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)
• Gayanti Mantra (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 5)
• Medha Sukhtam (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 35)
• Mantra Pushpam (Chinmaya Book of Vedic Chants, page 170)
Bhajans:
Storytime: We watched another three episodes of Vishnu Puran this morning -- lucky us!! In the first episode we saw, Lord Rama was asked by his Guru (on the occasion of Guru Poornima) "What is the significance of a Guru? Why does one need a Guru in his life?" Lord Ram's answer was extremely beautiful and poetic. He and his brothers then left the Ashram to return to the Palace in Ayodhya. In the second episode we saw King Dashrath and the three Queens' excitement of Lord Ram's return. We also got another glimpse of Mathira's jealousy. In the third episode, Sage Vishwamitra came to Ayodhya and asked King Dashrath's permission to take Lord Ram on a mission to the forest to kill the demons who have been polluting the yagnas. The show ended with the Sage telling King Dashrath that his attachment to his son was against the Sun Dynasty's legend ... and then the King granted permission to take Lord Ram on this mission.
Art Projects: Made puppet heads out of clay, friendship bracelets, bead looms.
Shaanti Circle Discussion: Our four minutes of silence went extremely well today! We have decided to move on to 5 minutes tomorrow. We noticed, however, that the younger group of children started to become a little restless after three minutes -- so we decided to break our concentration game up into two sections: the older kids will work towards 5 minutes, while the younger kids will work towards 3 minutes. We are very proud of our campers, indeed!!
After Vedic Chanting, Swamiji answered some really good questions for us. One of our campers asked "Why does Lord Krishna always play the flute?" Swamiji explained that the flute represents our body. There are seven holes in the flute, just like our body has seven holes. In order for sweet music to be played, the flute must be hollow -- just like our mind must be hollow from ego so that he can play through us. Other questions that were asked: "How do we know when it is Lord Krishna's birthday?", "Why do we always light a candle or lamp on the altar?", Is there one God in many forms or are there many Gods?" This questions and answer segment is one of our favorite times of the day!
During our afternoon session, we pulled some videos down from the blog to watch. In addition to our favorite "Chanda Mama," we viewed Dr. Seuss' "Butter Battle Book." After our videos, we spent some time in our Shaanti Circle discussing what the movie was all about, and what exactly was Dr. Seuss trying to say. We all agreed that whether we butter our bread on the top -- or the bottom -- doesn't matter! This is such a great animation to spark discussion among the youth on issues of war (between nations), or war with one's neighbor. Definitely check it out if you haven't seen the film! You can click on all the titles below to see what we viewed today.
The Butter Battle Book (Part 1)
The Butter Battle Book (Part 2)
The Butter Battle Book (Part 3)
Star Wars clip (in Sanskrit)
Chanda Mama
War/No More Trouble
Rameshawaran
Mathur Hanging Bridge
End of Class Prayers: Poornamadah, Chinmaya Pledge
Photo Gallery: August 11 Photos (click here to view)
Comments: It's hard to believe that our summer camp is coming to a close ... this is our final week. We are sad that all of our fun and learning must come to a halt. We are looking forward to seeing all of our campers in Balavihar this fall, however!!!
At this point everyone is trying to finish up their projects ... puppet making, friendship bracelets, beading looms before all the supplies get stored away for next year. Friday is our party day, so parents do beware that lots of food is going to be provided. Lunch is on the ashram -- pizza and yummy vegan cupcakes (with butter icing -- just like Lord Krishna would like!!) We plan to have a graduation ceremony late in the afternoon -- hopefully, with all of our camper friends from the summer. More details will be provided tomorrow ... so stay tuned.
In the meantime, remember not to send a lunch with your kids on Friday!
Okay kids, the aunties aren't going to forget -- for our cinema afternoon showing this week we've got Wednesday: "Disney's 101 Dalmations (the original)" for our cinema afternoon; Thursday is "The Bee" and Friday is "Ratatoulie" (sp?).
