October 25th Class

Words of the week: चतुरः शशकः (chaturaH shashakaH - clever rabbit)

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')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1 & 2

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - Subrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  
• अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
• गोपाला गोपाला - gopaalaa gopaalaa
  

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story: Clever Rabbit

Art Project: Rabbit finger puppet

Sanskrit segment: Shapes, Numbers, ShashakaH vadati

End of class:

• ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).

• आरति श्री चिन्मय सद्गुरु की - aarati shrI chinmaya sadguru kI
  

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: We have a wonderful class of very smart kids! They are so comfortable with the first shloka of the 10th chapter of Bhagavadgeeta. They could chant with aunty by themselves. No parents were allowed to help! Excellent practicing kids. We also started on the 2nd shloka today. How cool is that!

We added a new bhajan for Lord Krishna too - 'Gopaalaa gopaalaa...'. We are grooving along class. Also the kids have promised to lead us with some of the shlokas and bhajans next class. We have a break for 3 weeks, so enough time to practice at home. But we will miss seeing you for the next two Sunday mornings :(.

We learnt in the Story of the 'Clever Rabbit' that sometimes, even though we are not very strong, we could use our smarts to get out of tough situations. We hopped along with our very own bunny finger puppet too in the art segment.

Our kids are already sure of their sanskrit numbers and a few shapes too! We sure know our verbs, we played the 'shashakaH vadati' almost to perfection! We will have to come up with more new books and games now.

Enjoy your break and stay healthy.

Snippets: During shloka time, aunty asked 'which shloka do we chant next'. The clue was, 'It is for someone who holds a veena in her hands'. Toddler says - 'Me!' Unfortunately, we couldn't come up with a shloka on our toddler. We had to settle for the one we knew on Goddess Saraswati :).

October 18th Class

Words of the week: एकत्वे बलम् (ekatve balam - Unity is Strength)

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')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - Subrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  
• अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  

Snack/Juice: Provided by Aditi and Vishnu -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story: Unity is Strength.

Art Project: Diwali Greeting cards

Sanskrit segment: None

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
• Aarati and pledge done in the auditorium.
  

Comments: Nice class inspite of the weather. The kids are getting better at chanting the 1st Geeta shloka now. They have been trying to chant the shloka themselves with aunty - no parents are allowed to help at that time, right kids!

We learnt in the story that there is Strength in Unity, hands on. Like in the story, all the kids got their own sticks (ear buds). They tried to see if they could bend it. Guess what, they even broke it! Then a bundle of sticks (ear buds) were passed around to see if they could bend that. Apparently, none of us were strong enough to bend the bundle. Through this, we learnt a valuable lesson - Unity is Strength. When asked why they couldn't bend or break the bundle, many of the kids had right answer. It is because 'they are many' and 'they are tied together'. When we co-operate and stick together, we are stronger and are able to accomplish more. We even applied the lesson during art time. We shared the Gel-pens (which worked like magic on the black cards, right) with our friends and made the cards more colorful!

Parents, very colorful and creative cards indeed. The ideas and color combinations were unique and beautiful.

Have a very Happy, Colorful, Cheerful and Prosperous Diwali everyone.

Snippets: Our toddler dialogues seem to come during story time generally. (And rightfully so, that's the time they have a say regarding their opinions :-). The question was - 'do we help our parents at home?' The chorus of course says 'Yes, I help my mom/dad!'. The follow-up question was - 'How do you help?' Our toddler promptly says 'Make her cook!'... How generous :-).

October 11th Class

Words of the week: काकः (kaakaH - crow); शृगालः (shRugaalaH - fox)

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')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - Subrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  
• अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  

Snack/Juice: Provided by Dakshata and Udgita -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story: Crow and the fox

Art Project: Lakshmi Toran

Sanskrit segment: Shapes, GaneshaH vadati, Numbers

End of class:

• ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).

• आरति श्री चिन्मय सद्गुरु की - aarati shrI chinmaya sadguru kI
  

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: The kids tried chanting the first geeta shloka after aunty. We asked the parents not to assist them and the kids did good for their first attempt.

In lieu of Diwali, we learnt that we celebrate the festival of lights during this time of the year. As the days start getting shorter, it is a nice way of making the days more brighter! We made our own beautiful 'Lakshmi Torans' to hang above the doorways. They will certainly make the festival more colorful. The Lakshmi on the torans will make Diwali more prosperous for all.

In the story 'Crow and fox', we learnt not to fall for false praise or feel too proud of ourselves. We sure have a bunch of good listeners.

At the same time, we ask parents to refrain their children from playing with toys during the class time. We do understand that they like to bring in a comfort toy or a stuffed animal with them. That's okay. But please pack them up before the class begins. Since children in our class are very young, they get distracted very easily and then the whole class follows suite and class becomes chaotic. We thank you in advance for your co-operation in this regard.

We wish you all a Happy, bright, cheerful and prosperous Diwali.

Snippets: During bhajans, after learning the Ganesha bhajan and moving on to Subrahmanya bhajan, the question was - who is Subrahmanya's brother. Promptly got the answer from one toddler - 'Ganesha'. Then when asked what does Subrahmanya sit on, another toddler very cheerfully repeated - 'Ganesha'!

October 4th Class

Words of the week: सिंहः (siMhaH - Lion); शशकः (shashakaH - rabbit)

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')
* बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalam (Lord Hanumaan shloka)

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1

Bhajans:

• गणेश शरणम् - Ganesha sharanam (My prayers, pg. 7)
• सुब्रह्मण्यम् - Subrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
• जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  
• अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- Ritesh धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Story: Clever Lion (चतुरः सिंहः - chaturaH siMhaH)

Art Project: Paper bag Lion Puppet

Sanskrit segment: Numbers, praanI (Animals)

End of class:

• ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).

• आरति श्री चिन्मय सद्गुरु की - aarati shrI chinmaya sadguru kI
  
• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: Today we learnt lot of new things. We have added Hanumaan shloka, Saraswati bhajan and two more new sanskrit words to our collection. Good going kids! In a couple of weeks, we will all be chanting the first shloka of Bhagavadgeeta, without the parents helping us! How about that. Once we get that, we will move on to add the second shloka as well. In the story, we learnt that we need to use our own intelligence and not just follow what others are doing. Good job on the project too. We have captured some beautiful lions that you made - in the camera, that is. The pictures are posted as well. We have learnt more animal names in the sanskrit segment, which are posted in the 'sanskrit lessons' section. We will be practicing them more so that we will always remember them.

Snippets: In the Story of the 'Clever Lion', the rabbit thinks that the sky is falling on his head. Of course our toddler has a line to say - 'No, the sky can't fall. The sky is up in the sky!' - in a matter-of-factly manner.