Sevikas: Jayashree, Asha
Announcements
Schedule for Jan 9th class
Morning Prayers
- AUM chanting
- Sahanavavathu
- Vakratunda Mahakaya
- Saraswathi Namasthubyam
- Mookam karothi vaachalam
Focus and Concentration time: 2-3 minutes focus on rocks dropping in a vessel. Kids are getting good at this, almost all of them got their stickers this class.
Story Time Focus: 'H' for Happiness
-We discussed how Happiness is an attitude and is something inside of us. We discovered how happiness does not actually lie in objects outside us - for example, when we eat the first slice of pizza it makes us happy but the 20th or 100th pizza does not give us the same amount of joy or happiness. In fact it does not even make us happy anymore. Therefore happiness is something inside us and if we choose, we can be happy all the time.
We told the story of a minister who always considered everything as God's gift and is always happy and cheerful. One day, the king loses his finger when sword fighting and the minister says it is God's gift. The king gets mad at him and throws him in jail. After some time, the king is captured by some tribal people and they plan to sacrifice him to their god but when they see that he does not have one finger, they let him go away as he is not perfect. Then the king realizes the truth of the minister's word and goes and releases him. But the king wonders how the minister being in jail all this while could be God's gift? The minister replies, if I had not been in jail, I would have also been captured along with you and because I am perfect physically, I would have been sacrificed! God is Great!
Activity
We boarded the Chinmaya Happy Train - to buy the ticket they had to promise to be happy all the time, no matter what :-) The first stop of the train was the playground - but to everyone's disappointment, it was a quiet time playground. But we were on the happy train so we smiled and made our way to the next station, the pizza place. But, our bad luck, no pizza there, only curd rice!! But we put up a brave face and ate the curd rice and got back on the train. The next stop was the toyland where everyone could pick out whatever toys they wanted - but no, we were disappointed again as there were no toys. But the happy train kept moving - next stop - amusement park!! - alas, no electricity so no rollercoasters :-( But the Happy train kept chugging and the next stop was Candy Land - and to everyone's pleasant surprise, there was indeed lots of candy in Candy Land :-)Yoga and Stretching:
Geetha Chanting: Chapter 11 - first 3 verses revision and we started the 4th Shloka today.
Closing Prayers
Asathoma
Om Poornamadah
Jaya Jagadeesha Hare - first 2 stanzas
