Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda

September 26, 2010

Sept 26 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rau and Jacqueline Gaines


Home Fun Work: Print out this page for your child to color. (Click here for page.) Spend a few minutes with your child discussing who this picture is of and why he is so very important to us.

Morning Prayers: 
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Karagre Vasate
• Vakratunda Mahakaya (click here for text)
• Saraswati Namastubhyam (click here for text)

Quiet Time/Focus Game: The children did great today — 1 full minute of silence followed by our focus game with shells.

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shloka 1 (See comment section below.)

Story Time: The teacher who asked the children to eat their apples in a place where God was not.

Activity: Find the hidden ladybug

Likhita Japa: ऊँ 21 times (click here for the tracing sheet)

Game: KrishnaH Vadati (click here for full text) Verbs we introduced today:
उपविशतु (upavishatu, sit)
• उत्तिष्ठतु (uttiSThatu, stand)
• भ्रमतु (bhramatu, spin around)
• उत्पततु (utpatatu, jump)
• हसतु (hasatu, laugh)
• रोदितु (roditu, cry)
• नृत्यतु (nRtyatu, dance)

Ending Prayers: 
• PoornamidaH (click here for text)
• Chinmaya Pledge (click here for text)

Comments: Today was our official, 1st full class — and we certainly were jam packed with oodles of activities and learning!

We began our Geeta Chanting this morning. Your children will be responsible for memorizing the first 8 shlokas for the competition this Spring. In order for them to be completely at ease and prepared for the "Big Day," we decided there was no better time to start than the present! Our goal is to add one new shloka each month. This way we will have 3 classes to familiarize ourselves with each shloka before introducing another. Parents: Please note that pronunciation will be very important for the judges this year. We will do our very best to help the children work on memorization, pronunciation and presentation in class — but obviously you will be the best and most most effective teacher for your child.  We urge you to take a few minutes each day to practice — and if you start now, then come Spring your child will feel very comfortable with the chanting and the judges. Beware: this chapter is a bit tricky ... :-) CD's were handed out to all the families this morning to so we can do some "self-study." If you did not receive one, please make sure that you stop by the front desk and pick one up. These cd's are extremely helpful with pronunciation. Also, chapter 11 will soon be posted on the "Geeta Chanting Blog" in its entirety. You can reach this blog by visiting Chinmaya Vrindavan's website.

We spent some time with the children talking about our Alphabet Safari lessons for the year and how we will be going on a journey of different values with the ABC's. The lesson today, however, was a discussion on "Who is God?" and "Can we see God?" .... "Where is God?" The kids had lots of ideas of this topic, and it was fun exploring this subject with them :-)

After our discussion, we did Likhita Japa. We found that a few of the children were very comfortable writing ऊँ. However, many do not know how to make the proper strokes. So we will be using our tracing cards over the next few weeks until we all feel confident with our writing. Once we are all on the same page (so to speak,) we will then introduce राम. Late fall the children should be ready for keeping a Likhita Japa journal. This is a wonderful leap in their learning — and the aunties always get excited when they see everyone sit quietly writing the Lord's name ... it's truly amazing to see.

We ended our class with a a few rounds of "KrishnaH Vadati (definitely one of this auntie's favorite games.) This game is performed much like "Simon Says," except in Sanskrit. In this activity we aim to introduce the children to simple verbs with instructions (in the imperative) from our Lord Krishna hand puppet. Everyone has a lot of fun with this — and by the end of class we all welcome the opportunity to get up and jump around a little. And it's extra fun doing it in God's language!

Hope everyone has a great week — and we look forward to another "Party with God" next Sunday!