In December 2018, during our visit to our home town, Bengaluru, India, we happened to meet HG Bharat Chandra prabhu, founder of the Center for Traditional Education (CTE). He and his wife are not only homeschooling their children in a traditional way, but also are sharing their wisdom through training to many devotees all around the world.
In that conversation, while we were sharing Krishna conscious activities we do with our twin boys, aged 5 1/2 then, Prabhuji with much conviction mentioned, “By the time the boys are six, they should memorize the entire Gita. Why not? It is possible. Also they should read and write Sanskrit fluently. Is it definitely possible”. I was thinking in our case the goal we are challenged with is close to impossible with kids going to a full-day school at Goswami Academy and myself working full-time. Nevertheless I wanted to give it a try. What you see below is the result of prabhuji’s guidance, Krsna’s inspiration and kids’ hard work. So let’s go on with the journey….
While memorizing Gita seemed daunting, at least I wanted to try the task of teaching the Sanskrit alphabet. I quickly brushed up my Sanskrit alphabet/pronunciation skills and wanted to make the learning fun for kids, hence made up a big size alphabet chart (11″ * 17″) with different color coding for small/long vowels. Along with it, I created alphabet cards (4″*6″) with the letter on one side and a relevant Sanskrit word (from Bhagavad-Gita) and image on the other side.
We decided to meet weekly once on Sundays and see how we make progress. We officially started our sessions from the first week of January with four kids of almost same age – 5 1/2 years. The Bengali mother of one child also wanted to learn Sanskrit. In each session, we rehearse what we learnt thus far, start a new lesson, and play some games with the cards to reinforce learning. Like for example: Divide the group into two, give a set of cards to each group, start a timer, and let’s see who will arrange them in the sequence first. Later as they started learning the alphabet more, we used to play “show and tell” game – each kid is given five random alphabet cards, they have to show and tell the letter, turn it around and tell the Sanskrit word. Kids were so eager to “show off” their knowledge that many times it was so tough to figure who will start the game. Their enthusiasm for learning remained even in the weekdays as they wanted to play these card games with their dad after dinner.
This fun approach to teaching, trick of bringing together their favorite friends and play time after the class, made the task of learning a new language fun and exciting. So much so that, I myself was so surprised to see the results. Expressing my happiness, one day I was mentioning to my older one, “Nrsimha I am so happy you are studying Sanskrit nicely”. Without much thought he responded, “Amma, What is studying?”. I realized, for them it’s all fun and play and thanked Krishna for giving me the intelligence to make this a fun experience for them. Only hard work by the kids was their homework – practice the new letters for the week at least three times during the week.
To conclude this effort, for Gaura Purnima we wanted to test them and offer the results to Lord Caitanya. The image below is the outcome of the test from the three students. So essentially in 3 months they learnt the entire alphabet. Seeking the blessings of all the Vaishnavas while they embark on reading Sanskrit proficiently, copy writing and learning Jiva Goswami’s harinama vyakarana.
We would like to share the resources we created during this effort with the devotees worldwide, so other kids may also experience fun learning Sanskrit Alphabet.
Please check them out at our store below.
Humbly yours,
Syamala dasi (4/1/2019)
HOW TO TEACH READING IN SANSKRIT
SANSKRIT ARTICLES
Sanskrit for kids the past Summer
Dear friends, please find attached short video clip of how we helped kids (aged 6) become more proficient in reading/writing in Sanskrit (Devanagari) the past Summer. We used Bhagavad-gita verses as the reading material and as a side effect kids effortlessly memorized the chapters we covered.
To prepare the mood for upcoming Gita Jayanthi, we as a family sit together and read the shlokas and translations every day. Due to the exposure to Sanskrit, kids are very eager for the sessions.
Please watch this video carefully if you want to know the process we followed.
Hare Krishna!
Description of Sanskrit games
In this article we will describe various games one can play using the Sanskrit alphabet card set and Sanskrit Alphabet chart set to make learning fun and exciting. Refer to our article “How to teach Sanskrit (Devanagari) Alphabet” for the detailed lesson plan.
- Divide the group of students into two.
- Give each a set of shuffled alphabet cards.
- Start the game.
- Group which arranges the sequence first is the winner.
- Test: After the game ask each group to pronounce the letters in the sequence.
How to teach Sanskrit (Devanagari) Alphabet
In this article we will provide you the step-by-step lesson plan of how by using the Alphabet Chart set and Alphabet Cards set one can learn Sanskrit, Devanagari alphabet in 10 easy lessons.
- Youtube video for pronunciation of Vowels.
- Youtube video for pronunciation of Consonants.
- How to write vowels (hindi).
- How to write consonants (hindi).
- Jumbo Sanskrit Alphabet Chart Set
- Sanskrit Alphabet Cards Set
- Description of Sanskrit games
Sanskrit is considered the most complete language as all parts of the tongue are utilized in pronouncing the letters. Therefore it is critical to learn proper pronunciation.
