Prayers:
· ॐ सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
Yoga segment: Jumping, Lion Pose, Stretching, Namaskara Pose, Cobra Pose, Tree Pose, Surya Namaskara (Sun Salutation)
Shlokas:
· वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
· कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karaagre vasate lakshmIH (My prayers, pg. 43)
· बुद्दिर्बलं - buddirbalaM (Lord HanumAn shloka)
· वसुदॆवसुतं दॆवं – vasudEvasutaM dEvaM (My prayers, pg.15)
Bhajans:
· lÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ rÉSÒlÉlSsÉÉsÉÉ – nandalAlA yadunandalAlA (My prayers, pg. 53)
· xÉÑoÉë¼hrÉqÉç xÉÑoÉë¼hrÉqÉç - suBrahmanyam suBrahmanyam (My prayers, pg. 62)
· Oh Great God GaNapathy, I bow to thee
Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 – 4
Art Project: Peacock coloring page
Shloka before meal: ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam (My prayers, pg. 45)
Snack/Juice: provided by Upasana and family: धन्यवादः (DhanyavaadaH).
Story Segment: Theme: Devotion to parents: Ganesha and Karthikeya
Sanskrit lesson of the week: Counting 1 - 10; qÉrÉÔUÈ mayUraH – peacock
Game Segment: GaNeshah vadati
End of class:
ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare (My prayers, pg. 22).
xÉuÉåï pÉuÉliÉÑ xÉÑÎZÉlÉÈ - sarve bhavantu sukhinaH
ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
Comments: It was great to meet everyone after a 2 week break. We started with warm up and Yoga to drive the sleepies out! Then we said our shlokas. It is very impressive that many of our little friends have begun to chant the shlokas by themselves! The kids picked some Bhajans to sing, not to forget their all time favorite, Great God GaNapathy! Then we chanted all the 4 verses of chapter 11 of Gita twice. Then it was time for our art project.We colored peacocks. We learnt that the peacock was the vehicle of Karthikeya and the mouse was the vehicle of his brother, Ganesha. Then it was snack time. Today’s snack was provided by Upasana’s family, although, Upasana was unable to join us today as she was sick. It was very kind of her parents to drop off the snacks. We chanted ब्रह्मार्पणम् – BrahmArpaNam and had our snack. After snack time, we counted 1 – 10 in English and Sanskrit to help us wind up and get ready for Nanda Aunty’s story. Today’s story was about how Maharshi Narada had a contest for Ganesha and Karthikeya to win the mango (fruit of knowledge). Narada said that whoever goes around the world and gets back to him first would get the fruit. Karthikeya, immediately hopped on his peacock and set about flying around the world. Ganesha had a mouse for a vehicle and there was no way he could win this contest unless he thought of a clever way. When he thought about it he decided that his parents were the world to him and so he went to them and with their permission went around them once and went back to Maharshi Narada and claimed the prize. Hence we pray to Ganesha to gain knowledge. The moral of the story is that if we serve our parents, we will get the benefit of serving the whole world. Another interpretation would be that we try our best to look far and wide to achieve our goals but the secret lies within us. We should make the best use of our strengths and limitations to achieve success in life. The stories from our Puranas have so many valuable lessons for all ages and it is amazing that we discover new things each time we hear/learn them. Then we played GaNeshah vadati and Mama nAma where we passed around Frosty the snowman! Finally, we sang ॐ जय जगदीश हरे - Om jaya jagedeesha hare and chanted xÉuÉåï pÉuÉliÉÑ xÉÑÎZÉlÉÈ - sarve bhavantu sukhinaH and ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH and completed today’s class. We will meet after yet another long break on the 9th of January, 2011. Meanwhile, please keep practicing the Gita verses with the children.
