FGS NZ YAD organised the 3rd online children dharma class on the 5th of September. This class was aimed to pass on some basic Buddhism teachings and the values of 3 Goodness & 4 Givings to the students.15 students aged between 5 and 11 attended the class.
This class was led by Manisha and Gwen, while Thomas was helping as technical support. The class started with the chanting of Xi Fa Pu Ti Xin（悉發菩提心）, which is a regular activity done in every children dharma class implant Bodhi seeds in these young students. Gwen Koh then carried on the class by doing the doodling, which is an interacting drawing session to train the focus of the students and the ability to pick up information through drawing cute animals.
Next, Manisha shared an interesting YouTube video entitled “Kindness and Joy” to emphasise the importance of helping others. The session was then wrapped up by online interactive tools such as Kahoot!. The children felt excited and engaged. This enabled them to understand the moral values from the video easily by including some prompting questions. Wendy, John’s mother, shared that “John enjoyed the Kahoot session and loved the story. John realised that Joy (a character in the video) was being helpful, and he likes to become a person like Joy.”
Children’s dharma class is an important platform for both children and teachers. It instils positive values in children and creates a chance for youths to spread the Buddhism knowledge for young children to be better leaders in the future. “As a co-host, I am glad to have the opportunity to explore new technical knowledge through this event, with the guidance and support from YAD. I also felt awesome to meet up with everyone in Children Dharma Class.” Gwen added. On the other side, Manisha thought that the session was nevertheless enjoyable. She felt so grateful that they could connect with the children by doing fun activities such as arts and crafts and listening to stories while reflecting on the morals values they learned collaboratively.
