November

November 2

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We shared how we celebrated Diwali with sweets, fireworks and new clothes. We saw the story of why Diwali was started when Ram returned to Ayodhya. Please ask your kids the reasoning for the lit diyas on that day. We then covered D for dhaanam - sharing. Doing dhaanam makes Bhagavan happy. We saw the story ofp Shveta who did dhaanam of everything but food as he liked to eat. So his punishment was that even though he got to go to heaven, he had to eat garbage when he was hungry. So doing dhaanam is very important. The homework for the week is to identify any toy/book/clothes that you own that you are willing to donate during thanksgiving. We finished the class with a Diwali craft project. The kids colored and decorated their lamps as shown in the picture.

October

October 26

Hari Om. We started the class with 3 Aums. We had a special meditation class by Ashwiniji. She shared the story of Valmiki. He was a thief in his earlier life. He was taught by the saints that he had a choice to be a good person. Doing meditation helps Valmiki to train his mind to become a good person. Doing regular meditation helps us keep our minds calm and peaceful.We had a quick session of meditation of 5 minutes after the story. No homework this week.  The kids were really impressive with how long they were able to sit still with their eyes closed.

October 12

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed the homework from last week. We started D with Dharma. Dharma stands for duty. As little kids/students we discussed that the everyone's duty is to give respect to our parents, study and do homework, eat healthy and sleep on time. We then covered Durga. Please ask the kids the story of how Durga destroyed the Mahishasura.  We made a field trip upstairs to see Durga both in the main hall and the hidden display. No homework this week.

October 5

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We discussed the home work from last week. It was to give a hug to the parents to show love. We saw the 9 ways to show our love to Bhagavan.We finished B with Buddhi meaning intelligence - we use our intelligence to make good decisions. Our brain is in our heads and we should protect our heads by wearing helmets etc. We started with C for Cow. Krishna loves Cows and Shiva loves Nandi (male cow). So many Hindus do not eat beef which is the meat of cows. We covered C for Conch and Chakra - held by Vishnu. Please ask the kids to recount the story of Vishnu using Sudarshana chakra to protect his Bhakta Ambarisha. A shout out to Rajdeep to bring the conch and also to demonstrate blowing it. We covered Chitta - a place where our atma and Bhagavan reside in our heart.We should keep our Chitta clean. We finally finished C with Clean. Devi Lakshmi loves cleanliness. So everyone cleans their homes before doing Lakshmi puja during Diwali. We finished the class with a game of hangman.

Home work for the week 

1. Color the pictures in page 14-15. 

2.Use the clock to track how much time the kids take to complete their bath/shower.

September

September 28

Hari Om.We started the class with 3 Aums. We reviewed the home work from last week. Many of the kids shared the meaning of their names. We started B with B for Bhagavan which is a name that can be used for any God or Goddess. We covered B for Brahma. He has 4 vedas which contains a lot of knowledge. We started B for Bhakti. Bhakti is the love for God. We saw the story of Prahalad who was a great Bhakta. Please ask the kids how Narasimha killed Hiranya kashipu while fulfilling all the conditions of Brahma's boon. Also ask the kids examples of how Vishnu protected Prahalad.

Homework for the week is to give a hug to both parents to show love

September 21

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We did a quick review of the topics covered last week- the Gods of creation, maintenance and destruction. The textbooks were distributed today. Please remember to send the textbook with the kids every week. We do follow the book.We covered A for Ahimsa- non violence. We saw that we can hurt others in 3 ways physically, verbally- by words and mentally by bad thoughts. Bhagavan lives in all of us. So when we hurt others- we hurt Bhagavan. We saw a story of how Ganesha hurting a cat caused scratch marks on Ma Parvati's face. We then covered A for Avatara. We saw how Bhagavan Vishnu took many avatars like Rama, Krishna, Narasimha and Buddha. Many kids knew the names of the Rakshas who were destroyed by Vishnu in his Avataras. We finished A with A for Atma- The Atma inside one is what makes a person alive. We had a separate discussion of if water has life. Please ask your kids about how this discussion went. We had a quick game of hangman. We finished the class with a video story of Ganesha/Kaartikey and the special fruit.

 The homework for the week

The kids should find the meaning of their names and the names of the parents and siblings if any.

The other homework is for the kids to match the names to the pictures of the Avataras of Vishnu on page 7. Please use a pencil, so that we can reuse the books

September 14

Hari Om. We started the class with chanting of 3 Aums. We started the class with a short introduction. We covered the first word for A. Aum. We saw how Aum represents the many names of God. We talked about the main deities - Brahma God of creation, Vishnu God of maintenance and Shiva God of destruction. We learnt a cool fact about each of them. Please ask your kids about these facts. We saw a story of Neelkant- video. Please ask the kids what they learnt from this story. We finished the class with a game of hangman. There is no homework this week. We hope to get the textbooks next week.

September 7

Hari Om. Welcome to Dharma 2. I was very happy to meet all the students and the parents today morning. A brief summary of what was discussed - 1. Dharma 2 curriculum introduces the basic concepts of Hinduism- deities, shlokas etc through age appropriate stories. 2. The text books will be distributed in the next 2-3 weeks. 3. The class updates and homework will be shared through this WA group. This is also updated on the HATS site. 4. The parents are expected to be aware of what is being taught in the class through these messages , remind the kids of the homework and also have general discussions about these topics with the kids. 5 Please feel free to contact me or any of the other teacher/teenage volunteer for any questions or concerns. Looking forward to seeing all the kids for the regular classes from next Sunday 🙏

Here is the link to the Dharma 2 textbook. Dharma 2