This is How We Homeschool

Me and my friends made a movie about our fun, fabulous, awesome, and fantastic homeschooling life!

Bhagavad Gita

When we were India, we made a movie of the Bhagavad Gita, the 700 verse scripture which is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. We didn't do all 700 verses though! I play Arjuna, a warrior who is not happy about the idea of killing his kinsman in battle. Baba plays Krishna, the god who counsels Arjuna.

And here are the funny outtakes:
 

India: Part Three

After staying at Sri Ramana's ashram (see below), we moved onto Auroville, just north of Pondicherry. Auroville is an "experimental" township where people from all over the world come and live a spiritual, peaceful, and progressive life together. In the middle of this town is this big gold ball (!) called the Matrimandir where Aurovillians go and meditate.

We got to ride some cool bikes

And they had great horns!

We slept under mosquito nets

 One day, we visited Pondicherry and saw an Elephant outside a Ganesh temple

We fed her too!

On our last day in India, we went to Chennai and met up with some friends. We dipped our toes in the Bay of Bengal. It was super warm!

And at the end of our journey, we said goodbye to Baba's hat!

India: Part Two

After staying at Shantivanam Ashram, we traveled four hours north to another town in Tamil Nadu called Tiruvannamalai. There we stayed at Sri Ramana Ashram, which "was home to modern sage and Advaita Vedanta philosopher, Ramana Maharshi from 1922 till his death in 1950." We had fun going to the daily chanting and puja ceremonies at Maharshi's shrine.

It was really great to climb the sacred Arunchala hill

Ramana loved animals and there were lots to see at the ashram

There were even shrines to Ramana's favorite animals, such as Lakshmi the cow

The ashram fed us really yummy breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which we ate off banana leaves!

We found a very cool playground nearby too

India Trip: Part One

We just returned from a trip to South India! We spent this fall studying Hinduism and Indian history (see post below) and our trip was an amazing way to bring it all to life!

After arriving in Bangalore, India, we went straight to Kulittalai in Tamil Nadu where we stayed for five days at Saccidananda Ashram. The ashram blends Christianity and Hinduism and for many years, it was the home of Father Bede Griffiths, a British monk who became a yogi and a leading thinker and writer about the links between Christianity and Hinduism.

Here I am (with Baba) outside Father Bede's hut.

And here I am feeding the ashram cows, who I named Lakshmi, Kali, Sita, and Draupadi.

Here is where we ate our meals, which were yummy!

And here I am meditating with Yogi Jesus!

We visited the local villages, countryside, and towns in an auto-rickshaw

I loved all the animals we saw

And we met some friendly monkeys at a temple!

All the people were very friendly, with big smiles

We also visited Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, which is the biggest temple complex in India

Homeschool History, Religion, and Culture Studies (Part 5): Hinduism and India

So far, we have studied Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Hebrews, the birth of Christianity and the Middle Ages. Over the last four or five months, we have been studying Hinduism and India and this week we got back from the most amazing trip to Tamil Nadu, South India! (more on our trip later)

As usual, we used Gloria Fiero's Humanistic Tradition to start us off with our studies of Hinduism, but then we read and watched lots of other cool stuff too and went on museum tours. And, of course, this time we went to India too! 


Books and Audio

Modern Scholar lectures on Hinduism: Religions of the East: Paths to Enlightenment
Bhagavad Gita, trans. by Stephen Mitchell
Upanishads, a translation by Patrick Olivelle
Introducing Hinduism, by Hillary Rodrigues
Ramayana, audio version read by Ram Dass
Chicago Addresses, by Swami Vivekanda
Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi
The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, foreword by C.G. Jung
American Veda (about how Vedanta Hinduism has come to the West), by Phillip Goldberg
A Very Short Introduction to Hinduism, Kim Knott
Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings, selected by Thomas Matus
The Essential Aurobindo: Writings of Sri Aurobindo, edited by Robert McDermott

Books for Kids

Ramayana (kids version), by Mathuram Bhoothalingam,
Sita's Ramayana (graphic novel), by Samhita Arni
The Ramayana and Hinduism (introductory book for kids) by Anita Ganeri
Stories for Children by Swami Vivekananda
A Boy Sage (about Sri Ramana Maharshi), by Geeta Bhatt
Bhagavan Ramana: The Friend of All
Sri Ramana, Friend of Animals: The Life of the Cow Lakshmi
Sri Ramana, Friend of Animals: Nondi and the Monkeys of Arunchala

Films and Documentaries
Apu Trilogy - Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished) and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)
The Music Room - Satyajit Ray
Selected episodes from Bharat Ek Khoj, a 53-episode Indian historical drama based on the book The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru.
Earth, Deepa Mehta
Fire, Deepa Mehta
Monsoon Wedding, Mira Nair
Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha
"Abide as the Self" Documentary about Sri Ramana Maharshi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNEib2RDl8
"The Life of Father Bede Griffiths" Documentary about the Benedictine Monk who lived in ashrams in India and became a famous yogi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvmWZ9W5f1E
RamaKrishna and Vivekananda Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAUYFSElzIw

Tours and Lectures
Hindu and Buddhist Art tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Vedanta Society of New York

Walking the Boards

My friend Joseph and I performed Act 4 Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Thanks to our fabulous teacher, Mrs H., at Different Directions.

And here are my monologues from a recital at my acting class at Children's Acting Academy, NY.
 

Ping Pong, Spin Pong

Here I am at Spin NY, training with my coach, Matthew Khan.

Fall Colors

I took some photos of the fall leaves!

Brown

Red

Yellow

Orange

Ping Pong!

 I've started taking ping pong lessons at a club called PIPS in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here I am beating...I mean playing my dad!

Bee! I'm Expecting You!

Zoe and I made another poetry movie! Here we perform Emily Dickinson's "Bee! I'm Expecting You!"

We are Seven

Zoe and I made a new movie! Here we are performing William Wordsworth's poem "We Are Seven." It was all filmed in the churchyards of Huguenot Street, New Paltz, NY.

Homeschool History, Religion, and Culture Studies (Part 4)

(The nine circles of hell inspired by Dante's Inferno!)

So far, we have studied Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Plus the Hebrews and the birth of Christianity. During the spring of this year we went on to study the Middle Ages in the West.

We still use Gloria Fiero's Humanistic Tradition to start us off, but then we read and watch lots of other cool stuff - and go on museum tours too, of course!

Books:

Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
Brenda Mulvihill, Treasury of Saints and Martrys
Everyman (Miracle Play)
Dante, The Divine Comedy
Seymour Chwast, Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
Marcia Williams, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Audio book/lectures

Modern Scholar: Dante and the Divine Comedy (lecture series on The Divine Comedy)
Modern Scholar: Odyssey of the West: A Classic Education through the Great Books: The Medieval World (lecture series)

Film and TV

Brother Son Sister Moon (Zefferrelli film about St Francis of Assisi)
Medieval Times (BBC series, Terry Jones)
Joan of Arc (Victor Fleming movie, 1948)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer and Falconetti, 1928)
Vision (2010 movie about Hildegard von Bingen)
Hildegard von Bingen: In Portrait (BBC documentary)
Dante's Inferno (1935 movie)
Six Centuries of Verse (TV series presented by John Gielgud, which includes readings from Canterbury Tales, Divine Comedy etc)

Tours at Museums

Medieval tour - The Metropolitan Museum of New York
Medieval tour - British Museum

The Scottish Play

In May, I performed in a fabulous New Genesis teen production of Macbeth. I was Macduff's son. (Thanks to Alan Brooks for filming the play and helping my mum download the footage!)

Star Trek - "Human Potential"

We made our first Star Trek episode while we were at Esalen. Check it out!

Me and my Uke!

I was just at Esalen for 3 weeks, while my dad taught a workshop. One of the work scholars gave me ukulele lessons. I'd never played before, and this was my final performance! Thanks, Syd, for teaching me.

The Story of Siddhartha: Part Two

Finally, the second part of our Story of Siddhartha is done! In this installment, Prince Siddhartha leaves the palace and sees old age, suffering, and death for the first time.

In case you missed it, here is part one:

He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you!

I love New Genesis Productions! They cast me as Macduff's son in their awesome teen-production of Macbeth. Last weekend, we did four performances at Woodstock's Byrdecliffe Theater. It was so, so fun!! I had to learn stage combat and I had to die on stage! (thanks to Ted Ojarovsky for all these great photos!)

And here are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Everyone in the cast was so great and really kind to me!