Announcements

Balavihar for the year 2012-13 will start at Cross Roads South Middle School at 10 a.m. on September 16th.

For registering online, visit http://chinmayavrindavan.org/

We are looking forward for a fun filled year of learning and growing at our balavihar!

November 21st Class

Prayers:

* सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI

Meditation: 1 minute

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Story: To the forest

Words of the week: sumantra; guha; dharma

Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'

Activity: Coloring page of guha washing the feet of raama, who is off to the forest accompanied by sItaa and lakShmaNa

Game time: raama ball game

End of class:
  • पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments:

Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:

Do we have good listeners or what!  Last class, we spoke about being organized.  It not keeps the place clean, but our minds too.  A cluttered place makes our minds chaotic as well.  We spoke about keeping all the shoes in line when we enter the class so that we are not tripping over them.  Today, almost everyone remember and lined up their shoes neatly!!  Three cheers to our good listeners.

After our morning prayers and quite time, we did geeta chanting.  It is going well.  We can see that practice at home has been paying off!  Please continue the good work. 

We did a recap of the story so far.  The kids sure remembered even the minutest details!  We then listened to how kaikeyi was adamant about her wishes.  She had let manthara's words spoil her head.  From this we learnt that it is not a good idea to 'borrow someone's brain', just as we wouldn't borrow someone's nose to smell or someone's teeth to eat ;).  The whole city was grief stricken.  raama was calm as ever.  His brother lakShmaNa is enraged but raama calms him down.  sItaa says that she will accompany him everywhere and gets ready to leave to the forest.  lakShmaNa does not give raama any choice.  He gets ready to leave as well.  They take the blessings of their parents and leave a lamenting dasharatha behind.  The whole city follows them, but raama turns them back gently.  The minister sumantra escorts them to the end of the city on the chariot.  They meet guha, the tribal king, on the banks of river gangaa.  He offers them to stay back with him for the 14 years comfortably, but raama turns him down too.  We learnt from his action, that he did not cheat.  His word was that he would retire to the forest for the duration and he wouldn't by sly to take the easy way out!  We also learnt that he respected the word of his father and would go to any extent to keep dharma

Coloring was fun.  Then we played the raama ball game.  Every time the receiver had to say raama before catching.  If not, the player would be out.  Guess what, no one was out!  They all remembered.  The lesson we learnt from the game was that, just as we said raama before getting the ball, we need to remember Him for everything we receive, everyday!  He gives us so many things and we need to receive it with gratitude, remembering Him every time! 

We dispersed after our ending prayers.  Have a nice long weekend everyone.  See you all on Dec 5th.

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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:

Today we had yet another fun filled learning day. We Started with our morning shlokas and then did meditation. Today we all sat silently for two whole minutes. Wow that was AMAZING!! Good job everyone. We were so quiet that a parent who was looking for our class thought that our classroom has changed since there was no noise coming out of our class!! Now that is a job well done. There was a discussion about what happens during meditation and some of us shared our thoughts that God talks to us during this time and how some of us could picture Lord Rama in our minds.
We did very good in Geeta Chanting time and learned 5th shloka today. Please keep practicing at home. Since we all were a little tired sitting down we did some stretching and then sang a Bhajan. Since everyone loves to sing “subramanyam subramanyam” , we all sang loud and clapped with full enthusiasm. Story time was all about Lord Rama leaving for Forest to spend 14 years of exile. We learned that Rama accepted to go to the forest because it was his foremost duty to obey his father. We also recapped the story so far and asked some questions about the story.
After the story we all played the game “ Rama Ball”. Rama nama can be fun. We all stood in a big circle and played catch with a soft toy. Whoever caught the toy would say Rama. The child who did not say Rama was out of the game. But guess what no one forgot to say Rama! So no one was out of the game. All of us won.
We colored chapter 10th in our Ramayana folder and also did likhita japa. When we were ready to head out we all played Ramah Vadati and then did our closing prayer.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and we will see you all after next Sunday!


November 14th Class

Prayers:

* सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI

Meditation: 1 minute


Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Story: paraShuraama; The poisonous seed (of thought)

Words of the week: paraShuraama; viShNu dhanus

Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'

Activity: Coloring page of manthara sowing the poisonous seed in kaikeyi's mind

Game time: 'No, I will be like raama' game

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

Comments:

Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:

The class started off with the 3 om-s and the prayers.  We did the shloka for 'bhUmidevi namaskaara', which we should chant first thing in the morning, sitting in the bed, even before setting foot on the ground.  It is a prayer which asks mother earth to pardon our stepping on her.

We started the 5th verse in geeta chanting.  The words are tricky but with practice, we sure are going to swing it as well.  Parents please make sure you practice with them regularly.

In the story time, we heard how jubilant entire mithilaa was.  They celebrated the marriage of not just raamaa to sIta, but also that of Urmilaa to lakShmaNa; maanDavI to bharata; shuratakIrtI to shatrughna.  As customary, sItaa was to leave to ayodhyaa with her newly wed family.  She bade a tearful farewell to eveyone who were in tears as well.

Then while on their way to ayodhyaa, a furious paraShuraama came.  He had heard the snap of the shiva dhanus.  He challenged raama to string the viShNu dhanus (viShNu's bow), which of course, raama did it as if it were his toy. Then paraShuraama calmed down, gave the viShNu dhanus to raama and left for the himaalaya-s.   After that, everyone returned to ayodhyaa and rejoiced the arrival of their princes as well as the newly wed princesses.   sItaa was adored by one and all.

One day, dasharatha  decided to coronate raama as the next king.  bharata and shatrughna were visiting their grandfather in kekeya (kaikeyi's motherland).  raama was supposed to be coronated the next day.  When raama was told about this, he very calmly accepted the blessings of his father and guru-s.  But manthara, a maid of kaikeyi was not happy.  She conveyed this information to kaikeyi, who too rejoiced.  But then, manthara sowed the seeds of poison in her thought.  She urged her to take measures to stop raama's coronation and make her own son bharata the king.  As a means to this devious end, she told kaikeyi to use the two boons king dasharatha had bestowed her long ago, when she had helped him in a battle.  She taught kaikeyi to ask for - bharatha's coronation as the first boon and raama's exile for 14 yrs as the second!  kaikeyi did exactly that.  She lamented, cried and threw tantrums.  She gave no choice to dasharatha.  When raama was called and conveyed the happenings by kaikeyi, he again, very calmly accepted and also rejoiced for the fact that his brother bharata was to be king.  He did not flinch even a bit and started preparing to leave to the forest.

We saw how if we let the mean words others influence us, we shall be in sorrow as well, just as kaikeyi.  The kids promised to not let others influence them into doing bad stuff. 

After coloring time, we played the game, 'No, I'll be like raama'.  Aunty would say some scenarios where they could either be overly excited or extremely sad (wanting to throw a tantrum).  The children said they would all be like raama and keep their calm under such circumstances too!

We then had ending prayers and headed to the auditorium for the 'diwaali presentation'.
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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:


We had a quiet start today. There were only a few students at the start of the class but more came in as we progressed. We would like to welcome three new kids to our class.Akshaj,Divya and Meghna have joined us today. We hope they have as much fun as we all have. Parents please bring your kids on time.We would like to start 10:00 AM sharp. There are lots of topics to cover and we want to utilize the time fully.
Today we talked about Diwali and how some of us celebrated it. We also talked about the difference in Diwali celebrations back in India and over here in US. Coming back to our regular schedule, we all started with Shlokas followed by meditation. Geeta Chanting is coming along very well but and we need some more enthusiasm while chanting. Please practice at home.
Story time was all about The " Tale of Parashurama" and "The Poisonous Seed". We talked about why kaikeyi's vision of Rama changed and how she allowed Manthara to sow a poisonous seed in her mind. We talked about how Sri Rama was as cheerful as always regardless of the circumstances. Rama remained calm and happy when he was asked to be a King and he did not get depressed when he was asked to go to forest. To emphasize this we played a game where we described different scenes and asked children what they would do, if they were Rama and what they would do if they were kaikeyi. Kids had very interesting answers. Please ask your kids for more details.
Coloring segment was fun as always. Many of us have been absent so we need to catch up on our coloring activity. Meera and I were thinking to have one make up class to catch up on this favorite activity. We all did very well writing Rama on the blank side of the coloring book and some of us wrote it in our composition book. Please don't forget to bring your pencils, Crayons and erasers so we all can concentrate more and get less distracted looking and asking for a particular color.

When we all got ready with our jackets and shoes on ,we played our favorite game " Ramah Vadati". we introduced many new words today. Ask your children if they remember all the new Sanskrit words. We will continue playing/practicing and soon master all these fun Sanskrit words.

The class came to an end with aarti and pledge in the auditorium. We look forward to see you all next Sunday. Have a great week and take care:)

Hari Om!!

November 7th Class

Prayers:

* सहनाववतु - Om sahanaavavatu (My prayers, pg. 6)
* वक्रतुण्ड महाकाया - vakratuNDa mahaakaayaa
* सरस्वति नमस्तुभ्यम् - saraswati namastubhayam (My prayers, pg. 44)
* गुरुर्ब्रह्मा - gururbrahmaa (My prayers, pg. 9, 3rd shloka of 'gurustotram')

Meditation: 1 minute

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2, 3, 4

Story: King janaka; raama weds sItaa

Words of the week: mithilaa; swayamvara

Activity: Coloring pages of sItaa playing with the shiva-dhanus; raama breaking the bow; paadukaa-s in mithilaa nagari; Wedding gift for raama & sItaa - surrendering all our bad habits.

Game time: 4 corners game with our limbs ;).

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

Comments:

Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:

As Ruchi aunty/Meera aunty's classroom was locked, we ended up combining both the sections.  Boy!  did we have double fun or what!!  We did all the chantings loud and clear, yet, during meditation time, it was quite as could be!  Geeta chanting was with full energy as we had double the friends in class today.  They are doing very good with the first 4 verses.  We will certainly introduce the 5th in the next class.

In story time, we heard the part of raamaayaNa where king janaka found sItaa, while tilling the land for a yagna.  We learnt that there is an element of God in each aspect around us.  Even mother earth is considered a deity.  We learnt a new shloka.  It is a prayer to mother earth that we need to chant every morning, before even putting our feet on the ground, asking Her forgiveness for stepping on Her.  It is -

समुद्रवसने देवी पर्वतस्थनमण्डले
विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे

samudravasane devI parvatasthanamaNDale
viShNupatni namastubhyaM paadasparshaM kShamasva me

We then learnt how sItaa was a wonderful, perfect princess who learnt everything taught to her.  She was very attentive, obedient, gentle and kind to everyone.  When she came to be of marriageable age, her father king janaka, wanted to give her to the most perfect prince that there was.  In order to find that person, he set up a challenge.  The person who lifted the bow of Lord shiva and strung it, would be given the hand of sItaa in marriage.  Of course, there was none other than raama who could not only lift it, but He also broke the bow in half!  Everyone rejoiced and started preparing for the wedding.

We all wanted to give a gift to raama for his wedding.  While giving a gift, one gives what the receiver doesn't have.  raama obviously has EVERYTHING!  But then, he does not have any bad qualities like - telling lies, being mean, hurting others, dis-obedience, etc, does He!  So, we decided to offer all our shortcomings to raama as a present.  But then, we also learnt that, by giving up our bad habits to raama, it doesn't make Him bad in any which way, for, he will turn them all into good!  Good habits, for us.  It is a win-win situation!!  After coloring the pictures, all the children wrote down a few of their own imperfections that they wanted to work on.  They gave it as an offering to Lord raama and promised to work on making themselves better in those arenas.  Do take a moment and ask your children what their thoughts were.  Help them and give them reminders about their promise every now and then, so that they can achieve their goal.

We then played the game of 4 limbs.  We had 'raama, sIta, janaka and bhUdevi' for the 4 limbs and had fun along with a good workout, matching with the names called out.

We finished the class with our ending prayers and a reminder to keep our promises about working on our weaknesses.

Have a nice weekend everyone.  See you all next week!