Announcements

Hari Om Parents,

Our next class is on May 18th, 2014. It is the day for the souvenir photo shoot. Please check the blog for updates on important events.

Please visit www.chinmayavrindavan.org for events and other important information.

April 25th class

Words of the week: None

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)

Bhajans:

  • गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
  • सुब्रह्मण्यम् - subrahmaNyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
  • अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  • कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
  • आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra
  • Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Story: Monkeys and the cap seller

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

Art Project: Oragami paper caps

Sanskrit segment: None

Yoga segment: Suryanamaskaara, stretches, ekapaadaasana, vajraasana, simhaasana, uShTraasana

End of class:

Comments: Rashmi aunty was not in class today as she is away for the week. The Geeta chanting day is fast approaching. Kids, you are doing wonderfully! Keep practicing and we are sure you will do wonderfully. As mentioned in the announcements, our request for the 9.30 am. slot is approved :). Please plan to be there early (by 9 am).

Kids enjoyed the class with the regular bhajans, shlokas and Geeta chanting. They had fun listening to the story of the 'Monkey and the cap seller' and making paper oragami caps too. Expending their energy during yoga time is fun as always!

Snippets: During the story when the cap seller was selling the caps, calling out 'buy my caps, buy my caps', one of our smart shoppers said, '2 at the price of 1'! Boy do we have a pack of smart kids (buyers) or what :-)
Posted by at

April 18th Class

Words of the week: वानरः (vaanaraH - monkey); आपत्ति (aapatti - trouble)

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)

Bhajans:
  • गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
  • सुब्रह्मण्यम् - subrahmaNyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
  • अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  • कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
  • आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Story: Monkey and the Trouble

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- Ashwin Veerappan and Ishaan Kashi -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Art Project: Monkey mask

Sanskrit segment: Shapes and colors; Alphabet; Numbers; vaanaraH vadati ...

Yoga segment: Stretches; ekapaadaasana; vajraasana; simhaasana; uShTraasana; suryanamaskaara

End of class:
  • ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
  • ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments: Back in the cafeteria, we have been doing Geeta chanting practice rigorously! The kids are comfortable with the 5th verse also now. As the big day is soon approaching, we encourage all the parents to register their children for the presentation. The online link is above, in the announcements section.

Missed Hema aunty today too. After the shlokas, bhajans and Geeta chanting, heard a story 'Monkey and the Trouble'. In the story, the monkey saw a lady with a pot of sugarcane juice. It was a hot day, she was tired and on top of everything, she tripped and dropped her pot. She said out loud, 'God, why did you give me so much trouble?' The monkey heard this. Later, he came down and sipped the spilt juice. He liked it very much and he thought the name of that juice was 'trouble' ('cause he heard the lady's sentence! :). He once met God and when God asked him to ask for a boon, the monkey pleaded, 'Oh God! please give me TROUBLE'. When God tried to explain to him, being a monkey, he wouldn't listen. He begged, ' pleeeease pleeeeease give me TROUBLE God, I beg you!'. God, being God :), said, 'fine then, take this bag and open it where there are NO trees'. The monkey obeyed and did as he was told. Out came a dog and started chasing the monkey! There were no trees around for the monkey to climb either, so... 'he was in BIG TROUBLE', like he had asked for :). He realized his mistake and pleaded God to get him out of the trouble (which He did!). We hence learnt never to ask for something we don't know the entire implication of :).

Then our little ones made their own monkey masks to take home. Jumping to 'vaanaraH vadati', with 'mandaM sheeghram' (slow fast) adverbs was fun. The kids are getting agile and are able to stand in the 'ekapaadaasana' pretty well these days! Good job kids!

See you all soon. Keep practicing your shlokas and Geeta verses until we meet again.

Snippets: Aunty held up a monkey mask while telling the story. Immediately one of our toddlers pointed out that it was a 'girl monkey'! Because, the mask had a bow on one of it's ears :). Accepted. We have to be 'technically correct' when we say anything to our smart toddlers :).
Posted by at

April 11th Class

Words of the week: सत्यं वद (satyaM vada - speak truth); परशुः (parashuH - axe)

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)

Bhajans:
  • गणेश शरणम् - gaNesha sharaNam (My prayers, pg. 7)
  • जय जय देवी - jaya jaya devI
  • अम्बा देवी सरस्वती - ambaa devI saraswati
  • कृष्णं वन्दे नन्दकुमारम् - kRuShNaM vande nandakumaaram
  • आञ्जनेयवीर हनुमन्तशूर - aa~njaneyaveera hanumantashUra

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 10, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Story: Woodcutter and his axe

Snack/Juice: Provided by -- Pratik and Sanjay Koushik -- धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).

Art Project: Woodcutter's Axe

Sanskrit segment: Alphabet; Numbers; Animals

Yoga segment: Stretching; vajraasana; simhaasana; uShTraasana

End of class:
  • ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
  • aarati and pledge in the auditorium

Comments: We had to shift our classroom from the cafeteria to another room today. Thanks parents, to all of you who helped us move the chairs and tables, before and after the class too. It was good to see all of you after the spring break. We missed Hema aunty today as she was not feeling very well. Get well soon aunty! Geeta chanting is coming along great. We need a little more work on the 5th one. Parents please try to make them practice it. Those who have not registered, please be reminded to register. It could be done very quickly online. The link is provided above in the 'Announcements' section. When we were practicing the 5th shloka, one of our toddlers said, 'after 5, I will learn shloka 6 and 7 also!' Wow! She took the words right out of my mouth. That was the whole idea, we are going to continue learning more verses after the presentation too. Because, we are not learning Geeta for the sake of the presentation alone, but for the love of learning and understanding them sometime later in life! She was way ahead and let the cat out of our bag :-).

Today, we heard the story of the 'Woodcutter and his axe'. We learnt about the importance of honesty. We saw how the fairy presented the woodcutter, two more axes for being honest. On the contrary, his greedy friend lost his own axe as he lied and said that the golden axe was his. When aunty said that the first woodcutter did not tell lies, one of our toddlers said 'No, he told the truth!' Wow kids! those are big words and concepts. Very impressed that you know and understand them!! Keep it up! That is the whole point of telling stories. Such morals and values are what stay with us for a long time to come.

We made our own axes with paper plates, paint stirrers and aluminum foil. In the sanskrit segment, we reviewed animals in sanskrit, numbers and alphabet. Yoga was fun, with all the stretching and aasanaas. Like always, kids had a blast doing the 'simhaasana' with uncle. Great way to expend their energy in a constructive way :-).

Enjoy the beautiful day outside. See you all in a week. Till then, keep practicing and stay healthy.

Snippets: In the story, aunty said, 'the wood cutter's axe fell into the water... He sat on the bank of the river with a sad face because he lost his axe...'. Our toddler says, 'I go to swimming classes...!' Dah! why didn't the wood cutter think of that. If he took swim lessons, he could have procured his axe himself :-).
Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)