Hari Om Parents,
Welcome to another exciting year of Balavihar. Myself, Purna and Roopa are the teachers and we both are looking forward for another fun and exciting year with the kids.
We have a group of 20 students in our class. We will soon be creating a WhatsApp group with weekly updates apart from these emails.
Our curriculum for 4th grade is continuation of Bala Bhagavatam from 3rd grade. We will be covering 2 books.
1. Krishna Krishna everywhere - These are the stories of Lord Krishna beginning from his birth upto Kamsa Vadha which is the 10th chapter of Bhagavatam. The first nine chapters were covered in 3rd grade which is Dasavatharams.
2. My 24 teachers - In this book, Children will learn what Dattatreya Swamy has learnt from the 24 teachers in nature. This is adopted from the 11th chapter of Bhagavatam more popularly known as Avadhuta Gita.
Kids will learn to chant Govinda Damodara Stotram, Krishna ashtakam and the first chapter from Bagavad Gita with Swamiji's guidance.
Our class always starts with Om chanting and opening prayer of Sahana Vavatu. We started with the first 2 slokas of Govinda Damodara stotram, hand outs of which were passed to the kids.
The first chapter of Krishna Krishna everywhere is about the four yugas and how Kaliyuga came into existence. We told the kids about Kali, who is evil and his abode is where the lord's name is never uttered. We made kids understand how important it is to use good words in conversations with others which makes them feel happy. The first story in this book is about how King Parikshith was cursed, that he would die in 7 days of a snake bite, because of his bad deed of putting a dead snake around a meditating sages neck. King Parikshith spends his last days listening to Bhagavatam from sage Suka maharshi.
We also started My 24 teachers book in parallel and covered the first teacher, Mother Earth.
We started off by telling how anything or anyone can be a teacher as long as you have the right attitude and outlook to learn from them. We told them how Mother Earth provides us with nourishment by giving us grains, and supports us even though we plough, tear her up and dig her for oil, jewels and precious metals without complaining. The moral that she teaches us is to have patience and endurance.
Please send a notebook and pencil with your kids. We will do Likhita japa whenever time permits. The kids wrote, 'Sri Krishna Sharanam Mama' 11 times yesterday.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or Roopa at roopab77@yahoo.com.
Hari Om,
Thank you,
Purna and Roopa.Rashmi
