Dec 13 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Ruchi and Jacqueline

Prayers:
• Om Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence, with some pretty accurate shell counting during our focus game. Great job, kids!!

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, Shlokas 1, 2 and 3 (click here for audio and text)

Story: Lord Ganesha Circles His Parents

Homework: Lord Ganesha Stand Up Card (click here to view)

Likhita Japa:
• Children wrote राम 21 times (click here to view tracing card).
• Children wrote ऊँ 36 times

Sanskrit Words of the Week: मूषकः (muuShakaH, mouse), मयूरः (mayuuraH, peacock), and बुद्धि (buddhi, intellect) (click here to view list)

Sanskrit Learning:
• KrishnaH vadati (click here to view text)
• Counting, 1 – 5 (click here to view numbers)

End of Class Prayers: Aarti and prayers were conducted in the auditorium.

Comments: We sure had a lot of energy and enthusiasm in our class today — in spite of the heavy rain outside :-)

After we reviewed our alphabet learning thus far, we dove into our new letter of the week — "I is for Intelligence." Our group discussion was quite lively during circle time.  The children were very interactive as we explored "What is intelligence," "What is the difference between us and animals," and "How can we use our intellect wisely?" Once we exhausted all of the physical differences between us and animals, we touched on the key difference ... that people have a well developed mind and intellect which allows us to make right and wrong choices. Animals do not. The children all agreed that this did not mean we were better than animals, just that this is the main difference :-)

This lively discussion led us into our story time, which was about how Lord Ganesha and Subrahmanya were given the challenge of circling the world for the celestial fruit. Subrahmanya immediately jumped onto his peacock and began his journey, while Lord Ganesha pondered over this task and realized that if he circled his parents, that was equivalent to circling the world. Lord Ganesha used his intellect, instead of immediately acting! No matter how many times we hear this story, it is an all-time favorite ...

We introduced a new tracing card today for the likhita japa segment. We learned last week that many of the children were not very confident with writing ऊँ, so we decided to add this to our curriculum along with writing राम.  If you are interested in having your child continue this writing at home, please feel free to download the tracing sheets from the blog. We couldn't be more proud of how well these kids are doing during this segment. Once we return from winter break, we will probably be able to use real paper journals for them to do their likhita japa in. Most of the kids are remembering how to properly write the strokes!

Make sure you check your child's backpack. We sent home a fun art project for him/her to assemble. All you need to provide is a glue stick. The children are to arrange the pre-cut pieces of paper to resemble Lord Ganesha. Click here to see the finished sample and instructions.

The aunties had a really great time today — hope you kids did, too! Keep practicing your Geeta Chanting — we're going to continue with Shlokas 1, 2 and 3 next week. But come January, we're planning to move up to Shloka 4.

Hope everyone stays warm and dry. Today is a good day for some nice hot chocolate ... (with marshmallows, of course.)

Next week's lesson: "J is for ________" And here's a hint: It's not "jack-o-lantern" or "jelly bean."

p.s. For our helper mom who was interested in the music we played today: The album is "Divine Chants of Ganesha" by Uma Mohan. 

Dec 06 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Ruchi and Jacqueline

Prayers:
• Om Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute 30 seconds of silence. Great job kids!!!

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, Shlokas 1,2 and 3 (click here for audio and text)

Story: None

Activity/Games: Drew pictures of God's Gifts to us. (click here to view art gallery.)

Likhita Japa: Wrote राम 21 times (click here to view tracing sheet)

Sanskrit Learning: Played "KrishnaH vadati" (click here to view text)

Sanskrit Words of the Week: भगवन् (bhagavan, God), देव (deva, God), and शान्ति (shaanti, peace) (click here to view list)

End of Class Prayers: Om PoornamadaH (click here for text)

Homework: None

Comments: We reviewed our alphabet thus far, "A is for Aspiration," "B is for Brotherhood," "C is for Cleanliness," "D is for Dad," "E is for Enthusiasm," and "F is for Friendship." Today's lesson was "G is for God." After our morning prayers, Geeta chanting and quiet time, we spent some circle time sharing our thoughts about God. Lots of questions were asked: "Who is God?" "Can we see Him?" "Where does He live?" "How do we thank God for all the gifts He has given us?" And as you can imagine, we got oodles of answers! Afterwards, the children settled down to draw a picture of what they were thankful for. (click here for art gallery.)

We also spent a few minutes talking about the ways we can thank God for all His wonderful gifts to us. Every child eagerly agreed that we should respect God and do pujas. But when asked about other ways we can show gratitude, there were a few seconds of silence and some serious thinking going on :-) We then explored the meaning of prayer. Prayer is a way for us to talk directly to God and we should always offer Him our gratitude with prayer. And, that when we learn to quiet our mind and sit silently (which is what meditation is), then we will be able to hear God talk to us.

The children are doing great with their likhita japa — we couldn't be more proud of them!! They are able to sit still, quietly chanting राम,  while they write. We have discovered that a few of them are now able to write without any visual guidance, and are using the dry erase boards. We will continue to learn how to write राम throughout the month of December. We will also introduce ऊँ next week for those children who are not completely familiar with the strokes.

At the end of our class we played a round of "KrishnaH vadati." We had a lot of fun! Towards the end of the segment, some of the children were feeling pretty confident and offered to be the instruction caller. It was very satisfying to see them so engaged, especially with this being our first attempt at playing the game. We learned 6 verbs in the imperative: उपविशतु (upavishatu, sit), उत्तिष्ठतु (uttishThatu, stand up),  उत्पततु (utpatatu, jump),  भ्रमतु (bhramatu, spin),  नृत्यतु (nrtyatu, dance), and तरतु (taratu, swim). So, whenever time permits, we will continue our Sanskrit Learning segment with games and play.

Parents: please be sure and sign in your child when you bring them to class. We are trying to streamline our attendance taking, so that we will have more time for fun — and less time for administrative work :-)

Nanda aunty, if you are reading this blog while in India, please know that we are sending lots of warm wishes your way. We hope you are having a great time — and look forward to seeing you in January. And guess what? We finally got our first snow!!

Stay warm everyone — see you next week ...

Dec 06 Class: Section 2

Sevikas: Kalpana and Indira

Prayers: Om Sahana Bhavatu (click here for text)

Quiet Time: ऊँ three times, followed by 1 minute of meditation. Kids are doing an excellent job!

Bhajans:
• Ganesha Sharanam  (click here for text)
• Gopala Gopala Radhey Nandalala
• Krishna Here, Krishna There

Geeta Chanting: Practiced Chapter 10, Shlokas 1, 2. Learnt verse 3. (click here for text and audio)

Story: Story about FRIENDSHIP – Lord Krishna and Sudama's Friendship.

Activity/Games: Made a puppet of Lord Hanumaan (click here to view)

Likhita Japa: none

End of Class Prayers: OM Poornamadah (click here to view text)

Comments: We reviewed Alphabets A through E. We learnt alphabet F is for Friend, discussed what qualities makes someone a special friend. Kids came up with various qualities, like "I like my friend because he plays with me." Another one was "because he builds LEGOS with me."

We talked about the Friendship story — Lord Krishna & Sudamaa.

We learnt verse 3, Chp 10th Geetha Chanting. Kids are doing a wonderful job reciting. Please practice at home. Please practice the new Bhajan and you can try it with different names like Ganesha, Raama, Durga, Lakshmi, etc.