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)
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3 & 4
Bhajans:
- ganesh शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
- जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
- अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI
- आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra
Story: 3 Little Fish
Art Project: Paper Plate Clock
Sanskrit segment: Head, shoulders, knees and toes; Alphabet; Numbers
Yoga segment: suuryanamaskaara, simhaasana; ekapaadaasana; vajraasana; uShTraasana.
End of class:
- ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
- ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: Our classes are going on in full swing, as if in the spirit of welcoming the spring! Oooh, that sound like poetry :). Since today was the first open house for some of the older siblings, parents had to head out after snack time. We had to make a few adjustments to our schedule in lieu of that. We finished all our prayers. We see that many of the children are reciting along with us, without having to be led. That is so awesome! We had to cut short our time for the bhajans. Hence did a few of the ones we do regularly. I know, most of you are disappointed if we don't do 'subrahmaNyam...' (That's my favorite too!) But guess what, keep practicing at home and we will sing it at balavihar soon :).
Geeta chanting is coming along beautifully. It is such a pleasure to hear them. As the weeks are going by, we see more kids chanting more confidently. Parents, can't emphasis enough about making your registrations online. At the risk of sounding repeative, we remind you again to register your children, without fail! Guess what we forgot to tell you in class... The class with the highest number of registrants wins an ice-cream party with Swamiji. Let's make sure we come in large enough numbers to bag that prize :)
In the story time, we heard the story of the '3 little fish' - Timsi, Bucki and Moti. We learnt that Timsi was a very alert and wise fish. Bucki was a procrastinator, but would do his jobs eventually. Whereas Moti, was totally lazy and did not care to do more than..., well..., lazing around! When a fisherman comes, Moti gets almost caught but escapes with the help of his 2 friends. Then Buckie and Moti both learn the importance of alertness, punctuality and wisdom. They promised to never procrastinate their jobs ever again. In honor of that very valuable lesson, we all made a 'Paper Plate Clock' with paint, etc. Some friends whose siblings had open houses took the project home, as they had to leave early.
We then did the sanskrit segment, bursting into laughs again for the alphabet अः (aH). They find it very funny :).
We did our yoga time and added a new aasana called 'uShTraasana', meaning 'the camel pose'. We did the kids version of it, as the true uShTraasana can be challenging :)
Enjoy the warm weather everyone and see you next week at Balavihar.
Snippets: During yoga time, to sit in vajraasana, the instruction was 'sit on the knees'. One of our toddlers starts looking for his mommy's knees! Then we had to correct the instruction and say 'find and sit on your own knees' :).
