Chinmaya Haridwar Online Magazine
Arunima Menon, Seema Menon, & Mini Nair
Our 1st grade children listened to the story of Ramayana and learned to comprehend the values that Sri Rama lived by. Coloring and drawing scenes, and following the trails of Sri Rama’s journey with events and stories inspired children and developed their imagination.
Suma Krishnamurthy & Preeti Kashyap
Sundays have been a joy as 12 enthusiastic 2nd graders and 2 teachers gathered in a classroom to share the next hour together, filled with so many activities centered around Śri Hanuman, the Super Superman.
Starting off with opening prayers and attendance, the class moved on to learning the hanuman chalisa. The adorable 7-8 year olds were keen to learn new tongue-twister verses every week, and enthusiastically anticipated the completion as the year came to a close. And then, to present their yearlong learning to an audience at the annual varshikotsav!! How exciting!!
Story time brought out a new eagerness in the children to listen and to share their own information.
Stories that portrayed the eight virtuous qualities of Śri Hanuman – बुद्धिर् बलम् यशो धैर्यम् …… qualities that help build a strong ‘backbone’ towards mental strength and strong character. Kids shared how they would imbibe Hanumanji’s qualities in their everyday life. Like standing up to bullies, and not staying quiet when they see something wrong happening at school.
The eighth quality वाक्पटुत्वम was probably the most confusing for the kids. Eloquence? And what does that mean teacher? Fluency?articulation?oratory…I still don’t get it, they said. The class turned into a safe practice ground, each student did an impromptu talk for 30 seconds with the topic being – how can we improve and be like Hanumanji.
Control of mind goes hand in hand with control of body, and the entire year the class practiced to stay still and calm whether it is during prayers, or stretches postures, or while chanting Rama-naama with their very own creations of japa-maala. They also used their creativity to make their own name tags, sometimes solved crosswords, and worked on the Hanuman backbone project.
Always finishing off the hour with closing prayers, 🕉पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदम्….🙏 and an intent to keep the calmness as the class walks down the stairs.
The year came to an end rather too quickly, with the realization that there is so much to learn from Śri Hanumanji, if only we can train our monkey minds….
Preeti & Suma
Radheka Godse & Kavitha Veerappan
Kavitha and I (radheka) profusely thank the Chinmaya Haridwar BV co-ordination team and parents for this opportunity to teach our children our rich culture. It has been great joy to be with same batch of children continuously for two years and to witness their blooming and cheerful personality unfold within… we hope to teach them again in the remote future few years ahead 🙂
Last year Shri Hanuman The Super Superman visited 2nd Grade class every sunday morning & their 3rd year in BalavihAr has indulged them in stories from BalaBhAgavatam to dive further deeper into our core. Come attend our BAlavihAr assembly at 9:20am to check this for a fact :). You will observe our dynamic vAnaraSenA sitting in discipline crisscross and alert utilizing the metaphor of HanumAnji-s backbone plus calm & serene within shining like beautiful blossoms:
॥ बद्धिबल यशोधय निर्यत्व अरोगता अजाड्य वाक्पटत्व च हिमत स्मरणाद् र्वत॥
Buddhir-Balam Yashodhairyam Nirbhayatvam Arogata, Ajadyam Vakpatutvam ca Hanumat Smaranad Bhavet.
Through the worship of Sri Hanuman, one will be blessed with budding (intelligence), balam (strength), yeshas (fame), dhairyam (Courage), nirbhayatvam (fearlessness), arogata ( free from diseases, good health), ajadyam (alertness), and vakpatutam (eloquence). Over the past year we have evolved with BalaBhagavatam to develop devotion in our children. We covered episodes from first nine cantos of Shrimad BhAgavatam and the five avatAras of Lord Vishnu to inculcate faith and a sense of security within: “If I am good, God will protect me.” To conclude this year children will build the DashAvatara mobile and bring it home as a keepsake.
Along with morals of Shrimad BhAgavatam we learned & presented the Shri Guru and DashAvatara stotram to the Balavihar assembly and invited parents to our class room for a meet and greet and DashAvatara puja. We deep dove into core values such as austerity/tapas utilizing practical activities to reinforce lessons of Shrimad BhAgavatam. Visit 3rd grade classroom and see all our display boards. See some glimpses of our “I Promise” (where we took vows on each of our little fingers to do something and live by that vow, that we are doing tapas ☺) bow down in reverence to the GuruShishyaParampara which inspires us to strive to share that only respecting something remains a value only, bringing it to LIFE makes it the VIRTUE.
Kavitha & Radheka
Meera Nair & Rajashree Kanungo
4th grade continues the exploration of Srimad Bhagavatam that was started in grade 3.
In “Krishna Krishna Everywhere”, we learn stories from the life of Lord Krishna, starting from His birth, to the time He kills the tyrant Kamsa. This is based on chapter 10 of Srimad Bhagavatam. Through the stories of Lord Krishna’s childhood, and our year-long activity of “Roadmap to Krishna”, we learn the values that will bring us closer to Him. These values, like kindness, forgiveness, sharing, will be useful throughout our lives.
“My Twenty-Four Teachers” is based on the 11th chapter of Srimad Bhagavatam. We find out that anyone and anything can be a teacher, as long as we have humility and the right attitude to learn. Who we are and what we know is because of our teachers, and we are indebted to them.
Kids enjoyed the stories of Krishna, activities, and the riddles to figure out each of the 24 teachers.
Aru Mahapatra, Suraj Varma & Ambili Ramakrishnan
This year in 5th grade we learnt about symbolism of many deities that represent the Lord who is present everywhere along with that of festivals and traditions. The use of symbols for worship is meant to make the mind single pointed whereby we gain the same qualities of the ideals we revere.
We learnt the 16 step puja, Sri Ganesha Pancharatnam Stotram and Shiva Panchakshara Stotram which the kids presented to their parents. And this year for the first time kids also learnt Sri Rama Stuti.
It was a fun year with stories, games, class skits on Ramleela, dandia Dance and the building of their personal shiva linga.
Having been a Bala Vihar Teacher for 7 years and a 5th grade teacher for 2 years, it still feels like it is a journey of learning from and with the children. Hoping that with Gurudev’s blessing we will continue to be a part of this guru shishya parampara and strive to better ourselves.
Amrish Kontu
Chinmaya Mission Portland has been running a very successful Hindi program since last 6 years. The program has been growing every year, we had 9 classes and over 80+ students in the in academic year 2018-2019.
Students in Chinmaya Mission got opportunity to learn Hindi, a national language of India that is customized for US echo system & learning needs.
Chinmaya Mission Hindi program used best curriculum and study materials from India. In addition, the program used custom-made games, quiz, online video & documentary and translated stories to get familiar with Hindi language with focus on reading, writing and communication. In addition, teachers uses skits and play to make the classes easier to relate to and interactive, especially for children who are not able to get sufficient opportunity at home. Here is the summary Hindi language classes learning goals and curriculum for 2018-2019 calendar.
