Most satisfying Summer

A year after our twins took birth (2014) one of our friends in Seattle introduced us to the concept of “Home Schooling”. I was very inspired how H.G Aruddha mathaji gave her kids both academic and spiritual education, all based on Srimad Bhagavatam. By then we were already attending Bhakti-Vaibhava (Systematic study of the first six cantos of Srimad Bhagavatam). I felt so much joy that this type of Home Schooling would not only help me go deeper into Bhagavatam, but also assure kids’ Krsna consciousness. We decided to take this approach in educating our children as they grew up.

As they were going to be three, we decided we should enroll them in a School for few years at least so they learn basic reading/writing and discipline. We thought when they finish 1st grade (in 2021) I could start homeschooling. We moved to Houston to enroll them into Goswami Academy in 2016. Gradually we felt if kids would grow and learn with other boys it would be even better than “Home Schooling” just the two of them. Now Krsna is inspiring us to make the move to Mayapura for this reason, to enroll them into Bhaktivedanta Gurukula. I was happy to give up our original plans of “Home Schooling” and surrender to Krsna’s plans.

However, looks like Krsna remembers this desire and gave me an opportunity for “Home Schooling” them this summer. Please read below to know how –

Krsna inspired us to co-op with couple of other devotee mothers, take turns and engage the kids positively. We called this “Nimai Nitai Summer Camp”. As I taught all the kids reading and writing Sanskrit letters (in Devanagari) few months back, we thought this would be a very good time to make them more proficient at reading and writing in Sanskrit. In addition, we wanted them to learn shlokas from Bhagavad-Gita as well. Keeping these two objectives in mind, we made their daily schedule:

9.30 – 10.30: Sanskrit (Syamala dasi)
10.30 – 11.00: Snack/Krsna games/Book reading (Kanta mtj)
11.00 – 11.45: Shloka recitation (Divya mtj)
12.00 – 12.30: Kids participate in Aarthi at the temple (Divya mtj and Kanta mtj)
2.00 – 3.00: Art class (Lilly)

This worked out really well – not only were the kids positively engaged, they were happy to be with their school friends in the break and loved learning together with them. I am amazed to see how well the kids cooperated to make this a memorable experience for all of us. As their schools are about to start, I am cherishing, if I were to “home school”, perhaps it will be like this :).

— Article entitled “Most Satisfying Summer” by Śyāmalā dāsī (@syamala.ids, @lightofgodhead)

p.s: For your pleasure, in the coming weeks, I shall be posting short video clips of each of the above sessions.