Hari Om Parents,
Below is a recap of what we did during Sunday's class.
We began another delightful Sunday morning of Shishu Vihar, with our cute kids' faces popping up on our screens. We welcomed Arya, our newest addition to our class. We had to make some adjustments to the regular class schedule as we had our Spirit Day and related activities planned. Once we had most of our friends join our session, we began our class with 3 OMs.
Shlokas:
1. "Om Saha Navavatu" (page 8 in My Prayers book)
2. "Vakrathunda Mahakaya" (page 27 in My Prayers book)
3. "Saraswathi Namasthubhyam" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
4. "Karagre Vasate" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
5. "Samudhra Vasane" (page 11 in My Prayers book)
6. "Shubam Karoti" (page 12 in My Prayers book)
7. "Krishnayan Vasudevaya" (page 105 in My Prayers book) - new
Activities:
Please have the kids make it a habit to chant the above shlokas every morning, after their bath/shower. This will help them learn, memorize as well as develop a lifelong habit of morning prayer and daily prayer.
Bhajan time - we continued practicing our new Lord Krishna bhajan
He Murali Sridhara, Radhe Krishna Radhe Shyam
Keshava Madhava Yadava Nandana, Radhe Krishna Radhe Shyam
Nanda Nandana Radheshayam, Navaneeta Chora Radheshyam
Keshava Madhava Yadava Nandana, Radhe Krishna Radhe Shyam
Bhakta Vatsala Radheshyam, Bhagavatapriya Radhheshyam
Keshava Madhava Yadava Nandana, Radhe Krishna Radhe Shyam
Story Time.
Craft Time, we made our own paper hugs. We had the kids cut out 1 large heart and 2 small hearts out of any color construction paper. The big heart was the face and the 2 small ones were the hands. Some kids had googlie eyes for their faces, others drew them on. Then kids were asked to cut out two strips of paper for the arms and fold them like a fan and stick them to the big heart. Then the small hearts were stuck to the ends of their fan folded arms to make their paper hugs. The kids enjoyed the craft project. Below are a few of our paper hugs.
5. After completing our craft project, we had a scavenger hunt organized for Spirit Day!. The kids were shown six different categories and they were asked to bring back two unique items per category. The kids along with their parents/grandparents/siblings had a fun time collecting and sharing their finds. Below are some of our kids posing with their loot:)
6. After the scavenger hunt, a link for a puzzle was shared on the group chat. The kids opened up the puzzle, were happy to complete it and they all let us know that Lord Krishna along with a cow showed up on their screens:)
7. After completing the puzzle, we all joined the main Sunday morning group to watch the final activity presentation for the Spirit Day. It was very well organized and the kids made very creative presentations. We all had a fun filled Spirit Day.
Go Bajrangi Bolts!!
Story of Krishna and Sudhama
Before we got into our story, we discussed what holiday we celebrated last weekend. A few of the kids responded by saying, "Valentine's Day"! Yes, in the spirit of the holiday, we all held up our hands and made a shape of a heart with our fingers:) The kids were told that we will be using that hand sign later in our story.
The story began with baby Krishna having grown up. He was now old enough and ready to start school. We discussed if anyone of our kids were ready for school. A few said, "yes", most said, "no"! We went on to talk about how the schools were structured back in the day in a Gurukula style format. The kids were asked if they would want to go to school along with their friends and live with their teachers. They would sleep, wake-up, brush their teeth, pray, eat, learn, play, sing, dance...and do everything at their teacher's house. There was an overall shocked expression on all our our kids' faces!!! And their response was a BIG FAT NO! Anyways, regardless of their feelings about leaving their parents to go and live with their Gurus to learn, the kids accepted that that was how kids went to school back then and a bit of irony, in the way that our kids are in school NOW (ALL VIRTUAL and AT HOME)!!!
Krishna and His friends were sent off to Gurukul to be schooled under Rishi Sandeepany. Krishna and His best buddy Sudhama became even closer friends there. A puppet of Krishna and Sudhama being educated by Guru Sandeepany was shown on the screen. After a long duration of learning, the kids get a snack. We discussed what kind of snacks the kids like. Then a puppet of young Krishna and Sudhama enjoying laddus as a snack was shown on the screen. School is fun, we get to learn with our friends. The kids eventually grew up, finished schooling and went their separate ways.
Krishna went to Dwarka. He lived in a big palace and had lots of beautiful things around him. Sudama also went back to his house but he was a poor brahmin and he did not have much money. He lived in a little hut. He got married and he had two children. Sudama had a very good heart and he did his work for very little money. As the children grew up they had less and less money. They did not have money to buy new clothes so they just kept wearing the old ones. One day Sudhama's wife told Sudhama to ask Krishna for help. He debated if or not he should approach his friend for help. He thought about the situation that his family was in. A puppet of Sudhama having a conversation with his wife out side their run down tiny hut was shown on the screen.
Sudhama thought, "Oh I would love to see Krishna again." So he decided to go, and he wanted to take a gift for Krishna. But what could he take, he didn't have anything, so he found a little bit of flattened rice/poha in the kitchen, and he thought "In school Krishna liked poha, so I will just take Him this." We took a minute to discuss what poha is. A puppet of poha was shown on the screen. Several of us shared what we call it in our Mother tongue:) Then the kids were asked to hold up their hand as if they were holding a fist full of poha like Sudhama, emphasizing the fact that that was all that he could find in his kitchen to take for his best friend! He wrapped it up in a little cloth and put it in his pocket. He walked for a very long time and finally he got to Krishna's palace.
Sudhama stood outside the palace, still debating if or not he should proceed forward. A puppet of this scene was shown on the screen. Then the kids were asked if they knew the below song. Most of them said that they have heard it before. We all sang it together with actions.
At the end of the song, a puppet of Krishna hugging Sudhama was shown on the screen. Even though Sudhama was standing outside debating what to do, Krishna knew that and came out to greet His friend so the decision was made:) Krishna welcomed Sudhama into His palace and washed his tired feet. A puppet of that scene was shown on the screen.
The two friends were so happy to see each other again. Sudhama did not tell Krishna how poor he was, and did not ask Krishna for anything he was just so happy to see Krishna after so long. Krishna asked "what did you bring me?" because Krishna knows everything. But Sudhama was very shy to show his little parcel in such a big grand palace, so he said, "Oh nothing…" Krishna started tickling him, and searching his pockets, and said "I know you brought me something, come on give it…" And Krishna found the flattend rice, he opened it and said, "Oh I love poha" and started eating it. Sudhama was so happy. In the blissful state of mind of meeting his friend, Sudhama totally forgot to aske Krishna for help. When Sudhama went back to his house, he got a big shock! Krishna had blessed him and his little hut had become a beautiful house and there was plenty food for the whole family. A puppet of the new home was shown on the screen.
Even if we give Krishna a little he gives us a lot and Krishna knows everything!
We concluded class with Om Purnamadha (page 15 in My Prayers book)
Pranaam,
Keerthi and Pramila
