Prayers:
- ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
- कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIh (My prayers, pg. 43)
- वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratunda mahaakaayaa
- सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
- गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
Bhajans:
- गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
- सुब्रह्मण्यम् - Subrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
Story: Ant and the Pigeon - Aesop fable
End of class: ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH. Aarati and pledge were done in the auditorium.
Comments: Today was the first day of balavihar for this year. We had lots of new friends along with friends from last year. We can't believe how much you have grown during the summer! We are certainly glad to have you back. To the new friends, we extend a warm welcome. It was a short class today. We got to know each other by names (although it will take us a while to remember all of them :). We familiarized with the class structure. Everyone sat in a circle and did all the prayers, bhajans and geeta chanting wonderfully. Good job class! The kids came up front to aunty for story time and wow, do we have a crowd of smart kids! They were all so attentive and interactive in the very first class. We are sure they will give us more work by the end of the year :)
From next week, we will be having a full class and a whole lot of fun things to do.
We are glad that classes are back in session – look forward to seeing you every balavihar Sunday!
Snippets: During the ant and the pigeon story - 'the ant bit the hunter's leg to save its friend, the pigeon'. "oh, oh! Biting is not a good thing to do..." said one of the toddlers very sweetly. (Din't it take Lord Krishna the whole 18 chapters (of Geeta) to explain this to Arjuna :)
