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)
* वसुदेवसुतं देवं - vasudevasutaM devaM (My prayers, pg. 15)
* सर्वोपनिषदो गावो - sarvopaniShado gaavo (My prayers, pg. 15)
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
Bhajans:
- गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
- अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI
- कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
- आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra
Story:
Art Project: Om tracing cards
Sanskrit segment: Alphabet; Numbers; Shapes; Head, shoulders, knees and toes
Yoga segment: Surya Namaskaara; ekapaadaasana; vajraasana; simhaasana; uShTraasana
End of class:
- ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: We are glad to welcome the 5 new toddlers who joined us today. Our super duper kids have been chanting all the shlokas so well that we introduced a new one today. We learnt 'सर्वोपनिषदो गावो - sarvopaniShado gaavo', which is a verse from the 'geeta dhyaanam'. In bhagavadgeeta, we started learning the 5th and the final verse (for our toddler class), for the May 2nd presentation. Most of the kids are comfortable with the first 4 verses now. We will perfect the 5th too, by the big day, which brings us to the parents! Parents, do register your children at the earliest. We are aware that we have been bombarding you with this topic time and again, but for a good reason. No, it is not just the ice-cream party :), but the very fact that they are all doing so well. It would be a nice to see them all do the same at the ashram. Seeing the older kids will be encouraging for them. And more so, to instill the love of learning bhagavadgeeta, which will stay with them for a long long time to come.
We did the story of a little parrot, who was advised by a sadhu to beware of the hunter. The parrot, being a parrot :), repeated after him 'beware of the hunter'. It would repeat that sentence time and again. The sadhu thought that the parrot had learnt his lesson. Once when a hunter came to the forest and spread a net, the parrot repeated 'beware of the hunter'. Soon after he finished saying that, he went and sat in the net and got caught by the hunter. Sitting in the cage, he promptly repeated 'beware of the hunter'! Because, he had only learnt to repeat the sentence, without ever thinking about the meaning of behind it. Although he repeated it repeatedly, he did the exact opposite! From this, we learnt that it is not enough to just know about stuff, but we have understand and apply the knowledge practically. The children totally got the purpose of the story (see snippets)!
The children were so enthusiastic today that, after snack time, they came upfront and got ready for the sanskrit segment! We had to shuffle around our art segment and finish our sanskrit learning first. We had done the vowels of the sanskrit alphabet before. Today, we introduced the first ten consonants of the varNamaala (alphabet) too. Sanskrit numbers, they are a perfect 10 in saying 1-10 :). We reviewed shapes and colors, which they are very comfortable. Singing our sanskrit version of 'head, shoulders, knees and toes...' was fun too.
We saw beautiful lines when the children traced on the laminated 'om' cards. We have some very deft hands here. It was a joy seeing them write so intently.
They enjoyed taking deep breaths and doing all the yoga poses. It was fun seeing them try to keep their balance while doing the ekapadaasana :).
We see some of kids running around in the class. Parents, please be reminded to not let your children do that. They can get badly hurt if they slip and fall. Also, if one of them starts running, it magnetically attracts the rest of the bunch and distracts from the curriculum.
We will not be meeting for the next 2 Sundays. We will meet again on April 11th. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions at the feedback link provided above (in the announcements). The link is valid until April 7th.
Enjoy your spring break everyone.
Snippets: After the story, aunty said - 'I will keep saying - eat the food, eat the food - but just sit in front of the plate, or, I will say - don't run on the street, don't run on the street - even as I am running across the street, can I?' The kids laugh hysterically and say, 'No you can't. That doesn't work!' - Isn't it as simple as that!!
