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.
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 ...."
Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
