HariOm Parents,
We had a great Friday yesterday with all your children. It was amazing to see how they were all prepared to join the class to have some fun. Yes, it is kind of difficult for them to focus from home but they are getting a very good feel about it. So, I am sure they will enjoy it more as we progress.
Additional Guidelines for Zoom class to be followed (from what we observed yesterday)
1. Keep your balavihar bag ready with you as you login (My prayers, Govinda Damodara stotram printout, Balavihar handbook, Likhita japa notebook, pencil and sharpner)
2. No screen sharing or chatting. Only children are allowed to mute and unmute so they can speak.
3. No sitting on bed or leaning in bed while doing balavihar class
4. No eating please during the class.
We started the class with quite a few children started doing Likhita Japa at home. We will continue collecting the sheets filled with Likhita Japa so our team Krishnas cowboys points once we are done with this eclasses. Please ask the children to continue writing likhita japa. It is the time we show our children to do prayers and stay positive.
We then proceeded to our routine. We said Om 3 times and then starting class with our Opening Prayers(Om Sahanavavatu).
1. Chanting My Prayers: Since all the kids who attended 3rd grade were already taught the My Daily Prayers we chanted it. For the benefit of the newcomers, the Daily prayers are in My Prayers Pg,11 of green book. The children had screen time as we called out one child to lead one shloka
a. Karagrevasathe Lakshmi
b. Gangecha yamunechaiva
c. Saraswati namstubyam
d. Brahmarpanam
e. Subhamkaroti kalyanam
f. Karacharana kratamvaak
g. Kayenavacha manasaindriyeyva
2. Govinda Damodara Stotram : We had our children chant 2 verses. We are sending as attachment the stotram for children who do not have the print out. Please print it and have it ready so we can continue learning the next verses.
We had 2 JCHYK's visiting our classroom this Friday. Our JCHYK teachers were Stuthi Kuroodi(High school senior) and Divya Sharma(High school sophomore). Both the girls were great. They made the class fun by who enthusiastically continued with our lesson by starting with Story telling. The story was Krishna story when Krishna and Balarama wrestling tournament at
1. Stories : Sage Narada goes to Kamsa and reveals to him that Krishna is the real son of Vasudeva and Devaki. He tells Kamsa that how Vasudeva fearing him kept them with his friend Nanda. Krshna and Balarama were the ones who killed all his secret asuras. Hearing this Kamsa started trembling with anger.
He immediately wanted to kill Vasudeva but Narada stopped him. However, Kamsa chained both Devaki and Vasudeva and put them in the dungeons. Kamsa now got his ministers and told newly found truth to his ministers. He announced he would be inviting both Krsna and Balarama to a wrestling match. Place the elephant Kuvalayapida at the entrance. This was his strategy to kill both Krsna and Balarama even before they entered the match.
He then arranged for Dhanuryajna to worship Lord Siva(bow) for their victory. He also asked his men to make preparation to keep the elephants and wrestlers ready. Now he asked Akrura, to go to Vrndavana and bring Krsna and Balarama to show them Mathura. He asked him to entice them by describing the beauty of Mathura. He also planned after killing them he would kill Vasudeva, his father Ugrasena and all others who are his enemies.
To this Akrura replied that it is natural for Kamsa to delay his death. To work with balanced mind is very important. To keep a balanced mind is important in both success and failure. Many times lofty plans frustrate us because of unforeseen obstacles causing us as much grief as their success would have caused us joy. However, he got ready to go to Vrndavana.
Now our JCHYKS talked about importance of balancing body and mind. They explaining how balancing of mind meant to have the same mood within if we get success or failure. To keep cool mind we should not get disturbed and keep on working and Gods blessing would be within us.
They explained how after working hard for exams some questions might be things they never learnt in classes. How it is important to ignore that and keep cool mind. They also talked about how sometimes getting something as a gift might not happen due to a situation or circumstance and how it was important to keep a cool mind.
2. Activity : Balancing of body : Yoga - This was so much fun for all of our children. Various yoga postures were chosen and the kids enjoyed balancing their bodies and JCHYK Divya showed them various postures.
Everyone was laughing and having fun. The kids were adjusting cameras trying to show how well they were doing and sometimes stopping and helping other friends when one could do it well.
3. Answering Questions : Now our children wanted to ask the Didis a set of questions. They asked them about their favorite subjects, what they like about Balavihar, what they plan to study in future, what is it that they like doing now that they are all home.
They were also very pleased that now they knew some older didis who they can meet in Balavihar and talk to.
Our children then thanked both Divya and Stuthi for making it fun time in class as they went back to their class for Aarti and Pledge. We then concluded the class with our closing prayers and Pledge.
Important Announcement
Our Bhagawat Gita Regionals is being held on line on May 2nd. Hope all the kids are practising the verses regularly. Please tell the kids as you ask them to practise. The points you will collect goes to house points. All our kids are excited to get the house points up. So, this will bring focus.We will practise Gita this week and next week during class and record verses as well. All your help is required and is much appreciated.
Pranaam,
Meena and Viji
Meena and Viji
