One of my goals for my kids as part of our homeschooling is to teach them about other cultures and religions. We studied India (sadly ages ago and I’m just now writing it), and as part of our homeschool geography I made a Hinduism lesson for kids.
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I’m going to admit right now I do not know the Hindu religion very well. Most of my information came from the books we read, and a few others sources, so if I made an error in my Hinduism lesson for kids it was an accident, please POLITELY inform me so I can correct my error.
Hinduism lesson for kids materials
Diwali (Celebrations in My World)
- Diwali (Rookie Read-About Holidays)
<<< this is great if you have younger elementary
- Hindu Festivals Throughout the Year (Year of Festivals)
- Hindu Cookbook (Festivals Cookbooks)
- This Is My Faith: Hinduism (This Is My Faith Books)
<<<< this is my favorite we checked out
- glitter glue (for one of the crafts)
- marker tower
(I should seriously make a list of my usual suspects for crafts)
Hinduism lesson for kids activities
All of the printables are in my India for Kids printable (on the subscriber page).
We started off reading the “This is my Faith: Hinduism” book and answering some general questions about Hinduism and what it believes.
I’m sure you can read what the boy wrote, okay I don’t think you can because I can’t easily read it.
Next we learned about Ganesh, one of the major Hindu deities, we were also able to talk with some friends currently living in India and they told us a little more about Ganesh and how they see statues of him everywhere in India. This is where the glitter glue became incredibly handy because many of the statues were decorated quite intricately.
And our final Hinduism activity was to make a Rangoli, this is an art form used during Diwali and many other major festivals. In India they are frequently made using chalk powder that is put down in intricate patterns. When we did this unit we were in the midst of the crazy rainstorms so my initial plan of making one on our sidewalk was thrown out, but the kids were able to make one for their notebook.
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More Hinduism lesson resources
- India lesson with a bit of Hinduism
- India books (there’s a few Hinduism books here too)
- Hinduism books (I’m intrigued by the Hinduism stories book)
Pictures are from: O.M. (In Tamil Language) and Jai Ganesh used with permission under Creative Commons license and attributed.
T has started a world religions class for his college work. He was watching a cartoon clip (really intended for children, but used as a link in the class) about how ganesh got the elephant head, just yesterday.
Oh that sounds like it would be fun to watch.
This is fun! We read a lot of books about Indian deities – our area has a lot of Indian famlies, so the library has a section with books produced in India about them. Some of the stories are quite… explicit 🙂 Very different religion, that’s for sure!
Our area has a good number of Indian families as well, and lots more have moved in recently. I wish we’d had more, we had a decent number, but I always want more.
World Religions have been on my list for so long. For whatever reason they seem to get pushed to the bottom of the pile, must make a plan to get to them soon. Thanks Ticia!
You’re welcome! I’m trying to work what we learn in with our geography studies.
Diwali is a big deal at my kids’ school, where there is a pretty big Indian population.
Your kids probably get all sorts of great lessons on Hinduism during that.
I think Hinduism was one of the most interesting religions we have learnt about on account of it being so different from any other of the main religions. I love your pictures 🙂
I did too! It really is very interesting and quite unique.
Hi Ticia,
I am a Hindu, a bhramin if you identify caste 🙂 and I just want to say you did excellent. I am always impressed by how Christians have Sunday bible study and workbooks for children to learn religion at their level. I am taking inspiration from your activity and planning similar workbook activities for my son. Thanks and keep up the great work.
Thank you! I’m always worried when I write about other religions because I am well aware of how little I know about other religions. I’m glad to hear I did a good job.
Very well said Priti, My younger sister also felt the same way as you have mentioned and when she discussed it with me, the discussion became an epic for us
and then we started working on Mokshaverse, an initiative that wants to create experiences for children that gamify Hindu Culture.
What’s more, we could have asked for, many people are coming forward to help us do this work.
Nice work Tricia, If you want, you can contact us, if you want to do anything around Hindu Culture