Hari Om Parents,
Today was the third class of Balavihar. We had just about 30 minutes of class today before we all proceeded to the beautifully done House Inaugural event in the theme of "Ganesh Utsav".
Here is a summary of what we covered in the class today.
Opening Prayers : We chanted "Om" three times. We chanted the Opening prayers and children were made to repeat them. Kindly practice at home too.
Shloka Memorization : We revised "Vakratunda Mahakaya" and "Saraswati Namastubhyam" with the children. They were made to repeat the shloka a couple of times and the meaning was explained again. A few kids who have learnt it chanted beautifully in front of the class. We request parents to please make them listen to the recording shared over Watsapp every day.
Yoga /Exercise : This has become the most exciting segment apart from story time. Children did the "thoppukaranam", "Vrikshasana" and Jumping Jacks and ended up fully energetic.
Brainstorming Time : As we were headed to celebrate Ganesh Utsav, we discussed Lord Ganesha, elephant Head, Long Trunk , Big Ears, his big belly , his Vahana - the Mooshak and refreshed the story of why we pray to Lord Ganesha first. We were very happy to see that children remembered and narrated the story parts themselves. We also discussed Ganesh's parents and brother.
Story time : we narrated a very joyful story of why Thoppukaranam namaskaram is special for Ganesha and why he alone gets a special namaskaram. Through the story, we covered a bit about Lord Ganesha's Mother Parvathy, Her Brother Lord Vishnu , and some of Lord Vishnu's powerful weapons. We try to keep the story time very interactive, asking children questions in between to ensure attention and absorption.
Bhajan : For the house inaugural , we practiced the first two verses of "Hey Murali Sreedhara"
Exit Ticket : What does Alphabet A stand for. We will start with our Vedantic Alphabet Safari journey from the next class.
We proceeded to the Assembly for the House Inaugural and Ganesh Utsav Celebrations. This year's Balavihar theme is "Developing a Personal Relationship with Bhagavan (Ishta Devata). Our Sevaks had designed the perfect way to bring the theme to life through Ganesha Utsav, where the Ganesh Murthy was made out of clay by elder kids, and our Children were divided into groups to do Rangoli and to Make Modaks. They then headed for the Procession singing songs and observing Visarjan, We had our children right in front being able to observe and enjoy all the aspects of this beautiful festival. Our sincere Thanks to all the parents who were around to keep watch and also to help us out.
Note : Next class is only on 20th October. There is no class on 6th Oct and 13th Oct due to Navratri. Requesting parents to please ensure children come in for class by 9.15am going forward.
We Wish all the families a very Happy Navratri.! Have a wonderful week and Navratri Celebrations ahead.
Pranams,
Shreya and Veda
