Hari Om Parents,
Today was the 11th class of Balavihar!! Here is the summary of what we covered in the class today:
Opening Prayers: All of us assembled in our classroom 'Krishna', we all chanted three OMs and then chanted the Opening Prayers - Sahana Vavatu. All the kids chanted together nicely. It felt very nice and calm after.
Sloka time: We then chanted the slokas -EkaDantam -Ganesha sloka, and Krishna sloka , then we chanted Rama slokas and recited it a couple of times. All the kids repeated nicely and some chanted individually too.
Rama sloka:
rāmāya rāmabhadrāya rāmacaṃdrāya vedhase . raghunāthāya nāthāya sītāyāḥ pataye namaḥ .
Bhajan: We learnt a new bhajan :
' Shuklam Bharadaram Ganapathi mantra
Nityam Nityam Japo Japo
Vighna Vinashaka, Vidya dhayaka
Veera Ganapathi Japo Japo '
Alphabet Chant : We did the Alphabet chant until Letter F and then
Introduced to the next letter 'G': It stands for God. God loves us,protects us and is everywhere. God gives us everything we need and we should thank him for all these gifts and pray to God. Our Saints know him and see him as they have a sweet mind. And when we have a sweet mind we can see and feel the presence of God. And also G is for Guru - one who has read the Shastras, Scriptures and who has God Realization. Guru guides us to get closer to God and shows us the path.
Brainstorming: We discussed who is God and what does God do? God is everywhere and God gives us a lot of gifts, like Sunshine, rain, snow, air, flowers, birds, animals, fruits, food, clothes, the whole universe and God gives us everything. Kids shared the various things God gives us.
Yoga: Tree Pose, Stretching exercises, Snake pose, Squats and Jumping Jacks.
Exploration: We discussed that for all the gifts God gives us, we should thank him and express gratitude to God. We discussed that we can express our gratitude and show our gratefulness to God by 'praying'.
Then we discussed the various ways to pray to God : by chanting slokas, singing bhajans, reciting God's name, doing abhishekam, meditation etc. And then we discussed what abhishekam is and how to do it. We shared a small youtube -Ganesha abhishekam video performed at home showing all the various steps involved.
Attendance: Attendance was taken and each kid responded by saying Hari Om.
Activity: We played an Obstacle course game, We created an obstacles using bags, and jackets, and a couple of kids were blindfolded and had to walk from one end to the other end, and the rest of the kids acted as 'Guru 's guiding them to walk through the obstacles and reach the other end. Kids had fun, we will play this game again next class to give all kids an opportunity to participate.
Then we went to the assembly for Aarthi and Pledge.
It was another interesting session, Kids happily shared about their plans for the weekends and actively participated in the class activities. Have a wonderful week ahead!!
Note: Next Class is on Jan 7th 2024, due to the Holiday season, we do not have class for the next two weeks.
Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!! Wishing you and family a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2024 !!!
Pranams
Mahalakshmi & Chandarani.
