Hari Om! Parents
Week 26, the last Bala Vihar class for this year, started with children writing 11 times likhita japa, 'Om Gam Ganapataye Namah'. Your child will greatly benefit if they make a habit of doing japa daily.
Shlokas
Om chanting, Sahana vavatu (pg 8, My Prayers Book), all the verses of Sri Ganesha Stavah (pg 28, My Prayers book) and the Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam (pg 30, My Prayers book). The MP3 audios were shared with you in the Parents WhatsApp Group. Your child can practice correct pronunciation of the shlokas over summer break.
Bhagavad Gita
We have learnt part two of the Gita Chapter 2 this year from our Swamiji. Grade 5 was assigned verses 39-63 (Bala Vihar Handbook). They will learn Chapter 3 next year. Your child can use this YouTube Gita Playlist to practice pronunciation of the Gita correctly over summer break.
Mahabharata
We have stopped the story till the end of the Virata Parva, it is this year's syllabus. The children will continue the second half of the Mahabharata story in grade 6.
India, the Sacred Land
Today, Saarangan shared the story of Sage Valmiki, the author of Ramayana. Aadya presented the story of Saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who was famous for the Bhakti movement. Haran shared the story of Saint Ramanandacharya. The class played Blookets made by Chinmay and Haran. We discussed the values that we could learn from these great saints.
Here is the link for all the class saint presentations for this year
Next we watched the first half of the movie "On A Quest". It is the biopic on the life of Pujya Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda. The DVD is available at our Ashram bookstore if your child is interested in watching His inspirational story.
Class ended with aarti, chanting of the shanti mantra and pledge recitation.
We would like to thank you all for your support this year. May Gurudev's Grace and our Swamiji's Blessings be with your children as they start their next Middle School years!
Have a safe summer break,
- Rashmi Kuroodi and Shanthi Chidambaram
Materials needed for every class: notebook & pen for the likhita japa, My Prayers book for the shlokas, Bala Vihar Handbook for the Gita Chanting, aarti and pledge recitation.