Hari OM Parents,
We are glad to welcome your children to the classroom this year. Happy to see children who are back after the summer break and also good to see some fresh new people joining this session as well. We look forward to a mutually rewarding and exciting experience in Balavihar this year with your children.
The class this week (9/18/20) - we started the class with our regular starting prayers. We then did a quick round of introductions starting with introducing ourselves and then getting to know the youths.
Given this was our first session we started the class a crossword puzzle on Ramayana. We spent the next 30 mins introducing Ramayana – What is it and why we should study the same , is it a mythology or a Ithihasa (Historic study?) etc. Also discussed its importance in Indian literature. We discussed the Dhashaavtara and where Sri Rama appears there. We then introduced the 7 Khanda's of Ramayana. We also practiced two of Sri Rama dhyana shlokas (page 129 of the my prayers book) which we would continue to practice over the next few classes.
In our next session We will start going into the Balakhanda and further.
Our curriculum this year is Ramayana by C. Rajagopalachari and Vibhishana Gita (Keys to Success). We will be teaching one of our greatest epics, Ramayana while analyzing the main characters in detail. 'Keys to success' will teach children how to achieve success in life in a Dharmic, disciplined way.
Link to the PDF version of the Ramayana book
A hard copy can also be purchased from Amazon
We also shared the Ramayana Workbook for children which will be handy and good read and can be ordered from chinmaya publications website.
We finished the class with closing prayers followed by Aarathi and pledge in the Zoom session with the parents.
We look forward to a great year with your children. Please don't hesitate to email us with any questions.
Thanks and Hari Om
Venkatapathy Shankar
Purnima Krishnamurthy
