September 25th Class

Beginning prayers
      ·       'om' chanting - 3 times

·        saha naavavatu

·         gurustotram verses 1-5 and 14

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 and 2 shloka

Story time

·         parIkShit meets kali

·         kali's address

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare  1st vers

Quiet time

·         Writing ‘om’ in Sanskrit

Game time

·         Don't let kali in!

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
     pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

The class is streamlining lot faster!  The kids already know their routine and what to do soon after arrival in the class.  They are a bunch very attentive kids, eager to learn new things!  Within half an hour, we had finished our morning prayers, learning new gurustotram shlokas and gIta chanting.  We are enjoying learning the pronunciation off all the new words in Sanskrit during the chanting time.  Our left wing vs. right wing competition is going tight :).  Both the groups are chanting so well that they are all winners!

We did a recap of the story with all the names and representations we had learnt so far.  We were so amazed at how well the children remembered so many details!  We then continued to learn about how kali was so cruel to the white bull that represented dharma.  It's 4 legs were - austerity, purity, kindness and truth.  Kali had broken 3 of its legs and the bull was standing limp on truth alone.  King parIkShita saw him at this time and was about to punish him.  But then kali begged for mercy.  King parIkshita allowed kali to make his home where there was no dharma.  So kali was granted permission to live in 4 places where there was - gambling, drinking, lust (overwhelming desire) and cruelty.  Kali begged for more places to live and parIkShita granted him to live where there was rajoguNa (running after wealth).

We learnt the words to the first verse of 'raama hare...'  We are getting more comfortable with the words now. Then the children did 'likhita japa' by writing 'om' in Sanskrit, to make a shape of their choice.  Please check with your children to see what we are doing.  Encourage them to finish the likhita japa if they haven't already done it. 

We then played a game where the children stood in a circle facing outwards.  A basket ball was representing kali.  The goal of the game was to not allow kali to enter into the circle they had formed.  They successfully protected the circle except once.  That was a great example to show how easily kali can sneak his way if we are not careful!  We were having so much fun with the game but we ran out of time before the 2nd team got a chance to play.  We will do it again some other time.  We winded up the class with our ending prayers.  
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

September 18th Class

Beginning prayers

·        saha naavavatu

·         akhaNDamaNDalaakaaram

·         aj~naanatimiraandhasya

·         gururbrahmaa

·         tvameva maataa cha 
sthaavaraM ja~ngamaM vyaaptam

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 and 2 shloka

Story time

·         naarada

·         parIkShit meets kali (intro.)

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare (pallavi)

Quiet time

·         Writing ‘om’ in Sanskrit

Game time

·         None

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam
pledge

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

We had a lot of new comers joining us today.  A warm welcome to all of you!  We started with the beginning prayers,  chanting them together.  We added a new one 'sthaavaram ...' today.  It is the 4th verse in the gurustotram.  We will be learning all the 14 verses of the gurustotram this year.

In gIta chanting, we learnt the 1st two verses.  We had a lot of fun repeating difficult words and learning to pronounce them correctly.  We did girls vs boys - one group would repeat after aunty and then the other would do the same.  We were trying to see which group could do it loud and clear.  Guess what, it was a tie!!  Both the groups did so well that aunties couldn't decide which group they wanted to belong :).

We then sang the 'raama hare..' song and went right into the story.  We brushed up what we had done in the last class briefly.  The children did remember a lot of the details that we had said last time!  We built on that and learnt more about the setting of bhaagavatam, who wrote it, how naarada-ji inspired vedavyaasa to write it, who is naarada-ji, how shaunaka rishi's disciples heard about this from suuta-ji, etc.

We learnt the 4 important things we will achieve by listening to the story of bhaagavatam-
*  How to be happy
*  How and why God took avataaras
*  What did He do when He took the avataaras
*  Whom did He save and why

We also gave a brief introduction to how king parIkshit met kali, who was harassing a white bull, which represented dharma.  The white cow representing mother earth was standing there in tears.  We learnt that the bull had 3 of its legs broken and was painfully standing on the one leg.  We learnt that each leg represented a value.  We will learn more about it in the next class.  The children have taken notes.  Please review the new words with them and encourage them to practice saying them.

We wrote 'om' a few times.  Then we ended the class with ending prayers and pledge.  It was a fun class over all!  See you all next week.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

Beginning prayers--

We started the class chanting OM ,Sahanavavatu followed by 2-3 min meditation. We are teaching the children how to chant OM.

 We chanted 3 shlokas of Guru stotram.

Next activity was chanting the "Ganapati Stotram", which describes 12 different names of Lord Ganesha.

Story time--

We continuted with the explanation of trinity , Lord Vishnu as a protector and why lord has taken different avataras. The children repeated the names of all the ten avataras.

Children learnt about who wrote Bhagavam and how many verses are there in it.  Next week we will continue the story of Narada and story of Parikshit and Kali.

 Geeta chating --

The children learnt to chant the first shloka of Chapter 12th. All the famlies have received a copy of hand book upon registration , the hand book has the Geeta chapter 12th in Devnagari as well as English , Please print the english vesion and sent it with your child for next week.

Also, We have asked the children to bring a notebook and pencils/pens.

  

We ended the class with Aarti and pledge.

See you again next Sunday.

Thank you. HariOM.

September 11th Class

Beginning prayers

·        saha naavavatu

·         akhaNDamaNDalaakaaram

·         aj~naanatimiraandhasya

·         gururbrahmaa

·         tvameva maataa cha

Gitaa chanting

·        bhagavadgItaa 12^th adhyaaya 1 shloka

Story time

·         Avataara

·         The background

Chanting/Songs

·        raama hare (pallavi)

Quiet time

·         Writing ‘om’ in Sanskrit

Game time

·         None

Ending prayers and pledge

·        pUrNamadaH pUrNamidam

Comments:

Rashmi Aunty and Indira Aunty:

It was the first day of balavihar for the year.  After making the two sections, we started right off with our beginning prayers.  We acquainted ourselves with each other and quickly learnt that it is a group of very smart children who know a lot about our culture already!  They could narrate a lot of things they had learnt from previous years at home as well as balavihar.  And yes, they are very tech savvy too :).  Most of them said that they will check the blog themselves and share with their parents as well!! 

Then on, we spoke about bhagavadgeeta - what it is about and its importance in our culture as well as our individual lives.  We spoke about how learning it today, will serve as a guiding light for ever in our lives, just as it did for Mahatmaa Gandhi!  This year for the gita chanting competition (which will be held sometime in April/May), our class needs to learn all the 20 verses of the 12th chapter.  We have set the ball rolling already from the first day, so ALL the children should be able to swing it by the big day :). 

In the story time, we spoke about the 'Trinity' of Gods, also know as 'trimUrti-s'.  We learnt that each of them has a 'job'.  The very word 'GOD' can represent the duties of the trinity!

G - Generator
O - Organizer
D - Destroyer

We learnt that Lord vishNu, the organizer, came down when there was an imbalance of evil over good, with real examples (remember the see-saw with the sumo wrestler on one side and you on the other :). This year, we will be learning the story of shrImad-bhaagavatam, written by veda vyaasa.  We then learnt a couplet from the dashaavataaram song 'raama hare kRuShNa hare...'.

Since it was a short class, we did not have enough time for playing any games.  But, we sure had time for writing some ॐ -s for our 'likhita japa' practice.

We ended today's class with the ending prayer and went to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.
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Alka Aunty and Prasad Uncle: 

We started the class chanting OM 3 times and Sahanavavatu.

Then we explained to the children the importance of the altar setup and the pictures of Goddess Saraswati, Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda, and Guruji Swami Tejomayananda.

It is important for the children to know who started this Balavihar.

Then both the teachers introduced themselves giving their email addresses. The children also introduced themselves with their names, which school they go to, what activities they do, etc.

The children are tech savvy; some of them have their own email addresses.

We emphasize on knowing the basic, common things around us. We have asked the children to memorize their home phone number, address, and parents' cell phone number. This is their homework for next week.

Next activity was chanting the "Ganapati Stotram", which describes 12 different names of Lord Ganesha. We explained to the children that Lord Ganesha is called "Vighnaharta" meaning the one who removes the obstacles. We also taught them that He is the god of knowledge, so before we start learning new things this year, we prayed to Lord Ganesha asking him for his blessings.

We explained this year's curriculum to them, which is Bala Bhagavatam. We also introduced the Trinity "Trimurti": the three gods who have three different responsibilites.

Since it was the first day of class, time was short. We will continue with the concept of trinity and why there are different Aavataras of Lord Vishnu.

See you again next Sunday.

Thank you. HariOM.