April 17th Class

Prayers:

* ॐ 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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH 
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam 
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM

Meditation: 1 minute

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1, 2

Story: The coronation; I know raamaayaNa

Words of the week: pushpaka vimaanam; ayodhyaa; pattabhiShekam; raamakathaa

Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'

Activity: Coloring page of raama's coronation

Game time: Quiz on raamayaNa IQ.  Discussion on the relevance of ethics and values that we have learnt through hearing raamaayaNa.

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments:

Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We had quite a few kids in class, inspite of it being the spring break week!  We did miss a few of you though.  We did the morning prayers, followed by meditation time.  Today's gItaa chanting was the bestest!  Aunties did not have to help them one bit!!  They did all the 14 verses, all on their own, to perfection, without any stuttering or pauses!!!  We were so extremely ecstatic!  We don't have enough words to express our joy :).  Parents, thank you very much for all the practice and encouragement you have been giving them at home.  It truly is showing its colors now!  Many of you have already registered.  Those who have not, please make sure you register them, as the registration will be closing on Tuesday.  After that, you will receive an email with your child's allotted time slot for the 23rd.  Best of luck everyone!  We are rooting for you all :).

After the chanting, was our favorite segment - story time :).  Today, we were finishing up our raamaayaNa!  We did a review of what we have heard so far in the story time.  raavaNa was slain.  The city of lankaa was handed over to vibhIShaNa as king, for restoring it to its original glory.  By now, the 14 years of exile were almost up.  They all sat in the puShpaka vimaanam.  (A small tidbit - puShpaka vimaanam was an aerial chariot, which would always have room for as many people who wanted to ride AND an extra seat!).  So, raama, with his wife sItaa, brother lakShmaNa, dearest hanumaan, sugrIva, vibhIShaNa and all the monkeys, sat in the chariot and left towards ayodhyaa.  They were reminiscing their experiences as they flew over the mountains and valleys of panchavatI, chitrakUtaa, etc.  They sent word to bharata and guhaa, about their arrival.  The joy of the people of ayodhyaa was unbound.  The whole city was festive and joyous.  Everyone celebrated the arrival of their beloved prince raama and princess sItaa.  bharata came running on bare feet to raama.  He fell at his feet and embraced him with love.  He returned the throne to raama immediately.  At an auspicious time, raama was crowed the king of ayodhyaa.  Everyone rejoiced and there was celebration for days.  After the coronation, sItaa gave a pearl garland to hanumaan.  He said that it did not have the sweet taste that chanting raamanaama gave him!  He asked to be blessed that he would be able to sit and listen to raamakatha, where ever it is being told with love, always!  That meant that hanumaan was sitting in our class every balavihaar Sunday, though out the year and listening to the raamakatha we were learning!!

Aunty told a small side story after that.  When all the monkeys were feasting, they were seated in a line for lunch.  Varieties of food was served.  A pickle was served too.  One of the monkeys was trying to pinch a piece of it, when it slipped and jumped off it's hand.  This monkey thought that the pickle was jumping and so, he jumped up to show that he could do that too.  The monkey sitting next to him, said 'I can jump too', so he jumped.  The one sitting next to him... he jumped too :).  Like this, the whole line of monkeys were jumping!  When raama came, he was surprised.  When he questioned one monkey about the jumping, it was clueless!  The whole line of monkeys pointed at each other, without knowing why they were really jumping.  Finally the first monkey pointed to the pickle :) and everyone rolled with laughter :).

After coloring the last page of the book, the kids were very excited to learn that they get to take their precious books home today, to keep!  They had kept the books very well though out the year and aunty had promised a surprise if they did so.  Sure enough, they all go key rings of hanumaan, to go on their back packs or balavihar bags, reminding them to keep ALL their books well, always!

We have also given a consolidated list of relevant values from raamaayaNa, that we want to absorb through the years.  We had a quiz on those values and lo and behold, we got each and every answer correctly from the children!

It was a wonderful class in all!  Enjoy your spring break everyone and keep practicing the gItaa chanting.  We are sure you will all do a wonderful job on 23rd.  Best of luck!

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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:

Today was the most exciting day of all.Today we finished our Ramayana Book and were able to give all the coloring books back. Since the books were kept so neatly and carefully everyone got a beautiful Hanuman key-chain as a reward.

The class started with three loud OM's followed by morning shlokas. Today we discussed the meaning of each shloka and the God associated with them. Meditation time came next. We all sat silently for three minutes chanting and counting the names of Lord Rama.

Geeta Chanting came next.Today was the last day to practice the Shlokas. We have been practicing for almost 7-8 months. The kids are now ready to participate. Best of luck to all of you.

 Story time was the grand finale of our chapter book "Bala Ramayana". Today we described the coronation of Sri Rama and the festivities and celebration in and around Ayodhya. What a joyous ending of the great epic.

We distributed the coloring books back to the students and looked at each and every picture that was colored. Each child described what they thought about each picture.We also discussed about the qualities and values each character represents in Ramayana. We have given a card to all the children with the symbolism in Ramayana.

Lots of pictures were taken today and everyone got the Hanuman keychain for their participation in class as well as keeping their coloring book nice and neat.

The class ended with Arti and pledge.

Enjoy the spring break and we will see you soon!

April 10th Class

Prayers:

* ॐ 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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH 
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam 
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM

Meditation: 1 minute

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 - 14

Story: indrajit; raavaNa himself; The fire test

Words of the week: indrajit; raavaNa; sanjIvinI parvatam; agni;

Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'

Activity: Coloring pages of hanumaan bringing the sanjIvinI mountain; raama and raavaNa duel; fire test for sItaa

Game time: Know your boundaries AND four corners

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.

Comments:
Rashmi aunty and Kusuma aunty:
We started the class with the 3 om-s.  Some of the children were saying the om really long... not because they were holding there breath longer, but they were sipping a small wisp of air in between and continuing to stretch their om-s :).  After having a good laugh over it, we did our regular prayers.  The meditation time was quite.  We discussed how meditation is not just about sitting quietly and chanting in our heads, but also, keeping our minds focused and calm.  We gave examples of how the mind could wander and think of birthday parties, cakes, presents, donuts, etc. :).

We have been practicing gItaa chanting in full swing.  Parents, we urge you to register at the earliest, as the online registrations will close very soon.  The children are doing very well.  Encourage them to practice everyday.

During story time, we reviewed many bits and portions of the story covered so far.  It was amazing to see how perfectly the kids knew all the little details epic so far!  We then continued to hear what had happened after kumbhakarNa was slain.  raavaNa's son indrajit consoled his father and assured him that he will go back to the battle ground again.  He was rampant on the battle field, killing many a monkeys.  He then shot powerful darts and made raama and lakShmaNa swoon!  The only remedy was 4 herbs found on a mountain called 'sanjIvinI parvatam'.  But that was situated in the far far himaalayas.  hanumaan was sent to fetch the herbs.  Since he could not identify the herbs, he brought the whole mountain back to lankaa, in order to save time!  Once the brothers were revived, hanumaan took the mountain back and replaced it where he originally brought it from!!  We understood the importance of cleaning up after we use any toys or books or anything else!  After that, indrajit was slain by lakShmaNa.  raavaNa was drowned in sorrow.  He went himself to the war field and fought fiercely.  Finally, he faced raama.  A very fierce battle ensued.  But in the end, raavaNa was killed by raama, using the astra that sage agastyaa had given.  On hearing the new of raama's victory from hanumaan, sItaa was overcome with joy!  She was dressed up like a queen and brought in a palanquin to raama.  But raama stood cold and stern.  He told her that he did his job of rescuing her and now, she was free to go anywhere, because she lived in a stranger's house for so long.  On hearing this, sItaa was flabbergasted!  She was so devastated that she asked lakShmaNa to set up a fire and she entered into the fire.  Then, fire God himself came, declared her purity and gave her to raama...  We have stopped the story at that and eager to see what happens finally :).

We then did our coloring pages.  We were such a good, keen and listening class that we had time for two games today!  We had a lot of fun.

Our next class is filled with a lot of surprises!  We can't wait to see all that the class has in store :).

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Ruchi aunty and Meera aunty:

We all began with three loud Om's and shlokas followed by meditation. Today in meditation we all sat for full 3 minutes counting the name of Lord Rama. It is  a great accomplishment that we can now sit quietly with our full focus on Lord's name for this much time. All of us did very well. No one was distracted and everybody concentrated and remained quiet. Well done first graders!!

It is almost time for the Geeta Chanting competition. Please register for the competition as soon as possible. We all have been practicing with lot of enthusiasm. Let's all do our best chanting the shlokas.

Story time covered the topics of Indrajit (chapter 35), Ravana Himself ( Chapter 36) and The Fire test (chapter 37). We learned that the real cause of Ravana's sorrow was his wrongful act of abducting some one's wife.Also he was never ready to see his own faults and only listened to people who praised him. We also heard about the battle between the spiritual hero Rama and the intellectual hero Ravana. At the end Rama destroyed the ten headed Ravana.

Coloring session was next.All of us colored chapter 35,36 and 37. We have now reached the end of the book. In the next class we will give the books back to all of the kids. We will also recap all the events and stories according to the pages colored by the kids.

Before we realized, it was time to go home. The class ended with arti and pledge.

April 3rd Class

Prayers:

* ॐ 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')
* करग्रे वसते लक्ष्मीः - karagre vasate lakShmIH 
* समुद्रवसने देवी - samudravasane devI
* शुभं करोति कल्यणम् - shubhaM karoti kalyaNam 
* बुद्दिर्बलम् - buddirbalaM

Meditation: 1 minute

Geeta Chanting: Chapter 11, shloka 1 - 14

Story: sItaa deceived; princes revived; kumbhakarNa

Words of the week: indrajit; sarpaastra; garuDa; kumbhakarNa

Likhita japa: Practice writing 'राम'

Activity: No coloring pages

Game time: 'Know your boundaries' - along with pointers from today's story.

End of class:

• ॐ पूर्णमदः - Om poornamadaH.
• aarati and pledge were done in the auditorium.

Comments:

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

The two sections were combined today.  We settled down quickly and started off with our morning prayers.  We spoke about the significance and meaning of some of the prayers we did. 

The gItaa chanting competition is fast approaching.  The practice in class is going in full swing.  Parents, please encourage them to do it regularly at home and make sure you register them online for the big day.  If you saw how well they were doing in class, you would, without a doubt register each and everyone for the competition!  We were so impressed!!  

Meditation time with 40 some kids in class, happened in total silence!  Good job kids.  You were all very composed and focused, just like shrI raama. 

Before going into the story time, we spoke about the 11th chapter of the gItaa we are learning.  We spoke about what happened in this chapter and what was the topic of conversation between kRuShNa and arjuna.  We saw the picture of the viraat swaroopa viShNu, like we do in each class.  We also spoke about how arjuna needed special vision to see that.  He could not possibly have seen it with his plain eyes.  We compared it to how we need 3D glasses to see a 3D movie.  Similarly, to see the entire swaroopam of the Lord, we need special vision for sure!  The conversations and questions were very interesting.  Please discuss with your children what their ideas were and what they spoke in class.

In the story time, we saw how raavaNa tried to deceive sItaa with a fake head of raama on a plate, which he created through his magic.  But it vanished as soon as raavaNa left.  This confused sItaa, but she was consoled by a kind raakShasi, saying that it was a trick of raavaNa.  Even raavaNa's grandfather advised him to return sItaa but he wouldn't budge.  They were all set to start the battle.  Then, sugrIva suddenly got enraged and jumped off into the palace quarters of raavaNa to deal him, himself!  They both fought fiercely.  But raavaNa resorted to magic, which sugrIva was no match.  He returned to raama's camp.  raama advised him that, being a king, it was not wise of sugrIva to be hasty.  Although he was a king, sugrIva was not arrogant.  He acknowledged his mistake and apologized.  The battle began.  Both sides fought fiercely.  Many rakShasas, as well as monkeys died on both sides, many more were injured as well.  Once, raavaNa's son indrajit, used 'sarpaastra' (snake darts) against raama and lakShmaNa.  They both fell down unconscious.  In a haste, indrajit concluded that they were dead!  He went and reported to his father as well.  Rejoicing, raavaNa asked sItaa to go take a look in his puShpaka vimaanam.  When she was in utter sorrow on seeing the sight, trijaata, a kind raakShasi consoled her saying the divine glow on their faces is proof enough that they are not dead.  Soon after, garuDa, Lord viShNu's vehicle, came swooping down.  At the very sight of the bird, the snake darts left raama and lakShmaNa!  They were revived.  (We also spoke about how aadisheSha, viShNu's bed and his vehicle, the garuDa, live cohesively in vaikuNTa!  How come?  The difference being the goodness in a person.)  raavaNa had lost a lot of his strong soldiers.  His only resort was his brother kumbhakarNa, who was cursed to sleep for six months continuously.  He was in one of those spell currently.  He HAD to be woken up.  After a lot of efforts, he awoke.  After listening to the narration of the happenings from raavaNa himself, kumbhakarNa told him that it was very wrong of raavaNa to have stolen sItaa.  But he would still be loyal to his brother and lay his life for him.  He fought fiercely.  But he knew his end was nearing.  He made his way towards raama, as he wanted to die in his arms.  After a long battle, raama cut off his arms, limbs and killed him!

We will see what happens in the next class.  We had such a long story today, we did not do any coloring pages :).  Not really.  There were no coloring pages filled with the gory details of the war!  We enjoyed playing the game of 'know your boundaries' along with examples from the story today.  We went to the auditorium for aarati and pledge.

See you all next week for another fun session.