Jan 24, 2021 - Shishu Vihar (Sunday AM)

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. 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)

     

Activities:

1. 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.

2. We rolled right in to some Yoga stretches. We began with the Tree pose with some swaying, then went into a Tiger pose and had everyone roar like a Tiger or a Lion (we had to prompt them to be louder!). Then we sat on the floor and turned into little butterflies, fluttering in the breeze. We then went into the Flower Pose, the kids are slowly getting a hang of this relatively new pose.

3. Bhajan time - we sang our Lord Muruga bhajan together

   Subrahmanyam Subrahmanyam Shanmukhanatha Subrahmanyam
   Shiva Shiva Shiva Shiva Subrahmanyam
   Hara Hara Hara Hara Subrahmanyam
   Shiva Shiva Hara Hara Subrahmanyam
   Hara Hara Shiva Shiva Subrahmanyam
   Shiva Sharavana Subrahmanyam
   Guru Sharavana Bhava Subrahmanyam
   Shiva Shiva Hara Hara Subrahmanyam
   Hara Hara Shiva Shiva Subrahmanyam

4. Geetha Chanting, we practiced shlokas 1 and 2 from chapter 2 of the Geetha. We repeated them once. We repeated the 3rd shloka twice. It was such a wonderful feeling to see several kids chanting the 3 shlokas today:)yay!!

5. Story Time.
6. Craft Time, we made our very own peacocks. We used different color construction paper to create our craft. For the feathers, we folded the construction paper into a fan. Some of the kids decorated the feathers with rhinestones and designs. Then we used another color and cut out a piece that looked like a potato to represent the head and the body. Then we cut out 2 legs with 2 feet and a beak. We then went on to draw the eyes. The kids went into detail here and some drew eyelids and eyelashes. That triggered a discussion and query where several kids thought peacock meant the bird is a female. They were then told that peahen is the female and peacock is the male bird. Below are a few of our class peacocks
   
7. After craft and closing prayers, we joined the rest of the Sunday morning session to watch the 7th grade bhiyas and didhis perform their monthly program. It was a very well written script and the kids did a great job performing on this digital platform. A program like this is definitely something we will look forward to watching once a month.

Avvaiyar and Lord Karthikeya

Character intros

A puppet of a peacock was shown on the screen. The kids were asked if they could identify the bird. All of them said, "peacock". Then the kids were asked if they remember who rides a peacock. A delayed response from one of our friends' was, "Karthikeya", then another said, "Muruga" :) A puppet of a cute little Lord Muruga was shown on the screen. The kids were then asked who Lord Muruga's brother is, most of them responded, "Ganesha". Then they were asked who their parents are, the class successfully said, "Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi".

Then a puppet of an old lady with 3 lines of vibhoothi across her forehead, wearing an orange saree, a japa mala around her neck, a cloth sack on her shoulder, hunched over a bit and holding a walking stick was shown on the screen. She was introduced as Avvaiyar or Avvai patti. She was a lifelong devotee of Lord Shiva, Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga, and was known to relentlessly sing their praises. Avvaiyar had a soft spot for Lord Muruga and He was her favorite:) She was an overflowing source of knowledge and a well known poet. Many of her verses are truly timeless words of wisdom! Avvaiyaar was known to convince kings who were ready for war to reconcile and prevent disasters before they could occur. Her intelligence made her a good friend to everyone.

We played a short game before we began the story. The kids were asked a question about how they would approach consuming certain food items. Towards the end of that discussion, we all came to the conclusion that it is dangerous to put steaming hot food into our mouths as it will burn us. In order to prevent that, we need to blow on those hot items to cool them down, prior to consuming them. A multitude of puppets, starting with a bowl of hot soup followed by a puppet of ice cream cones, then a puppet of hot cocoa, then one of a tall glass of strawberry smoothie, followed by a puppet of a steaming bowl of noodles (kids called it Maggie:) and we ended with a bowl of fresh fruit. The kids blew on the hot items and did NOT blow on the cold items. The kids were excited to see the hot and cold foods on the screen.

The setting of our story was in Pazhamudhircholai, Alagar Kovil hills area, about 10 miles North of Madurai, a small Temple city in Tamil Nadu. Avvaiyar had been a life long devotee of Lord Muruga, but had never had the privilege of meeting Him. One hot, sunny and dry day, Saint Avvaiyaar was traveling by foot from village to village singing the praises of the Lord, she got tired and sat under a java plum (Naaval) tree. A puppet of Avvaiyar walking towards a tree was shown on the screen. We discussed the shape, color and taste of the naaval fruit and how our tongues would turn that color of dark purple when we consumed that fruit. Some kids showed interest in tasting it too:) Avvaiyar by that stage in time, had written plenty of poems and had developed a huge ego. Lord Muruga wanted to challenge her and appeared as a shepherd boy sitting on top of the tree.

As Avvai patti was sitting down and catching her breath, she heard a young boy's voice calling out, "patti, patti". Avvai looked in the direction of the voice and saw a small cowherd boy with a bright smile, sitting on the tree branch. A puppet of a cowherd boy sitting on a naaval fruit tree branch was shown on the screen. Avvaiyar had no clue who the little boy was, but we know that it was little Lord Karthikeya in disguise. He then said, "Grandma, you look so tired; do you want some Naaval fruits?" When she answered yes, He asked, "Do you want 'Sutta pazham' or 'Sudatha pazham'?" (Sutta has two meanings: one cooked and the other hot.) Avvaiyar thought that the kid was blabbering something as she considered him to be illiterate, told him she wanted "Sudatha Pazham" (fruit that is not hot/cooked), as it was a hot and sunny day, she said she'd have the cold fruit. A puppet of the boy shaking the tree branches and fruits falling off the tree was shown on the screen.

When the boy shook the tree, the fruits fell all over the ground. A puppet of the fruits fallen on the ground was shown on the screen. Avvaiyar started picking those fruits. She started to blow away the sand that was stuck on the fruit before eating it. A puppet of Avvai patti blowing the fruit was shown on the screen. The boy then exclaimed, "Is the fruit, hot?". Since we played the game before we started the story, the kids were asked if the fruit was actually hot, as we blew on all the hot food items that were shown on the screen. A few of the kids said that the grandma was blowing the fruit to get the sand off!!! Haa haa, oooo ya the 5 second rule, most of us do it all the time;)!!!

The gesture of blowing the sand off the fruit appeared as if the fruit was hot. It also meant that the fruit that fell to the ground was possibly heated up by the earth's heat and the one that is caught before it falls to the ground is not. 

Avvaiyar had a realization, she thought the boy to be illiterate, but he taught her a big lesson. Moreover, she had a momentary pride and neglect in her mind thinking that the boy was illiterate and she was more knowledgeable. This incident made her realize that nobody should be underestimated. She also felt that this should be the act of the divine and requested the boy to reveal his true self. Then, the boy revealed that He was Lord Murugan and she worshipped him with joy. A puppet of Lord Muruga revealing his true form to Avvaiyar was shown on the screen. Lord Karthikeya gave her a big hug and blessed her. 

We are constantly learning, no one knows everything, we learn something new everyday. It doesn't matter who we learn from, they may be younger or older than us. We should never under estimate anyone and never judge a book by it's cover.

We concluded class with Om Purnamadha (page 15 in My Prayers book)

Pranaam,

Keerthi and Pramila