RADIANCE A.B. LODHA MEMORIAL FOUNDATION

From our annual magazine, Dialogue, March 2026

Children's work

These drawings and pages were made by children in our learning space. They are shown as the children made them, without correction. We have left out their names.

Drawing is thinking made visible

Children draw to understand the world. A child who draws a dog, a bus or their mother is making sense of what they have seen, touched, climbed, smelled and lived.

Drawing also follows the growth of the hand. A toddler's first marks come from the shoulder, in sweeping arcs and dots. As control moves down the arm to the wrist and fingers, the lines become more deliberate. Then the child begins to name what they have drawn.

First marks

Fish. Primary, first year
Fish. Primary, first year
Tiger. Primary, first year
Tiger. Primary, first year

What I see around me

Balloon, ground, face, cat, tree, uncle. Primary, second year
Balloon, ground, face, cat, tree, uncle. Primary, second year
House, flower, star, girl, crossroad. Primary, second year
House, flower, star, girl, crossroad. Primary, second year
Sun, clouds, tree, children playing, road, flowers. Primary, second year
Sun, clouds, tree, children playing, road, flowers. Primary, second year
Parrots sitting on a tree. Primary, third year
Parrots sitting on a tree. Primary, third year
Mother watering plants and working on a computer, father helping with homework. Primary, third year
Mother watering plants and working on a computer, father helping with homework. Primary, third year

Why we do not correct a child's drawing. When a child says a round scribble is the sun and we show them how to draw its rays, we send the message that their way of seeing is wrong and ours is better. Colouring books do the same: they replace the child's perception with someone else's lines. Only when we stop trying to improve a drawing can we begin to understand it.

Structured work, and drawing to observe

Alongside free drawing there is a place for purposeful, structured work. These are one child's tracings with the metal insets over six months, from August 2025 to January 2026 (age 4)

Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing
Metal inset tracing

Drawing is also a way to watch change over time. These pages are from one child's seed journal, kept over nineteen days. The labels were written by an adult.

Seed journal. Primary, fourth year
Seed journal. Primary, fourth year
Seed journal. Primary, fourth year
Seed journal. Primary, fourth year
Seed journal. Primary, fourth year
Seed journal. Primary, fourth year

A tree and a village

Children were given a real situation to think about. A village needs electricity, and electricity poles must be put up. To place one pole, a large tree has to be cut. The tree is home to many animals, birds and insects. Children drew and wrote how they imagined this would unfold.

A child's drawing of animals guarding a tree from a JCB
"The elephant stood in front of the JCB and stopped it from working. The deer used his horns to guard the tree and keep the men away. The tree and the little birds' homes in the tree remained safe."Elementary, first year
A child's drawing of a tree being cut and a new one planted
"The men cut the tree and brought electricity to the village. Then they planted a new tree somewhere else. The birds and insects were able to live on the new tree."Elementary, third year

After a visit to Tapovan Nursery

Elementary, second year
Elementary, second year
Elementary, third year
Elementary, third year

A poem

Page and Rocket

Page and Rocket were two friends
They both played football
They were different from each other
But were still friends.

Page liked paratha pizza
And Rocket liked roti pizza
One was funny
The other was angry
But they were still friends

One had a pet cat
The other had a pet dog
But they were still friends.

Elementary, second year

How this work comes about, day to day.

How children learn here