Curriculum
Ages 14 months – 6 years · Blossom Valley, San JoseTwo things happen here every day. Children learn the ordinary preschool things — letters, numbers, colors, shapes, how to sit and listen — and they grow up inside a Vedic culture, with shlokas, arati, kirtan and the old stories. Neither one is decoration for the other. A child leaves ready for kindergarten and knowing where they come from.
What we teach
Six strands, taught together
Not six separate lessons. They run into each other all day — a shloka is also memory practice, chess is also sitting still, a story is also vocabulary.
Letters, numbers and early literacy
The foundation every kindergarten expects, at a pace that suits the child in front of us.
- The alphabet by name and by sound
- Numbers and counting, one to one
- Colors and shapes
- Holding a pencil, then writing their own name
- Listening to a story and telling you what happened in it
Vedic stories and the morals in them
The largest part of the day, and the part children ask for. Stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavatam — told, not read from a screen.
- What the story meant, talked through afterwards
- Honesty, courage, keeping your word
- Respect for elders; care for anyone smaller
- The same lessons carried into how we behave that afternoon
Chess
Taught by an eight-time national champion of Turkmenistan. Children start around four, with pieces and patterns rather than notation, and nobody is pushed.
- How the pieces move, then why they move there
- Thinking one move ahead, then two
- Sitting through a whole game
- Losing without falling apart — the real lesson
Sanskrit shlokas and essentials
Memorized properly, with attention to pronunciation, and never as sounds with no meaning behind them.
- Daily shlokas learned by heart
- What each one actually says, in English
- The Sanskrit alphabet by sound
- Everyday words and greetings
Arati and kirtan
A short offering each morning with lamp and bell, and singing together. Children take turns leading. You do not need to be from a Hindu family for your child to belong in it.
- Daily arati — taking a turn, waiting for your turn
- Kirtan: call and response, simple instruments, keeping time
- Festivals celebrated properly through the year
Rhymes, and the things that are not lessons
English rhymes and songs, and the ordinary social learning that matters more at this age than any of the above.
- Rhymes and counting songs, for rhythm and for vocabulary
- Taking turns; asking instead of snatching
- Clearing your own plate, putting your own shoes on
- Sitting through a meal with eleven other children
By age
What this looks like at fourteen months, and at five
One mixed-age group, but not one expectation. A toddler is not doing chess, and a five-year-old is not being read to at a toddler's pace.
- 14 months – 2 years
- Settling and listening Being part of arati and kirtan without being expected to sit still for it. First words, first colors, first songs. Mostly: feeling safe, and being fed well.
- 2 – 3 years
- Joining in Shlokas picked up by ear. Counting to ten, naming colors and shapes, sitting for a short story. Beginning to ask for a toy rather than take it.
- 3 – 4 years
- Real work begins Letter sounds, numbers past ten, pencil control. Longer stories and questions about them. First look at a chessboard. Clearing their own plate without being asked twice.
- 4 – 6 years (pre-K)
- Kindergarten readiness Reading their own name and writing it. Counting confidently. Playing a full game of chess. Following a three-step instruction and sitting through a lesson — which is what schools notice on day one.
What we deliberately do not do
Worth reading before you enroll, because these are the things parents occasionally expect and we would rather you knew now.
- No screens. No tablets, no television, no videos — not as a treat, not on a rainy day, not to settle a difficult afternoon.
- No other languages. The school runs in English. Sanskrit is shlokas and essentials, not a language course. We do not teach Spanish or Mandarin.
- No arithmetic drills. Numbers and counting, yes. We do not claim to teach addition at four and we do not run children through worksheets.
- No homework. Children this age have done enough by five o'clock.
- No outside food. Everyone eats the same meal, cooked here.
- No unkindness let through. A snatched toy goes back. A child who hits is stopped the same way every time, gently and immediately.
Come and watch a day’s worth of this in ten minutes.
Visits are weekday evenings, 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Please bring your child — we want to meet them too.