Hari Om Parents,
We started our class by writing Likhitha jaapa (writing the name of any Ishta devata god's name), then followed by daily prayers (Page 11 of My Prayers book) and learnt Nirvana Shatakam. All kids are given printouts of the same. Please help kids memorize the same. Also please register for Shlokathon which is going to be held on March 8th 2025.
3 weeks ago an Assignment was given to kids. Most of them forgot what the homework was and they were smart ones to write quickly in class as one student who remembered and wrote down started talking. We truly encourage parents to check on what was taught and if any homework was given.
Kids were asked to check with parents and get the details as below
1. Native place from where their parents come from in India.
2. What is their mother tongue?
3. 2 words or sentences in their language.
4. Traditional Dress for men and women.
5. Traditional Dish.
We truly loved the way few kids came up with words especially. We all got to learn a few words from different languages. It was a very fun-filled activity.
Next Week Homework: - All the Kids mentioned one dish from their native place. We asked them to give the dry ingredients as a sample in a small zip lock and also the name of the ingredients to be written down along with recipes of the dish. We request all parents come to class by 8pm EST as we have a surprise for you all. Kindly don't disappoint your children.
We continued with India the sacred land. We talked about India's freedom movement.
What is freedom? Why did we fight for freedom? How was our freedom taken away?
We also talked about the American Revolution and America's freedom fight and when America got its freedom.
It was time for our Gita learning, we learnt Shlokas 24 and 25 in chapter 5. Hence we had to stop our class here.
We encourage parents to help kids to learn Chapter 5 of Bhagavad Gita along with other prayers taught in class. It was about time for the Monthly class Play by Grade 2 kids so went to Prayer hall.
Few Links for learning to chant.
1. Ganesha Panchratnam (Page 30 in My Prayers).
1.1. Link to rendition with lyrics in English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lZCKxeJFE or
1.2 Link: https://youtu.be/Oyo0FWP9fB8?si=ZaYVDepNkX0YWShI (play at lower speeds for kids to follow lyrics and hear clearly
2. Nirvana Shatakam (Printouts were shared)
2.1 https://youtu.be/rKx7K13OvQ4?si=lM6g_ZtX0kdF5Sfo - Uninterrupted Line Guided Chant - YouTube
3. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5 (1-29 shlokas) is available in the 2024-25 year handbook. The link to Gita by our swamiji is as below.
https://youtu.be/1RnjJPiI9y0?si=_IeXKqpWjrPoqNbO
Please make sure to send the below to every Balavihar class.
1. An empty notebook to write Likhitha jaapa and notes.
2. Two sharpened pencils.
3. Daily Prayers book.
4. Balavihar Handbook
Please join the class WhatsApp group by using the link below
https://chat.whatsapp.com/E0cfUe3NUDYCBwYVKD7tyg
The WhatsApp group will be our primary medium of communication. Please feel free to reach us on our phones/ via WhatsApp or you can reply to this email as well.
With Regards,
Shivram & Anuradha
