is playing games like “Werewolves” and “Step Forward With Your Best Expressions”. She enjoys it so much that she has taught the games to our whole family and now we regularly play these games at our friends’ and family gatherings. Since there is no written work, she loves Gaia all the more. Furthermore, she has learned to take up the responsibility of her projects and do the research and write the points that she wants to include in her presentation. In my opinion, these are life skills which will help her in every turn of her life.

Gaia is just like a miracle happening to Rutvi who is in Grade 12. She had joined Gaia just for a week last summer as it was vacation time. She had no intention of continuing training in art. However, after she got acquainted with Ashwin and Shehara, life changed for her. Before joining Gaia, she was confused about which career path to choose, but now she is determined to take up Visual Communications as her career and is preparing for her entrance with full support from Ashwin sir. I am really grateful to them because if it was not Gaia, we would have never proceeded in this direction. The very obvious change that I see in Rutvi is that she starts designing anything that she sees white or blank. She has already designed shoes, lamps and also mugs for all family members.

I am really happy with the development I have seen with my girls. The whole Gaia team is very approachable and warm. Gaia taps the creativity that lies within and is truly a tree of expression for our children where they express themselves freely without any fear of being judged. I would like to end with a quote by Albert Einstein “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

Rachna Metha,
Parent of two fabulous daughters