How a 3-year-old learned shlokas better than rhymes…

Some good reasons to expose kids to shlokas & even encourage them to chant.

When I wake up in the morning, my mind says a quick prayer and I rub my hands and put them on my face, and just after I behave normally….and get hold of my phone 😛

But that first tiny prayer is part of a routine. It just happens on autopilot. I don’t even remember learning the prayer, but I doubt I can ever forget it. And as always, the mom in me wanted the little boy to also inculcate this habit.

Reason — Nothing very strong. It never really does any harm if I do start my day without it (I have consciously tried and tested it) but there is a nice feeling when my day starts with it. Simple.

Prayers, Shlokas, and Mantras seem simple and almost matter-of-fact, but when you do look at the reason why they are chanting, the meaning of the words, and the power of the vibrations there is a lot more to unpack. I’m not going to get there as you can google to figure that out. However, here are some reasons I think it’s great to expose kids to shlokas & even encourage them to chant.

• It improves their memory — Chant 4 shlokas, and you will understand how similar they sound, but the trick is to differentiate them and not mix them up. A good memory game for kids to challenge their minds.
• It improves their speech — Every word in a shloka is said in a specific way with a specific intonation and just by practicing that right the tongue will be exercised enough to say super complicated things. Try.
• It gives them confidence — When a child says an entire shloka on her/his own they realize that they can do this with other things too — songs, poetry, speeches, stories, and more.
• It teaches them tradition & culture in installments — A Ganesha shloka is what is said before you begin anything, you can pay homage to all India’s great rivers when you have a bath every day, and so on…

If you have read this article until here and now wondering how you can actually get your little ones to chant shlokas, here’s what worked for us.

Our little boy could chant 10 shlokas fully at 3 years.

• Learn it better yourself- Make sure you get a chant right before you start teaching little kids, it’s difficult to unlearn for them. So listen to it on repeat, consult someone who knows, and then get started.
• Start them young (as with everything) — Even a 10-day-old baby can recognize a song/shloka that is repeated often. I always chanted a good night prayer while making Yajur sleep as a baby (and even now when he is 4).
• Start with one — When we listen to those well-versed chants, and they go on and on forever, we get (bored) and overwhelmed, imagine doing that to a child! Just start with one and do not overdo it!
• Repetition is the name of the game — Say it once, say it twice and say it again — obviously not all through the day but in little pockets. And there will be times kids will ignore you, but their ears are always listening.
• Play fill-up the blanks — After you have repeated the shloka a few times over a couple of days, say a line and leave the last word out and closely observe if your kiddo is mouthing it and trying to finish your lines, do that with more words and then full lines. Slowly and stealthily 😛
• Team learning with play — Chant shlokas while playing, trust me God doesn’t mind! We chant on the cycle and with the pedaling speed, the chanting speed also increases. It’s a fun game.
• With time introduce the meaning — Talk about why you are chanting something at that time of the day, who the deity is, and what the relationship of the characters being chanted is. Stories make everything interesting.
• Make it part of the routine — Saying a prayer can easily be made part of a routine, by being consistent. And one day it will go on auto-pilot.
• Associate a feeling of pride — If you are not in India (esp South India) kids may not see other kids chant shlokas as much, don’t make them feel any different about it. Keep a low profile and tell them that it’s cool to say it when they feel like it and it’s something special they can do that other may not. My son said his shlokas with pride on ‘Show and Tell’ day and then told his teacher — Now you try. And she couldn’t 😛

Originally published at https://yajurchronicles.com.