June 5 Class: Section 1

Wall Hanging made by Swetha  Karthikeyan

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines
Very big thanks to our helper moms today -- we don't know what we would have done without you!

The aunties want to thank all the children for a wonderful Alphabet Safari year! We learned so much from all of you ... and we had oodles of fun in the process!

We're kind of sad ... and glad ... that today is our last class together. Sad because we are going to miss seeing all of your cheerful faces every Sunday. But glad because we were blessed with the opportunity of watching you grow over the year. Everyone of you is an incredibly special and talented person ... and there is no question that the world is a better place because of you!

We hope you all have a very safe and fun summer. And don't forget to wear your helmets when you ride your bicycles and scooters :-) ... and most importantly, don't forget to do your OM Work Homework!!! The stuff you did in class was outstanding!!!

We love you all -- big hugs!

May 22 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Morning Prayers:
• OM Sahanaavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Saraswati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishna (click here for text)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for text and audio)

Letter of the Week: "Z is for Zeal"

Likhita Japa: Children learned how to design mandalas. Then they filled them in with their likhita japa.

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

Comments: First we want to welcome our new friend, Divya, who joined us for the first time this morning! We are sorry that we will be having only one more class together before summer break, but we really look forward to spending a fun year with you after vacation. And we hope that you are going to enjoy spending Sunday mornings with all of your new friends!

We were delighted to see so many students to class on time -- especially because many of us were out late last night due to our Bhiksha with Swamiji. (We all admitted that it was a little hard to get up this morning ... but we did it!!) The aunties had a lot of fun with everyone last night, and it was such a pleasure to meet and spend time with the students and families from the other Kindergarten class.

Today we reached our last letter of the Alphabet Safari ... "Z is for Zeal." This one was not too difficult for us to comprehend. In fact, we all agreed that you can't help but know it's meaning, if you just listen to how you feel when you say the word -- ZEAL! You can just feel the vibrations and know that it's got some long-lasting power :-) ... pretty much like "Enthusiasm."

After we reviewed our letters A-Z, we settled down to share some techniques that the children can use over the summer in their likhita japa journals. We expect them to keep up their great work!! We showed them that anytime they want to make a mandala or drawing, they simply have to look around the house for a cool shape. It could be a bowl, a cup, a bottle cap, a box ... pretty much anything. And then they trace it onto their paper -- and fill it in with more shapes and likhita japa. They really did such a great job this morning, and we are pretty confident that there are going to be some amazing drawings coming out of these youngsters over the summer. We hope they will show us their journals when Balavihar resumes in the fall :-)

You gotta know ... the aunties are sad that our Balavihar Year is coming to an end. We are definitely going to miss these wonderful children. It has been such a blessing to watch them grow over the past 9 or 10 months. So much so that we can already feel their long-lasting presence in our hearts. Just know, parents: they have been instructed to come back to the Kindergarten Class and give us a hug every now and then :-) So don't scold them when they say "Wait a sec" and then run down the hall to our room.

In preparation for our summer break, we thought it would be fun to have a class party on June 5th. We are trying to get "management" approval to take the kids outside for the morning ... where we will play games, run around, blow bubbles, and eat yummy snacks. Once the aunties hear from our "boss," then we will send out an email, letting you know whether you should send along a visor and sunblock.

Bet many of you are going to take it easy each this afternoon ... maybe even go to bed early tonight. The aunties definitely are!

Sending oodles of hugs to our young friends!

(We want to thank all the parents who helped with our class activities last evening. And many, many special thanks to Madhi and Priyanka's parents for pitching in and "going that extra mile." You all made the evening Super Extra Enjoyable!

May 15 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Morning Prayers:
• Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for text and audio)

Story: Talked about Swamiji and why our Guru is important to us.

Art Project: Worked on our gift for Swamiji, and made Clay Ganeshas for the Ananda Mela Children's Art Exhibit. (See the slide show above.)

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

Comments: First we want to extend a very big "Hari OM" to our new friend, Raghav! He joined us for the first time today -- and even though we have just a few more classes left, we hope that he will be having lots of fun with us ... and we look forward to being in first grade with him next year!! It's always fun to see our family grow ...

We all agreed that our class today was a little topsy turvy. We did things a little out of sequence. Normally we spend the first part of the class focused on the alphabet safari, but because we have been gifted the great opportunity to have bhiksha with Swamiji next weekend, we decided to spend some time talking about our Swamiji -- and all the great things he does for us! For many of these children, the word "Swamiji" conjures up some mystical person ... who doesn't really have a clear face to us. So, we thought this would be a perfect time to share with the children some little "dibs" on our Guru. We even "let the cat out of the bag" -- that he always has little treats for children :-) ... and he tells really funny stories and jokes!

On May 21st, both classes will be joining Swamiji at the ashram for an evening bhiksha. It'll be lots of fun, because even though we "know" about the other class, we don't really KNOW each other. So this gathering will be a nice way to meet our other brothers and sisters, and learn about what they've been doing throughout the year!

Expect at least one more email to reach your in-box this week. Mamtha Aunty will be coordinating the bhiksha menu with all the parents, as well as helping answer any questions you may have about the evening. There is nothing to rehearse at home with your child, so please don't fret! Our kids have been discussing the alphabet safari all year round, and this is exactly what we will be sharing with Swamiji ... our presentation shouldn't be more than 10 minutes, at the most. We want the children to be completely relaxed and excited to meet Swamiji, not nervous! After our Alphabet discussion, the children will present a gift that they all helped create. This gift is to show Swamiji their appreciation and love for his teaching and guidance. Each child in our class will be represented in this gift, whether they are able to attend bhiksha or not.  Once everything is assembled, we will photograph "it" and post in on the blog next week. That way everyone can enjoy it.

We want to thank all the kids for making such wonderful clay Ganapatis! They are all so sweet and full of kindergarten character. We know that these sculptures will hold a very special place in the Mela's exhibit. Mark your calendars ... it's on June 12th!

Hope you all have a wonderful week. Looking forward to seeing you all at the ashram Saturday evening -- and then back at Balavihar the following morning.

Love to our "Soon to be First Graders ..."

May 8 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)
• Gurur Brahma (click here for text)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for text and audio)

Letter of the Week: Y is for Yagna

Story: Talked about Gurudev and why he is so important to us!

Likhita Japa: Children colored pages of Gurudev and wrote likhita japa around him. (Click here for page.)

Ending Prayers: Done in auditorium

Comments: Today was an energetic one — the weather was so beautiful, and the kids were in great spirit! Everyone jumped right into our disciplines ... and we didn't miss a beat!

Now that we are at Letter Y, we decided that the kids were pretty well-versed in our Vedantic Alphabet. So, we decided to do things a little differently. Random letters were thrown out and the kids then told us what they stood for, plus the meaning. We gotta say ... these guys have it down! The aunties couldn't stump anybody, and the kids didn't have to think twice about what the meanings were.

Also because it was Gurudev's birthday, we spent a lot of time talking about how our Gurudev truly embodied yagna, in every possible way. The children learned that they have a couple of families. The first being their mom, dad, brothers, sisters, etc ... and the other one is the Chinmaya Family. It was mind boggling to think about how Gurudev's family is spread throughout the world is so many different cities and countries! But the coolest thing is that on May 8th, we all celebrate his birth by doing Seva.

At this point we discussed the meaning of "seva," (which we all agreed should be in our Vedantic Alphabet.) And so, on this note, we told the kids that not only should they be hugging their moms all day, telling them how much they appreciate and love them :-), but they also need to do something nice for someone or something (can be a person, an animal, or the environment) ... and the most important thing to remember is that they need to do this with love in their heart, and with no expectations of a "thank you." This is what Gurudev wants us to do.

It's hard to believe that the Balavihar School year is coming to an end. Although, daily trips to the pool are sounding pretty good right about now :-)  Be sure and mark June 12th on your calendar. We will be participating in the Ananda Mela at the ashram. There will be lots of great food, fun activities for the kids, and cool exhibitions and displays to peruse. We have signed up our kindergartners to contribute some of their wonderful likhita japa drawings for the Balavihar Childrens' Art Exhibit ... so please don't get rid of any of their art work! Also, we will be making some art projects over the next two classes for the kids to display. We're sure they'll tell you all about it.

So remember: "May 8th is "S is for Seva Day." Today's the day to do something nice for someone. And Gurudev taught us that Seva is a great feeling — you will be the one who benefits the most!

Lots of love to our young friends.
See you next week!

April 10 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Home Fun Work:
• Print out this Page for the next drawing in our Sanskrit Animal Series
• Print out this Page for your child to practice likhita japa with. Have him/her create their own mandala design ... making sure to fill it in with likhita japa!
• Print out this sheet for learning how to write राम (raama)

Extra Home Fun Work:
• Click here for a coloring sheet. Ask your child who this is a picture of and why he is so important to us. Here's a tricky question: What was his name when he was a child?

Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha naavaavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)
• Gurur Brahma (click here for text)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for audio and text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence, followed by shell counting game (click here for game instructions)

Letter of the Week: "W is for Work"

Story: The Grasshopper and the Ant

Likhita Japa: Worked in our journals finishing up mandalas from previous weeks.

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

Comments: Well, Parents -- congratulate yourselves ... we started class on time today!!! Everyone was ready to get going as soon as they entered the room :-)

We certainly hope that you, by now, have registered your children for the Geeta Chanting Competition. If not, definitely take a few minutes and do it as soon as you're done reading this entry. The children are doing fabulously well with their chanting. During our first round, we started to lose a little enthusiasm towards the 6th shloka. But once we pointed this out to the children, they sat straight up, got back on track, and continued to chanted very loudly. The aunties were thrilled to hear such clear pronunciation and enthusiasm!

We are nearing the end of our alphabet (which also means that the Balavihar School Year is also coming to an end soon,) Just a couple more letters to go :-) Please keep your eyes out for information on the Mela Event which will be held at the ashram on June 12th. And just so you know, there will be a tent exhibit hosting the Children's Balavihar artwork from throughout the year. And as you, no doubt, can guess, we are definitely going to be submitting our young artists' Creative Likhita Japa!

In the meantime, enjoy this super fab weather -- we heard that it's going to crawl up towards 80 degrees Monday ... unbelievable!! Time to clean up the back yards and get ready for some planting ...

Keep up the great Geeta Chanting.
Hugs to all of our young friends.
Can't wait to get back together next Sunday ...

April 3 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Home Fun Work:
• Print out this page for the next drawing in our Animal series
• Print out this page for your child to practice their likhita japa with. Have him/her fill in Lord Hanumaan with राम (rāma) using as many colors as they wish!
• Print out this tracing sheet for learning how to write  राम (rāma)

Extra Home Fun Work:
• click here for our Flashcard set on Gods and Goddesses. Have your child try and identify the special qualities of each God/Goddess. Be sure and ask them to find the physical differences between Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda and Pujya Guruji Swami Tejoymayananda!!! (Hint: glasses and beard :-)

Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)
• Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnuh  (click here for text)

Geeta Chanting: Chap 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for audio and text)

Quiet Time: none (click here for game instructions)

Letter of the Week: V is for Victory

Story: The Tortoise and the Hare

Likhita Japa:
• The children filled in a drawing of Lord Hanumaan with  राम, rāma. (Click here to view page)
• Finished up some drawings from the previous week.

Ending Prayers: Were conducted in the auditorium after the mini-program.

Comments: Well, Spring is definitely in the air ... the kids' energy was fantastic today!!

Parents, you should be incredibly proud of your children ... they all did really well with their Geeta Chanting. Some of us were a little sluggish towards the end of the 8th shloka, but we expected this during the beginning of April. Just so you know, for the next few weeks we will now be focusing on our posture, smile and confidence :-) We talked about how we must have a smile on our face at the competition – because, after all, we will be chanting the divine songs of The Lord!!  Plus we can't ever forget Pujya Gurudev's instruction: "Keep smiling!" Because as we learned in "O is for Obedience"... not only should we obey our parents, but we have to obey our Guru, too!!

Our letter for the week was "V is for Victory." We asked the kids what they thought this word meant.  Almost unanimously the children answered "Winning" (which we hoped they would say.) This gave us a perfect opportunity to talk about the differences between racing, competing, and winning. We reviewed the meaning of "A is for Aspiration," which we clearly understand as "Setting a goal and working hard for it." Then we pointed out that the definition of "Victory" is when you have achieved your goal. Speed is not the issue (although we do want to be as efficient and effective as possible :-) But the important thing to ask is: "Did I achieve my goal?" To further illustrate this concept we told the story of the "Tortoise and the Hare," and then spent a few minutes discussing why the Tortoise really won ... it wasn't just because "slow and steady wins the race," but what was more important was that the tortoise stayed focused and didn't get distracted. The rabbit did. Therefore, he lost.

Before our likhita japa, we played India's National Anthem "Jana Gana Mana." We happened to have a recording of Rabindranath Tagore singing — really cool!

Before we knew it class needed to come to an end. We sure did a lot of work today — and it was fun!! We hope everyone has a great week and takes some time to romp around outside ... it's nice to feel spring in the air again!

Lots of love and hugs to our young friends.

March 20 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines




Home Fun Work:
• Click here for the next drawing in our animal series
• Click here for राम tracing sheet
• Click here for Vedic OM tracing sheet

Extra Home Fun Work:
• Click here for our "Sponge Art Animals" Flashcard Set

Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence followed by our shell counting game (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1-8 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: "U is for Unity"

Story: "Stone Soup" by Jon J. Muth (click here to view book cover)

Likhita Japa: Continued working in our journals and learned how to draw a Vedic OM (click here for the tracing sheet)

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

Comments: Boy, did we have a busy class!!! We tried to stay very focused for all of our morning disciplines so we could move on to our letter of the week. The aunties must say that these kids did great — their Geeta Chanting is coming along very nicely, they stayed with the pebble count during our quiet time (nearly everyone got the right number!), and they recited the alphabet letters we have learned thus far — with complete definitions. Gee, if only the aunties had studied the Vedanta alphabet when we were their age :-)

Now comes the juicy part ... today's letter was "U is for Unity." We asked the kids if they knew what the word meant. It got quiet for a few seconds, and then someone shouted out "Being Together!" That was exactly what we were looking for — "togetherness." But then we asked, "Does it mean that we should all be doing the same thing at the same time?" A lot of the kids shook their heads yes. This was a great opportunity to elaborate on this very complex word. We talked about how we have only one body, yet our body has many different parts that need to do separate functions in order to make the body work. For example, our eyes cannot smell, our ears cannot taste, our hands do not pump blood, etc. In the same way, if people are united and work for a common (and greater) goal, then that is unity -- and everything will function just as it should!

A few raised eyebrows caught our attention. At this point, we decided to read our much loved book, "Stone Soup" by Jon J Muth.  If you are not familiar with this very rich and beautiful children's story, definitely put it on your list to borrow from the library. Jon J. Muth has taken this traditional European tale and turned it into a true treasure. He shows us that unity and sharing is what happiness is all about. This story is set in an old Chinese village with three monks on a quest to find out "What makes one happy."

After our story time, we moved on to our likhita japa segment. In the spirit of our letter of the week, we spent some time talking about the many different OMs that are written throughout the world. We saw the Tamil OM, the Telugu OM, the Malayalam OM, the Balinese OM, the Tibetan OM, the Sanskrit OM and the Bengali OM. Oh yes ... and the coolest one of all was the Vedic OM. We studied the many differences in their appearances, yet we all agreed that they all represent the same thing — unity with God. The kids then settled into their journals learning to write the Vedic OM with a tracing sheet. And they did extremely well!! (We will try our best to have some made for the other languages, too.)

And so, it looks like we are on another mini-break. Next class is scheduled for April 3. In the meantime, don't forget to go outside and play. And, even more importantly, don't forget to "Keep Smiling" — remember, this is an instruction from our Pujya Gurudev! In fact, why don't we  leave "being serious" to the ol' fuddy duds — it's just not fun!

Lots of hugs to our young friends.

Mar 13 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines




Home Fun Work:
• Click here for the next drawing in our animal series.
• Click here for a mandala drawing to practice likhita japa with.
• Click here for a tracing sheet to practice writing राम
• Click here for a tracing sheet to practice writing ऊँ नमः शिवाय

Extra Home Fun Work: Click here for Flashcard Study Set. Practice identifying the God/Goddess in each picture. And see if you can identify some of the names in Sanskrit!

Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Navaavatu (click here for text)
• OM Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)

Quiet Time: None (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1–8 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: "T is for Truth"

Story: The Empty Pot, by Demi (click here to view book cover)

Likhita Japa: The children continued to write in their journals, finishing some of the mandalas from last week. We also introduced a new mandala for them to begin working on.

Ending Prayers: Done in the auditorium

Comments: We missed a lot of our young friends today ... hope you guys aren't sick and just forgot about the time change :-)

Today was a shortened class because we went to the auditorium for our ending prayers.   We started our morning with the usual chit chat ... catching up on all the "happening details of our kindergarten friends." Afterwards, we settled down for our weekly disciplines and Geeta Chanting. We gotta say: "These kids are doing great!!!" Not only were we completely surprised to learn that most everyone in class has the Shree Hanumaan shloka memorized, but these youngsters were really belting out the first 7 shlokas of Geeta, Chapter 11!! Pronunciation was perfect! Posture was looking good!! We were originally scheduled to start Shloka 8 in our first April class, but we thought because everyone was doing so well, we could go ahead and start chanting all 8. We are very confident that these children are going to do well in May!

Our letter of the week was "T is for Truth." This is always a fun letter to discuss, because we all know that we must always tell the truth — no matter what. But the real question is: Do we always do that? And if not, why?? We investigated some of the reasons why someone might hesitate to tell the truth ... such as: "being afraid of getting in trouble," "wanting to impress your friends," "trying to act cool," etc. Everyone had a story to tell :-) So, before we moved to our Likhita Japa segment, we read a really great story about Truthfulness to help us punctuate how important it is to be honest. The book is called "The Empty Pot" by Demi. (You can hear it read in this week's video selections — see the announcement section.) Anyway, we were all moved by the brave act of little Ping in bringing his empty pot to the Emperor. (This aunty never fails to get a little choked up when the Emperor questions Ping.)  It proves that we must always be brave and truthful, even if it seems difficult — only good things will come of it.

And ... we talked about the beauty of the illustrations. In this book the artist chose to paint the pictures in the style of the traditional Chinese landscape art — where the landscapes are quite majestic, and the people are always shown very small in scale (unlike our Western art.) This lead to a discussion on the word "Humble." which we all agreed we could add to our Vedanta alphabet.

Before we knew it, time was up and we had to get ready to head to the auditorium for the 9th grade performance — which was really fun to watch, by the way.

We hope you all have a great week — and we look forward to seeing everyone again next Sunday. Hopefully, the effects of our time change will be over :-)

Hugs to all our young friends!

March 6 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Home Fun Work:
• Click here for राम tracing sheet.
• Click here for ऊँ नमः शिवाय tracing sheet.
• Click here for the next drawing in our Animal Series

Extra Home Fun Work: Click here for an abstract "Color by Number" page in Sanskrit.

Morning Prayers:
• OM Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunḍa Mahakāya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• śrī Hanumān (click here for text)
• śrī Krishnaḥ (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence and shell counting game (click here for instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1 – 7 (click here for text and audio)

Letter of the Week: "S is for Smile"

Focus Game: "Try to make me laugh!"

Likhita Japa: Finished Lord Shiva Mandalas for our journals. Some children worked on Lord Krishna's peacock feather.

Ending Prayers:
• Om Poornamidaḥ (click here for text)
• Chinmaya Mission Pledge (click here for text)

Comments: First we want to welcome Gowri to our class! Today was her first day in Balavihar and we are extremely happy to have her join us. We hope that she will have lots of fun with all of her new friends every Sunday!

Well, we certainly had a tremendous amount of energy in class today. If you happened to be in the hallway this morning, you no doubt heard the children proudly chanting The Geeta (and the Alphabet Safari :-). Great going, Kids — we hope you keep up the energy for the competition in April!

After our morning disciplines, we settled into our lesson for today — "S is for Smile." We talked about the scientific studies that have been discovered about smiling ... 1)  that it's good for your health; 2) it takes more energy and muscles to frown; and 3) it's contagious! Smiling definitely makes the world a much happier place and no one is immune to a happy smile. A genuine smile can take all the sadness away and before you know it everyone around you is smiling! To prove our point, we had the children try to keep a frown on their face while the aunties laughed away. As you can imagine, everyone was roaring with laughter before we knew it. We mustn't forget Gurudev's instructions: "Keep smiling!"

Happily, we had 20 minutes to work in our likhita journals today. Some of the children completed the Shiva Lingams from last week, while other children worked on Lord Krishna's peacock feather. Parents: these children are doing amazingly well! We can't wait for you to see all of their work at the end of the school year. They are becoming very focused and showing a lot of confidence in their writing. We are also pleased to see so many Home Fun Work pages at the beginning of class. It's wonderful that your children are doing their likhita japa at home. Please take a few minutes and look at their great work in our weekly art gallery (slideshow above.)

We started Shloka 7 today in our Geeta chanting. It was very clear that these kids have been working during the week :-) Because the preliminaries are the end of next month, we are going to introduce shloka 8 at the end of March. This will give us four classes to practice chanting all 8 shlokas before the competition begins. Please take a few minutes and register your child for the competition. For your convenience, online registration is available. (click here for registration.)

No doubt about it — spring is around the corner. Aunty reminded us that we are having a time change next weekend, so make sure you remember to set your clocks. In the meantime, enjoy this marvelous weather. It's such a joy seeing some of the color shifts in nature ....

Hugs to all of your kids. Look forward to our next party with God!!!

Feb 27 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines


Home Fun Work:
• Print out this Shiva Lingam Mandala and have your child color it and then do their likhita japa around the border. They can write"ऊँ", "ऊँ नमः शिवाय" or "om namaḥ śivāya" — their choice! Please make sure, however, that your child brings this page to our next class so we can put them in our journals.

• Click here for the next drawing page in our animal series.
• Click here for our Flashcard set of Animals (in Sanskrit) — with pictures

Extra Home Fun Work:
• Print out this Tracing Sheet of ऊँ नमः शिवाय (om namah shivaaya) and have your child practice writing this mantra.


Morning Prayers:
• Om Saha Nāvavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunḍa Mahākāya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• śrī Hanumān (click here for text)
• śrĩ Krishnaḥ (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence  (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: R is for Right

Story/Activity:  Right or Wrong?

Likhita Japa: Finished our mandalas from our last class and practiced drawing a Lord Shiva Lingam Mandala in our journals.

Ending Prayers: Prayers and Aarti were conducted in the auditorium.

Comments: We missed a lot of our young friends today ... hope everyone hasn't come down with the nasty bug who seems be making the circuit. Today's class was a bit abbreviated due to the 6th grade performance and aarti in the auditorium. But all that aside, we sure accomplished alot!!

After our prayers and Geeta chanting, we decided to do our silence activity and shell counting game. We haven't done this in the past few classes, so we thought it would be good to put our focus to the test. Boy, were we a little "off" — we all all agreed that our attention kept wanting to be on the chanting that was being done in the next room :-)

Geeta Chanting is going fantastically well — congratulations to all of you!!! Most everyone is right up to speed and has shlokas 1-6 completely memorized. We will start shloka 7 in our next class (March 6) and have all agreed that we will now begin to focus some attention on our posture. We told the children that even though pronunciation is most crucial in the competition, so, too, is their posture and facial expressions important. Hands folded in prayer, legs criss-crossed, back straight, and love pouring from their expression — after all, we are chanting the Lord's Divine Song!!

Today's letter was "R is for Right." This definitely threw everyone off course :-) The kids were certain that we were on the letter "P", because this is the letter that comes after "O." Well, true .... but not in the Vedanta Alphabet. P and Q come after Z. Seeing that P stands for Prayer and Q stands for Quiet — these qualities come only after we have practiced and perfected all the other letters. How's that for a twist?!!

After reviewing our alphabet we spent a few minutes talking about Shivaratri (March 2) and how this is Lord Shiva's most favorite day. On this day, adults will be fasting, chanting, performing pujas, and staying awake all night dedicating all sorts of activities to the Lord. We shared a rudraksha mala with the children and talked about how this seed is Lord Shiva's favorite, and in fact, originated from the Lord's tears. Each child has a rudraksha seed to treasure and care for. (I think Auntie put them in his/her coat pocket — so check there :-)

We then settled down into our likhita japa journal segment where the children learned to draw a Shiva Lingam Mandala. Their assignment for Wednesday is to color in a Lingam Mandala (see above Home Fun Work) and then perform likhita japa on the border. Please, please, have your child bring their drawing to our next class so we can put this in our journals.

Well, the weather is truly amazing. Spring is clearly around the corner ... we saw some green poking up from the ground on the way to Balavihar this morning :-) Hope you all have a wonderful week — and may the blessings of Lord Shiva bring all of you much peace, happiness and good health!

See you next Sunday ...

Feb 13 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines

Click here for our Weekly Art Gallery

Home Fun Work: Click here to download this week's "Connect the Dots" assignment. This is a fun activity page to help your child learn Sanskrit numbers (1-20.)

Click here for the next drawing page in our "Animals" series.

Click here to practice Sanskrit numbers 1-10 with our Flashcards

Click here to practice Sanskrit numbers 11-20 with our Flashcards

Click here for the Animal Flashcard set (with pictures)

Morning Prayers:
• Om Saha Naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Saraswati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)

Quiet Time: None (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: O is for Obedience

Story: "Quick and Quack" This is a story about 2 ducklings who did not listen to their mother's instructions about not swimming in the middle of the river. The ducklings thought they were old enough and strong enough ... so when Mother Duck went to gather some food, the two ducklings decided to have a race in the river. Things were going good ... that is, until they got caught up in a strong current and were carried downstream. Fortunately, a cow was grazing nearby and heard their cries!

Likhita Japa: The children spent 15 - 20 minutes performing creative likhita japa in their journals. Afterwards we gathered in a circle to share about our feelings while we were writing. Some of the feelings the children described were "peaceful," "calm," "proud," "happy," "love," "quiet," and "God." Great work, Kids!!!

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

Comments: Well, parents ... your children are definitely ready for 1st grade. We are so pleased with everyone's classroom participation, how well they are doing — and how much they have matured over these past few months. What a great blessing for the aunties to be able to witness their growth!

The children did not miss a beat today. We practically started on time and immediately immersed ourselves in our prayers and Geeta Chanting. Nearly everyone has the shloka for Shree Krishna memorized — and "Shree Hanumaan", (which at first seemed way too difficult for us) is now being pronounced with ease and confidence!

As always, we recapped all the letters we have learned so far (A-N) ... with the children helping the aunties understand the meaning of each word. Then we moved on to "O is for Obedience." We talked about rules and why we need them ... who we should obey (our parents, our Guru, our teachers, etc.) and why we should obey them, even if we don't really agree :-) For example: babies love to explore and sometimes they try to play with things that are not safe – like electrical sockets. When mother picks the baby up and takes him away, does the baby always agree? No — usually they cry, and fuss! But mother knows best and she will do what is necessary to keep the baby safe ... even if he throws a temper tantrum :-)

To illuminate our word's definition, we then told the children a tale about two ducklings who got into serious trouble by not listening to their mother's advice: "Don't swim to the middle of the river, you're not strong enough." Fortunately, for the ducklings, a cow grazing nearby, came to their rescue as they were being swept downstream by a strong current! By the end of the story, the ducklings realized their wrongdoing and swore to always listen to their mother ... even if they don't agree with their mother's rules. Our moral for today: Parents (and Guru) knows best!!

As you can see from our outline above, the children spent quite a bit of time performing likhita japa in their journals today. These kids are doing amazing stuff! Not only are they able to sit quietly — focused on their writing ... but they are eager to "get down to business" and do more! Please take a few minutes to view our art gallery link above to see their work. We hope to have a gallery showing at the end of the year for all the parents. The kids gave quite a hearty laugh when we told them that the parents will have to "look with their eyes, not their hands!" — just like in a real museum :-)

We wish you all a wonderful mini-break. This weather is invigorating —and we hope that you take full advantage of it! This auntie is pulling her bike out from the garage this afternoon ...

Lots of love to our young friends — we'll miss them next Sunday.

Feb 06 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines

Click here for our weekly Art Gallery

Home Fun Work:
• Click here for a "Connect the Dots" activity page. Be sure and have your child count aloud as he/she completes the drawing!
• Click here to print the next drawing page in our animal series. 

Extra Home Fun Work:
• Coloring Pages for Sanskrit Numbers 1-10 (click here to download)
• Coloring Pages for Sanskrit Numbers 11-20 (click here to download)

Click here for Flashcard Set: Numbers 1-10 (in Sanskrit)

Click here for Flashcard Set: Numbers 11-20 (in Sanskrit)

Click here for Flashcard Set: Animals (with pictures) (in Sanskrit)

If you wish to download these flashcards to your iPhone, click here for instructions

Morning Prayers:
• Saha naavaavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanuman (click here for text)
• Shree Krishna (click here for text)

Quiet Time: none (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Ch 11, Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: "M is for Mother" and "N is for Noble"

Likhita Japa: 5 Minutes of Likhita Japa Game (click here for instructions)

Activity: (Click here to view project ) Made a watercolor mandala which is to be completed by the child at home. Please have your child spend a few minutes each day performing likhita japa  in one of the concentric circles — starting with the outer circle and ending with the inner circle. These should be brought back to our next class to put in their journals.

Ending Prayers:
Poornamidah (click here for text) 
Chinmaya Pledge (click here for text)

Comments: Before we start talking about our morning's activities, we want to extend a very big "Hari OM!" to our new friend, Uday. He joined us for the first time today — and we're very excited to have him in class. Uday, we hope that you will have a lot of fun with all your new friends every Sunday morning!

Well, today was definitely a busy one — we sure covered a lot of material. After our prayers, we jumped right into our Alphabet Safari ... reviewing letters A through L. It's clear that these kids have a pretty good handle on all of the definitions we've been discussing these past few months :-)

This week's class combined two letters – "M is for Mother" and "N is for Noble." We spent some time talking about all the great things our mothers do for us ... how much they sacrifice and work for us. Just like Father is God, so, too is Mother ... Mother is God. We pointed to the story that we told in "I is for Intelligence" — Lord Ganesha circling his parents for the celestial fruit. He showed us that parents are God and the world to us! We then went on to talk about other Mothers we worship. For example, we have Mother Nature, Mother Earth, Mother India, Mother Shruti, and the sacred Mother Cow. No question about it — Mother is to be worshipped!! As an assignment for this week, the kids have all agreed to do something nice for their mothers — without telling them about it, or asking for anything in return. Let's see how that goes ... :-)

This led us to our next letter "N is for Noble." Things got a little more complicated at this point ... not an easy concept to grasp (not even for us adults :-) So, to illuminate this value we told the story of Punyakoti — an all-time favorite! Nothing can shine  light on the definition of "Noble" like this story!

We began our likhita japa journal workshop today — and we had a great time!! The kids did amazingly well with the likhita japa focus game — most of them got it! We will be doing this exercise weekly. Parents: please note that we have the children's likhita japa paintings from last week – we are putting them in their journals. The aunties will be keeping the journals until the end of the Balavihar year. At that time we will hand the books over to your children for safe keeping (and continued summer work :-)

Unfortunately, we did not have time to paint our drawings today. If you have a paintbrush at home, please have your child brush water onto their drawings to make a water color painting. If you do not have a brush, dipping a crumpled up paper towel in water, and then rubbing gently onto the paper, should do the trick. Regardless, please have your child do their likhita japa in one of the rings each day. Don't forget to bring the painting to class on Sunday so we can put it in their journal!!

We were so impressed with the children's work from last week ...

The sun is calling all of us to venture outdoors ... what a wonderful change from our icy week! We hope you all have a great week and we look forward to seeing you next Sunday.

Hugs to all of our young friends!

Jan 30 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines

Click here to view this week's Art Gallery.

Home Fun Work: Click here for another printout in our animals series. Have your child draw a picture of a cat. Don't forget to ask him/her to practice saying बिडालः (biḍālaḥ) aloud while admiring the beautiful finished drawing!

For extra fun work: Click here for a color by number page in Sanskrit.

Click here for our Flashcard set of Sanskrit numbers 1-10

Click here for our Flashcard set of Sanskrit Colors

Click here for a short animation on Sanskrit Colors

Morning Prayers:
• Om Saha naavaavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence followed by our shell counting game (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (click here for text and audio)

Letter of the Week: "K is for Kindness" and "L is for Love"

Likhita Japa: None (click here for our likhita japa game instructions)

Activity: The children created a likhita japa flower mandala made of hearts. They are to fill one petal each day with "OM" and bring back to next class for show and tell (Click here to view project instructions and sample)

Comment:  Today we combined two letters in one class: "K is for Kindness" and "L is for Love." We spent some time talking about what kindness means. The kids all came up with great answers ... "sharing," "helping," and "caring" — to name a few. Okay, so kindness we all had a handle on, but how do we define "Love." And what is love, exactly?!! This was a little harder for us. So to help us comprehend the power of love we shared a story of Mahatma Gandhi and how he completely transformed a thief into a follower by showing a true and simple act of love and kindness. When the thief was caught stealing in the Mahatma's ashram, Gandhiji lovingly insisted that he this man must be hungry and he should be served lunch. The Mahatma's disciples were baffled, because they all insisted that the thief be punished for his crime. But Gandhiji remained unaffected — this man was to sit and join him for lunch!  The man, so moved by Gandhiji's genuine love and kindness, broke into tears and swore to never steal again. He became a life long follower.

We tied all this love and kindness together in our activity project today. The children colored a heart/flower mandala with water soluble pencils and then brushed the drawing with water to turn everything into watercolor paint. Their results were really lovely! Their job is to spend a few minutes each day and perform likhita japa. We asked them to only fill in one petal a day, finishing the week with the mandala border. On Saturday, they should see a very beautiful likhita japa painting — filled with love! Please have them bring their painting to class so we can see their finished work.

Next week we will begin our likhita japa game and journal keeping activities. Our sketchbooks are supposed to arrive this week, so if all goes according to plan, the kids will begin working in them next week. Please note that we will be keeping their journals for them, so you don't need to worry about making sure they are in the backpack each Sunday mornings On the last day of Balavihar, your child will be bringing his/her journal home ... and hopefully, he/she will continue to work in the book throughout the summer :-)

We are absolutely delighted with the kids' Geeta Chanting – they are doing great and it seems like nearly everyone is right on schedule! We will begin with shloka 6 in our next class. So please keep up the great work at home!

Hope you all stay warm. And if it turns out that the kids are going to get another snow day on Tuesday, I'll post a really yummy recipe for Castillian Hot Chocolate for you all to celebrate with ...

Look forward to seeing everyone again next Sunday. "M is for ...."

Jan 23 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines

Home Fun Work: Here is another little friend from our "animal series" — a mouse. Click here to print out the page and have your child draw this animal. Make sure to have your child practice saying मूषकः (mūṣakaḥ) a few times while he/she is admiring his/her finished art work.

For extra Fun Work: We have posted a "connect the dots" picture for your child to practice their Sanskrit numbers (1-20) with. Click here to print this page.

Click here for our Flashcard set of Sanskrit Numbers 1-10.

Click here for our Flashcard Sanskrit Numbers 11-20.

Morning Prayers:
• Om saha naavaavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree Krishnah (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of some excellent quiet time! Nice shell counting, too!! (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: "J is for Japa"

Activity: Made a Likhita Japa Painting (click here to view project sample)

Likhita Japa: See Activity above.

Comments: Well, word in the kindergarten scene is: "Angry Birds" is one awesome game!!! We spent the first few minutes talking about just how cool this game is. After posting this blog entry, this aunty is going to visit the app store to buy the game — I just gotta see what all the excitement is about.

Parents: You are definitely to be congratulated on how well your children are doing with their Geeta Chanting. We cruised through the first 4 shlokas, and barely struggled with the 5th. We will be starting shloka 6 in our first February class. Kids: we're nearly two thirds through our assignment — and you guys are unbelievable!! Keep up the good work!

Today's letter was "J is for Japa." Other than "B is for Brotherhood," this letter is probably one of our favorites! We posed the question "What does OM mean?" to the kids. Seeing that we say this all the time, we should probably understand it, right? Lots of really great answers were offered: "Peace," "Happiness," "Love," and "God." We then asked them "If we wanted to write one word for all the Gods and all the great things in the world, what would we write?" The room remained silent for a few minutes and then someone shouted out "OM!" That was the magic answer!! We talked about how OM is everything — all sounds, all Gods, the universe (and other universes) etc. OM was everything we could see, and everything we could not see.

We then talked about what Japa was (the recitation of the Lord's name with complete love) and what are all the great benefits we gain from performing japa. For example: we get a heart filled with love for God, tremendous peace, calmness, amazing concentration — and the ability to see the world clearly. After discussing the different ways we can perform japa (mentally, verbally and written) we settled down to do our activity. We made a likhita japa painting. (Please be sure to take a few minutes and view the children's work in the gallery above.)

Our activity began with a simple game: The children were asked to choose one pen color to write OM in their mandala with. However, when their mind shifted from saying OM, they were supposed to put that pen down, pick up another color, and continue writing. These kids were able to sit very quietly for about 10 minutes, completely focused on this activity before we heard any restlessness. Absolutely fantastic!! Some of the older kids can't even sit this long without talking :-) Anyway, this is an activity we will continue to do for the remainder of the year ... and hopefully, we will see the number of colors on the paper reduce with every week :-) We will be keeping a journal of this activity, and at the end of the year each child will be able to see how much stronger their concentration has become as a result of likhita japa.

We want to extend a very big "Hari OM!" to our new friend, Swathi, who joined us for the first time this morning. We are really happy to have her be part of our Sunday morning fun.

Okay, now it's time to go check out "Angry Birds."

Hope everyone stays warm — and we look forward to seeing you again at our next Party with God ...

Jan 09 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines

Click here to see this week's art gallery.

Home Funwork:
• Practice writing राम (Raama) Click here for the tracing sheet.

• Print out the following two activity pages and have your child draw the animals. Practice pronouncing the words, in Sanskrit, with them.

Lion (click here for page)

Fish (click here for page)

For extra fun: Click here for the Flashcards (at Quizlet.com) to learn some animal names in Sanskrit. This aunty uses Quizlet  flash cards to study with. They are really fun — in addition to using them for learning, you can also play games and test yourself :-)

Click here for more card sets and have fun!! We will continue to add learning sets throughout the Balavihar year — so be on the lookout ;-)

Morning Prayers:
• OM saha naavavatu (click here for text)
• Vakratunda Mahaakaaya (click here for text)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (click here for text)
• Shree Hanumaan (click here for text)
• Shree KrishnaH (click here for text)

Quiet Time: 1 minute of silence with very accurate shell counting!  (click here for game instructions)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, Shlokas 1, 2, 3 and 4 (click here for audio and text)

Letter of the Week: "I is for Intelligence"

Story: Ganesha Circles His Parents

Activity: Drew an elephant (click here for activity page)

Likhita Japa: None (click here for tracing sheet)

Comments: Boy it sure was great to be back in class again today. All of our young friends were well rested and ready to go — on time!

We began our very busy class with our morning prayers. We added a new prayer, "Shree Hanumaan" to our weekly curriculum. The children did a super job in repeating the shloka after the aunties. We also spent some time talking about what this prayer means.

After our morning disciplines, we then moved to our letter of the day: "I is for ....." We got lots of great answers from our friends ... some of which were pretty sophisticated, we might add. "I is for Infinity," "I is for Impossible," "I is for India," and "I is for Indra." Then someone shouted out the magic word — "Intelligent."  That was it!!!

We spent a good chunk of time talking about "What is a mind?" and "What is Intelligence?" "What is the difference between the two?" "How are we different from animals, who also have a mind?" We discussed how our mind is responsible for learning about things. And that also our emotions — happiness, sadness, fear, etc. come from the mind. But that our intellect is far more subtler. This is what is responsible for our actions. Our decisions about how to act, in a "right" or "wrong" way, is based on using our intellect. Not easy stuff to digest ....

And so, to illustrate this concept a little more concretely, we told the story of Lord Ganesha circling the world for the celestial fruit. Ahhh .... just what we needed — this definitely helped us understand more clearly!!

We are sorry that we were not able to do our Likhita Japa segment today. Time ran out. Please print out the tracing sheet (above) and have your child continue to practice at home. We have another mini-break coming up and we certainly don't want the children to forget the writing strokes. We will be introducing journal keeping at the end of January ... with their very own personal likhita japa book.

In the meantime, stay warm. Forecast calls for more snow — go figure. Kids, we'll keep our fingers crossed for a "Snow Day." Drink lots of hot chocolate ....

And keep practicing your Geeta shlokas. You guys did great today!!

************

Jokes from some of the kids during our circle time:

1) What do a tree and elephant have in common?
a trunk

2) Why was 5 afraid of 6?
Because 7 8 9.