How This Mom Made Teaching About Hinduism Fun

Here’s how Sunita Mistry Shah made teaching about Hinduism fun for her 2 boys…and all kids out there. She is the mompreneur behind The Jai Jais, a collection of children’s books and
educational resources such as puzzles and flashcards about Hindu gods, goddesses plus yoga.

The idea came to her when her oldest son Syon began asking questions about the shrine of deities in their home. It really is a testament to the truth behind her mission, to help all moms whose kids ask similar questions. We can definitely relate to that!

“He would talk about the elephant god, the monkey god and the powerful fork ‘trident’ of Lord Shiva which he thought was like King Triton from The Little Mermaid.”

Sunita’s expertise and background as a speech and language therapist aided her in her endeavor to write and produce books that had relatable images and text, something she felt was lacking in what was out there.

“I was always a book worm…our house is full of books,” says Sunita. “Storytime is still a treasured time of the day with my children.”

In 2015, Sunita took her love for storytime into action and released her first book about Ganesh, the elephant headed Hindu god. She worked in combination with James Ballance as the illustrator, who worked in a special needs school with children with severe difficulties. Their collaboration and collection has since grown and includes 20 books for babies to children of all ages.

“I want my books to cater for all ages, and all developmental levels” says Sunita. “Having
been a practicing speech and language therapist for over 20 years, I’ve used the knowledge
of children’s language developmental norms milestones to create this series. A special moment was seeing my 100-year-old grandfather sitting with my three-year-old son reading and talking about the characters in the books. It was precious to see how grandparents can be so involved
and have a common focus with their grandchildren.”

Our team here loves Sunita’s drive, passion and vision. We especially love her vibrant yoga card deck, something that speaks to me as a kids yoga teacher myself. Not only are the cards easy to follow and alphabetical, they include affirmation messages that correlate to each pose.

Here are my kiddos who loved using these cards in our yoga routine! What I personally found so unique was how the images of poses on the cards are demonstrated by gods and goddesses, something I have not seen in other yoga cards out there. 

Check out more of our review for the deck on our instagram page @thechaimommas.

For more info on these cards, books and any of the awesome resources, go to www.thejaijais.com.

 

Written by: Puja Shah, Chief of Content & Strategy, The Chai Mommas