February 28th--Class 17!!!

Hari om parents!!

We almost has a full house, but missed few children. Hope you had more fun than we did in our premam class!!!!

As always we started our class with:
3 Oms
"Om sahana vavatu..."
Calling Ganesha so he can take away our obstacles and we can be ready to learn by saying "Vakratunda mahakay..."
As we were ready to learn we recited "Saraswati namastubyam...."

As we were reciting all the shlokas I realized few of our children don't know some of the shlokas. (Starting shloka, closing shloka, etc) Please continue to recite the shloka that way they learn the shloka/s that are part of Balvihar no matter in assembly, every single class, etc.

We are moving right along with our curriculum. Today we talked about:

N for Nobility:

What is Nobility?
Nobility is having high moral standards and having strong character.
This was hard for children to understand let alone be able to say the word itself

How can we be noble?
We can be noble by taking care of others and putting others first.

Gave them an example of Roshan falling down on the floor (pretend). Shriya passed by but didn't help Roshan as she didn't know Roshan. Navyashri passed by where Roshan had fallen down but didn't help Roshan as she was in a hurry. As Sahana passed by she helped Roshan get up and get him to his seat. This was a noble act.

Told them the story of Noble Cow how she got her life back being honest with the lion and keeping up with her promise. Please ask children to tell you the story that way it reinforces the rewards of being honest.

O for Obedience:

What is Obedience?
Obedience is dutifully doing what one is told to do without protesting or asking questions.
Shriya said it means to "follow directions" She earned a HUGE smiley sticker for nailing the answer.

How does obedience help us?
Obedience helps us to achieve harmony and bring discipline.

Why are we obedient to our parents and teachers?
Because they know whats best for us.

We played a game similar to "Simon says". I would say "Teacher says" raise your hand and they would raise their hand. If I say Meena aunty says clap your hands, it doesn't count and they would be out of the game. Towards the end EVERYONE were able to follow the directions to the core and showed how obedient they all are.

We had Veggie straws for snack and took a short bathroom break.
We colored letter N and Letter O.
I checked everyones folder to make sure their work is complete. I marked some of the work--incomplete. Each activity is to reinforce their learning hence important they complete each task.

Navyashri got a SMILEY sticker since she had EVERY single activity/coloring complete!!!! Way to go, Navyashri!!!!

Our next class is on March 6th. Arijit's family has signed up for snacks for the next class.

With Prem and Om,
Meena

February 7th--Field Day to Swami Narayan Temple!

January 31st--Class 14th!!!!!

Hari om parents!!!!

We had a great class with a almost all kids back from vacation etc. Although we missed Abhigna, Pranav and Sahana. Hope to see you soon back into your new years routine.

If felt like FOREVER since we had our class but nevertheless NOONE forgot our routine. As always:

We started our class with " 3 OMs"
We chanted "Vakratunda mahakay....." and asked Ganesha to help remove our obstacles. We are often sleepy, tired, etc etc so we always need Ganesha's help to take away any vighna that can stop us from learning.

We now chanted "Saraswati namastubyam......" asking Saraswati mata to help us learn. Meenaaunty especially needs to call upon her so I am blessed with her knowledge so I can pass it down to the children. Without her knowledge we cant learn and succeed.

Revised from last weeks letter-H is for happiness and I for Intelligence.

We moving on with our alphabet safari chugging to the alphabet J and K today

J is for Japa
Boy did I get all sorts of answers for what J stands for. I got a really good made up word that I wished I remembered. We all switched our regular KG hat and put on the Balvihar hat in order to find the word that we would be using but I admit I didn't expect them to guess this word.

What is Japa?
Japa is repeating God's name with devotion
Why do we do Japa?
It helps us focus and concentrate
Why do we need to concentrate?
So we can learn and succeed
These were the basic questions we circled back and forth in different ways to ensure they understood. Showed them a Japa mala that we use to chant shlokas. We will be making that in class since a lot of students joined after our open house-we made it then.

We played a memory game to emphasize our learning. I divided the group in two teams: Team Rama and Team Krishna. I showed Team Rama a picture of Saraswati Mata for 25 seconds. Asked them to remember what they see till I ask them. Did exact same thing with Team Krishna. Now each team  gets to shout out 1 thing they remember from the picture. They actually did very well and saw things I didn't even expect them to notice. Our Team Rama won!!!!!!!

K is for Kindness
What is Kindness? They immediately said being NICE
Why should we be kind? Cause its nice, kind is what they said. I taught them a new concept of karma. What goes around, comes around!!!!!! If we be nice to someone that's a good karma and will come back to us positively. If I be mean to someone, they will always remember that unkind behavior and will not be nice to me BUT if I be nice to someone they will also be nice to me.

I asked a bunch of questions and they were supposed to answer whether that act was of kindness or not. For example: Tony drags his dog with the leash and kicks his dog when it does not run fast enough. They all said that's mean. Gave them 7-9 sentences but they answered most of them correctly.

I had couple of stories to tell to emphasize act of kindess but due to delay from assembly we were running behind so didn't get to stories.

Harish had made kites for Makarsakranti/Pongal he passed out and stringed the string to the kites. Kids were super excited. He also briefly talked about the festival.

I had planned for new shloka today but that's for next class now.

Next class is on February 21st. Next week (Feb 7th school needs the building so we don't have class but have planned a field trip to Swami Narayan Temple in Robbinsville) Shriya's parents have signed up for snacks for the Feb 21st class.

With Prem and Om,
Meena Arvind

January 24th--Class 13th!!!! SNOW DAY!!!!

Hari om parents!!!

We didn't have class on January 24th cause we got cancelled for SNOW!!!!

Meena Arvind