October 2, 2011

Hari OM!

Beginning Prayers

• Om Saha Navavathu
• Vakratunda Mahakaya
• Saraswathi Namastubhyam

Bhajans:

We reviewed the following two bhajans.  The children are now quite familiar with these.

• Rama Lakshmana Jaanaki Jai Bolo Hanuman ki
• Om Shiva Om Shiva Paraatpara Shiva

Stotram:

• GuruStotram (My Prayers, Page 9) - We reviewed slokas 1, 2 and 3

Story:

We recapped the story from the last class. This week we learnt how Ahalya was turned into a stone by her husband Sage Gautama and led a hidden life of penance. When Lord Rama entered the Ashrama of Sage Gautama (on the outskirts of Mithila) and his feet touched the stone Ahalya was released from her life of penance and became a human being again.  She and her husband hosted Sage Vishwamitra and the two princes. 

We talked about King Janaka of Mithila and how he found a beautiful baby when he was ploughing the land before a yajna.  He name the baby Sita and thanked Bhumidevi for the gift of this divine child.  Sita was a perfect baby and her beauty rivaled that of Goddess Lakshmi.  As she grew older King Janaka was worried about how he would find a husband worthy of Sita.  He decided that the man who lifted and bent the bow of Rudra (given to his ancestors by god Varuna) would marry Sita.  When King Janaka heard about the presence of Vishwamitra in Gautama's Ashrama, he went with his court of ministers and invited the sage to be his guest.  There he saw the two sons of King Dasharatha and was struck by their brilliance.  He happily invited the princes of Ayodhya as guests to Mithila. 

Activity:

The kids put Sri Rama's feet on Mithila. (Part of the Sri Rama Trail)

The kids colored a page from the Ramayana workbook.

Meditation/Japa:
We did 'Likhita Japa' today.  We wrote the name of Lord Rama in absolute silence, 11 times.

Games:

Quiz - we had a quiz about last  week's story. The boys and girls participated very enthusiastically and the boys won by 6 points.

Radha Aunty played Four Corners with the kids using names from the Ramayana story so far. The children really enjoyed this game and we were happy to note that they did remember the names and places discussed so far.

Conclusion:

We concluded by doing the Aarthi and Pledge. 

Comments:

We had about 75% attendance today. We would like to see all the kids attend regularly.  We distributed the gold coins today for attending balavihar on time, class participation and good conduct.  The promise of coins motivated them to be well behaved in class today. The children should have dropped the coins in the Team Ganga jar on their way out.

The children will benefit by reading the stories discussed so far in the Bala Ramayana book

We noticed that there are some students who have not purchased the recommended 1st grade books. Please buy them as we don't have enough copies to share and we do use all the books quite regularly in the class.  Also some children did not have a snack/drink..please send them as we noticed that all the children are eager to have a snack break on Sunday mornings.

This week we had Back to Balavihar and the teachers reviewed the curriculum, class format, etc with the parents.

Reminders:

Please try to send the following items in your childs bag:

1. Crayons
2. Pencil
3. Notebook
4. Glue
5. Snack/Drink
6. A folder to keep their pictures/artwork.
7. Scissors
8. 1st grade Balavihar books - Bala Ramayan, Ramayana characters and a copy of 'My Prayers'; assembly handbook.

Next class is on October 16th 2011.   We will be celebrating the marriage of Rama and Sita (as the story will progress to that point) and also Diwali.  We encourage the students to come dressed in their Indian finery for this festive occasion.