Hari Om Families,
Hope you are well and are enjoying your holiday!
This wonderful 2nd grade class has come a long way since the start of Balavihar. In the last class, we finished the first section of the curriculum, which was all about the Dhyana Sloka. The students learned the entire sloka, most by hearting it, and were able to quickly name each attribute in English matched to the sloka. We spoke about Balam (Strength), Yasas (Fame), Dhairyam (Courage), Nirbhayatvam (Fearlessness), Arogata (Free From Disease), Ajadyam (Alertness), and Vakpatutvam (Eloquence). The children were asked to recall many past life experiences to further understand these attributes. They all had very creative ideas and were able to connect a lot of things they experience on the daily with what we were teaching. One interesting activity we did was on the day we were teaching the students about Alertness or Ajadyam. We split the class into boys and girls and had each group go to the main hall separately. The children were asked to observe what was around them, remember the objects, and come back and name as many as they could. The students really enjoyed this activity and exposed them to the idea of being alert and aware of their surroundings. Activities like these were practiced in every class to convey the attributes to the children, and they came across very well.
In the last class, we did a backbone arts and crafts activity. The children cut out the names of each attribute, both in Sanskrit and English, and created Hanuman's Backbone. It was made to convey to students all the attributes Hanuman has that make up his backbone and give him strength. Students loved the activity and we will display them in our classroom. Tomorrow we will be starting Section 2 of the curriculum, which is all about the Hanuman Chalisa.
The children have also been chanting Hanuman Chalisa in every class. They are moving at a great pace and with practice at home, they will be great! Please make sure to practice both Hanuman Chalisa and the Bhagavad Gita with your children. They will benefit from this a lot.
Thank you for reading! Please reach out on Whatsapp with any questions!
Hari Om,
Lakshmi and Pooja
