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Children’s Programmes
Registration
Google forms is a great tool for registration. You can easily export form responses to a spreadsheet and even use Google App Scripts to work with the data. Here is an example script that can create sign in sheets and an attendance chart. ChatGPT is quite good with Google App Scripts so it wouldn’t be hard to modify this to suit your own needs.
You can place a link to the registration on your website. But many families will come without registering. When families fill out a paper registration form their handwriting is so bad that there are always mistakes. So it is better even in person to recommend that they fill the form online. For that you can create a QR code to the Google Form and make a handout. Here is an example.
Sample Schedule
Here is a sample schedule for a children’s programme:
8:20 (approximately) “What merit did you collect” activity. (see below)
8:30 (actual start of class) Chant Chattamanavaka verses (see this page)
8:35 Begin teaching, possibly reviewing previous class, maybe a Q&A
9:25 Review rules for break (no running around, no yelling, sitting to eat snack, use washroom, prepare Buddha Puja quietly without fighting, etc)
9:30 break and some kids preparing Buddha puja (see below)
9:45 offering Buddha puja items (everyone touching all items)
9:50 Chanting Buddha puja/precepts and maybe a paritta (see below)
10:10 (approximately) give meditation instructions and do meditation
10:25 merit sharing
Pre-Class Merit Sharing Activity
A major issue with Dhamma School is engaging the kids who come early and reducing damage from kids who come late. One solution is a merit sharing activity. This can begin five to ten minutes before the scheduled start time and even continue for a few minutes into the actual class time since it is a good learning activity in and of itself.
After a monk has done this activity for several weeks, you may be able to have an older child take on the leader role. At that point the monk’s role is to encourage the child-leader in the process.
Here is a sample script of how such an activity might sound:
Leader (monk): Namo Buddhaya!
Children: Namo Buddhaya!
L: Welcome everyone; I’m glad to see all of you here. Lets take some time before class to talk about the merit you have all been collecting this week. Who can tell us some merit you have collected since the last class?
C: [silence]
L: What? No one has collected any merit? I don’t believe that! Child One, tell me what you have done to collect merit this week. (Child One being a student that usually will have done some merit)
C1: I helped my mother clean the house.
L: Oh, that’s wonderful did everyone hear that?
C: [shake their heads no]
L: Ok, C1, please tell everyone again what you did, this time louder. When we tell people about our merit we should be happy about it and tell loudly.
C1: I helped my mother clean the house.
L: Wonderful! You helped your mother clean the house. Now, everyone, what do we say when we hear that someone has done something good?
C: [silent]
L: We say Sadhu!!! Who remembers what “Sadhu” means?
C2: Excellent!
L: Yes, very good. When we hear about someone doing something good, we like to praise that by saying “Sadhu, Sadhu!” Excellent, excellent!
L: Now, who else helped their parents clean the house?
C: [some raise their hands]
L: That’s great! So what do we say when we hear about someone collecting merit?
C: Sadhu, sadhu!
L: And what might the results be in future lives when you collect the merit of cleaning? Anyone? It could help you to live in a clean place in the future. Do all of you like to live in a clean place? Yes, I thought so.
L: Who else has collected merit this week?
C3: I worshiped my parents.
L: Excellent! What do we say?
C: Sadhu sadhu!
L: Now, did anyone else worship their parents this week?
C: [some raise their hands]
L: Wonderful. What do we say?
C: Sadhu sadhu!
L: Did anyone worship their parents every day this week? That’s great! How many of you worshiped your parents at least once? Super. Now, all of you who didn’t worship, this is an easy way to collect merit. And it always gives good results. Who remembers what the result is when we respect people like this?
C4: We can be respected in the future.
L: Exactly. All of us like to have people respect us, don’t we?
The leader can go on like this for some time. If kids can’t come up with merit, then the leader can throw out ideas, for example, “Did anyone help make food for your family…?”
Buddha Puja
It is very important for children to do everything related to preparing the Buddha puja. There is a tendency for parents to do all of the preparation, but this is a great loss. Children are fully capable of doing all of this on their own with only minimal guidance. If you do the Buddha Puja chanting after the break, you can use the break time to let some kids prepare. Otherwise you can let the kids who are early to class do the preparation. In any case, don’t let the parents do.
You can remind families through WhatsApp announcements to bring flowers from their garden. Be sure to have lots of small candle holders for the tea lights. Can’t have too many.
After class ask kids to clean up the Buddha Puja offerings.
Chanting
At home, it is good for children to have a book they can chant from. However during class it is much more efficient to use a powerpoint presentation on a projector screen. That way kids don’t get lost and you can even point at things on the screen for them to pay attention to. You can find all the powerpoints you may need on this page.