Week 1
Hari Om Parents!
Welcome to 1st Grade Balavihar, we had a great start to week 1. It was nice to see all of the new and excited faces ready to begin the year & we were really very happy to see all of those familiar faces return for another wonderful year of learning!
Class started with brief introductions of the kids and the teachers.
Shlokas:
- "Om Saha navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
- "Vakratunda mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
We gave a brief explanation of why we chant these shlokas. Many of the kids were excited to tell us about Lord Ganesha! It was nice to hear them share their tales.
Activites:
- In the middle of our story we decided to take a brain break & to do some yoga stretches. We have some trees that can stand straight for a while, but for the most part we have a wobbly forest. We hope to strengthen our trees by the end of the year!
We will be teaching the kids Bala Ramayanam this year.
Our goal for this year is to narrate the story of Lord Rama & inspire the kids to be like Rama. We were able to complete chapter 1 & 2 during our class.
We started off by first geographically situating ourselves on the map of India. Determining which is North and that our story will be gradually progressing Southward.
Our story began in Ayodhya. We started off by describing the city, how it was clean, peaceful, beautiful with tree lined streets, buildings that represented that time. The kids had a hard time relating to the fact that the roads were not tar topped, that there was no electricity, zero technology, no vehicles & walking, horse driven carriages & bullock carts were the primary modes of transportation. No sounds for trains or airplanes or automobiles to disturb the sounds of nature. People sang, danced & played instruments like the mridangam & veena & spoke with each other to keep themselves entertained. We explained how King Dasaratha kept his people & land happy. Leading to the meaning of Ayodhya, "where there is NO fight". King Dashartha had three wives: Kausalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi. Even though the people of Ayodhya were happy, the king was sad as he had no children to succeed him to rule his kingdom. We discussed about who we would go to when we have a problem. Then described how King Dasaratha went to his Guru, sage Vasistha to solve his problem. Sage Vasishta assured the king that he will be having 4 sons in the future. The kids were asked a question from Kindergarten, most of the kids knew the answer when asked "Y" for…! We paused here for a brain break, but a few kids were ready with the continuation:)
We continued our story with the Putrakameshti Yaga preparation. The city of Ayodhya was in full on decoration and preparation mode. The whole city felt like a royal wedding was about to occur. We discussed about the fire ritual & how a yajna purusa emerged with a bowl of payasam. The yajna purusha told King Dasharatha to give the payasam to his queens & then they will have children. Sumithra was away & both queens Kausalya & Kaikeyi saved half of their payasam bowls to share with Sumitra. Then talked about why Sumitra had twins. Please ask the kids & see if they remember the story.
Required books for Grade 1
- My Prayers Book
- Bala Ramayana Coloring Book
We take pictures during class & share them with our class parents, so that you get a feel of what your little ones are up to. If anyone has an issue with that please let us know. If we are asked to share pictures publicly, we will come back to you for separate permission.
Please go to the link below to check out the pictures from this week's class
See you all next Sunday. Class starts promptly at 9:15 A.M and ends by 10:40 A.M. Kids will then assemble at the prayer hall for Arthi and pledge.This would end by 11:00AM.
We require at least 1 parent inside the ashram during the full duration of the class. You are free to choose an Adult Study Group or sign up to Volunteer or Meditate/Read in the Temple.
Regards,
Keerthi Kobla and Dipti Chauhan
