Dec 19 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Home Funwork:
• Click here to print out a coloring page. Discuss with your child who this picture is of, and why he is so significant to us.
• Click here to print out "Color by Number" page in Sanskrit. (Please note that this is a bit more complicated than the previous coloring pages —if your child has not yet done those, please do them first.)
• Click here for a mandala outline for creative likhita japa. Have your child practice writing राम (Raama.) Be sure and let them use as many colors (and write in any direction) that they wish!


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

Quiet Time: 1 minute and 30 seconds of quiet time. Today we really witnessed a big leap in the children's maturity during this segment. Great job, guys!! We will move on to 2 minutes of silence when our classes resume in January. (click here for game instructions)

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

Letter of the Week: "H is for Happiness"

Activitiy: Read "Little Yash is Happy Right Now" (click here to to see cover of the book)

Likhita Japa: Wrote राम (Raama) 21 times (Click here for tracing sheet)

Ending Prayers: Om Poornamidah (click here for text)

Comments: We were delighted so see all of our friends again today after another mini-break. Once everyone found their name tags and sat down, we spent a few minutes catching up on all the things that have happened over the past few weeks.

We reviewed all the letters we have learned thus far. "A is for Aspiration," "B is for Brotherhood," and so on.  Everyone shouted out the meanings with clear definitions :-) Then we approached our letter for this week — "H." The kids offered some great possibilities about what this could be for ... "H is for Hanumaan," "H is for Healthy," and "H is for Hungry. A couple of the kids then spoke up and said "H is for Happy." Bingo!!!  That was our magic word for the day. We then asked the kids to describe this word. For example, if we met up with an alien from another planet and he asked us what this word meant, how exactly would we explain this to him? We all agreed that this was definitely a hard word to describe ... so we pulled out our book "Yash is Happy Right Now" to help us understand what this word means. And by the time we finished the book we were all pretty clear that "happiness" is an attitude and not something to be found in a toy or favorite food! We even talked about how we may feel termporarily sad sometimes, but that does not mean we don't have a happy attitude deep down inside.

The children are doing exceptionally well with their likhita japa!! Some of our young friends have begun to write without a tracing card ... and are choosing to do likhita japa mandalas during our segment. They sit quietly, saying each letter as they write. Today we spent a few minutes and talked about how we felt when we write राम (Raama). Some of the descriptive words we heard were "cozy," "peaceful," "warm," and "safe."

Our Geeta Chanting is definitely coming along. We have now completed the first 4 shlokas — so we're halfway there :-) We noticed that many of the kids are pretty familiar with shlokas 1, 2 and 3 ... so that's a great sign that they're practicing at home! Shloka 4 is a little rusty ... but that's to be expected seeing that we've had lots of mini breaks lately. In January we will spend the first few classes reviewing Shloka 4, but will also plan to introduce Shloka 5. Please continue to work with your child over Winter Break. We don't want the kids to forget everything they've worked so hard on.

And so, in the spirit of our "letter of the week," we want to wish all of you and your loved ones a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Ashwin, don't forget to bring back some fun pics of your trip to Mexico ... and make sure to eat a quesadilla (with a fresh limeade) for this aunty :-)

Lots of warm hugs to all of our young friends — see you all next year!!

Dec 05 Class: Section 1

Sevikas: Mamtha Rao and Jacqueline Gaines



Home Fun Work
• Print this page. Have your child fill it in with राम (Raama).
• Print this "Color By Number" page in Sanskrit. Be sure to have your child say the numbers and colors aloud as they fill in the triangles.

Click here for Sanskrit numbers 1-5 (with English translation)
Click here for Sanskrit Color Names
Click here for short video on Sanskrit Colors.

For extra, extra work: Click to print Coloring Pages on Sanskrit Numbers 1-10.

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

Quiet Time: 1 minute and 30 seconds — and a great round of 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: G is for God

Activities:
• Reviewed Sanskrit colors (click here for text)
• Reviewed Sanskrit numbers 1-5 (click here for text)

Likhita Japa: wrote राम 21 times (click here for tracing sheet)

Ending Prayers: Aarti and Chinmaya pledge were done in the auditorium.

Comments: Sure was good seeing everyone today after our mini break! We started our morning off with a quick "show and tell" of the work that the kids did over Thanksgiving break. The aunties were definitely impressed with everyone's likhita japa practice — and someone even took the challenge and did the mystery "Color by Number" page in Sanskrit. Please take a minute and view their art work in the slide show above. :-)

Well, we weren't at all rusty with our shlokas — the kids lead the aunties in prayers ... and chanted very nicely (and loudly.) We even got some very detailed descriptions about the prayer's meaning.

After our quiet time we immediately moved to our Geeta Chanting segment. We chanted Shlokas 1 and 2 with ease, but discovered that shlokas 3 and 4 were a bit tricky. Parents: please don't hesitate in using the blog for at-home practice. We will be working with the first 4 shlokas  throughout December and will then introduce Shloka 5 when we restart classes in January. It is our goal to complete all 8 shlokas by April — which will then give us a month to work solidly on all 8 shlokas together.

The children are doing beautifully with their likhita japa segment. They are understanding the sound that each letter makes as they write राम (raama). And we gotta say — their handwriting is quite impressesive, to boot!  We definitely encourage you to print out the tracing sheet and have them continue to write over break. Once we feel that they are getting the letter sequence and strokes down, we plan to move our likhita japa segment into journal keeping and the importance of writing in it daily. If this aunty can get it together over break, one of our class activities in January will be having the children bind their own books the authentic way — with needle and thread :-)

After we reviewed the alphabets we learned so far, we moved on to our topic of the day: "G is for God."  We spent a good chunk of time discussing "Who is God?" "Can we see God?" "Why can some people see God?" "Where is God?" "How do we thank God?" These kids are clearly smart beyond their years! It is obvious that they are understanding the concept of the need to continuously cleanse our mind and heart. Then, and only then, will we be be able to see God always — everywhere. We must learn to talk to Him constantly with prayer, likhita japa, quiet time, etc.  Boy, this auntie sure wishes that when she was 6 years old, she attended Balavihar and knew half of what these kids know  :-)

Hard to believe, but we are are now in the midst of another mini-break. There will be no class on December 12th. Instead, we invite you to make your way to the ashram for the yagna that will be taking place. It sounds like it's going to be a very grounding, spiritual retreat.

In the meantime, we wish everyone another relaxing and peaceful week. Stay warm ... the kids told us today that snow is in the forecast during the next few days. Hopefully, it will be enough to make a snowman or igloo with.

Hugs to everyone — especially to a few of our friends who were not able to make class today.

Eric Carle Museum

If you ever find yourself in Amherst, MA — this is the place to visit! Be sure and check out this site even if you don't have any travel plans in the near future. And while the kids are surfing around, here's a good game for them: Find the picture of Lord Ganesha :-)

Click here for the Eric Carle Museum site.