Morning Prayers Recited:
• Om Saha naavatu (My Prayers, page 6)
• Karagre Vaasate (My Prayers, page 43)
• Sarasvati Namastubhyam (My Prayers, page 44)
• Guru Brahma (My Prayers, page 9, third shloka)
Vedic Chanting:
• Praarthanaa (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 3)
• Medha Sukhtam (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)
• Gayatri Mantra (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 5)
Bhajans:
Storytime with Swamiji: We continued watching the video on Vamana. Monday we will begin the avatara, Lord Ram.
Art Projects: Bead Weaving Techniques -- on-loom and off-loom.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: Well, the kids did it! 5 Minutes of complete silence with an accurate pebble count. Boy, are we proud of them! Five minutes is not easy, even for some adults :-)
For our afternoon circle discussion, we viewed two videos on Gurudev. One was of him (at different periods of time) with Balavihar children, walking with the Dalai Lama, Dancing with youth, etc. (click here to view.) The other was a fim montage of Gurudev in his later years (click here to view.) One of the children asked what "Gurudev" means, and we talked about the meaning of Guru and deva. We also talked about Gurudev's MahaSamadhi which is August 3, 1993.
A few of the aunties made a big chart of the days of the week for us to hang up (Monday through Friday.) Then, they wrote in the day which God or Goddess is especially worshipped on -- i.e., Sunday is Lord Surya, Monday is Lord Shiva, Tuesday is Lord Hanuman/Lord Ganesha, Wednesday is Lord Vishnu, Thursday is Guru, Friday is Devi, Saturday is Lord Ganesha. They also wrote the days of the week and the God/Goddesses' names in their favorite colors. Hanumanji is orange, Lord Vishnu is Blue, Devi is Red/Green/White, etc. A few of the children asked how we knew that these colors were favored by the Gods, and we had to admit that this was an excellent question -- and we will wait for Swamiji to return from his travel so we can ask him!! :-) The aunties did not have all the answers ... :-)
During our "end of the day" Circle Time, Uncle shared some very interesting and cool thoughts that he had about Mahatma Gandhi and Prahlada. We also talked more on the significance of the charkha and what it represented in the fight for India's Independence from the British.
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: July 24 (click here to view)
Comments: We really missed Swamiji today. Camp was not the same without him, especially during our vedic chanting class and storytime. Nevertheless, we chanted all 3 of the vedic chants we have been learning over the summer, with complete gusto. First, we listened to the recording we had of Panditji chanting, and then tried our best to parrot exactly what we heard. Guess we'll find out how well we did on Monday :-)
Because nearly all of our campers stand in front of the movie projector when we gather for movie time, we decided to share some puppet theater film clips with all the kids today -- if only to encourage them to be a little more creative with their shadow puppets ;-) The dance group is called Pilobolus and you can click here to view this really fantastic choreography! We also re-showed Wonderful World Shadow Puppet by Raymond Crowe (click here to view.)
Our caterpillars are now in the chrysallis stage. These little friends are in the process of transforming ... and we are looking forward to setting them free in another week or so.
The kids now lead the aunties in prayers. No longer do they repeat after us ... we repeat after them!
