baha’i children’s class ideas.

learning concepts
We should not do anything that will cause someone’s heart to be unhappy.

activities
story: Feathers in the wind – a traditional story about gossip. There are many versions of this one.
drama: accompany the children through the skits outlined in Book 5, Lesson 13 (sin-covering eye). OR: dramatize the "Feathers in the wind" story. Have the children continue their skit after the end of the story by imagining what happens after the woman learns how not to spread gossip. What does she talk about? What has she learned about hurting people’s feelings? How do her friends react to her change of heart? How do they feel?
craft: wreaths; seasonally-themed, with feathers included to tie in with the story.

reference
Section 19.4, Book 4 of Bahá’í Education for Children, is about not hurting people’s feelings.

The Golden Rule [2] is a universal principle that kids can understand and apply in their lives every day.

O son of man! If thine eyes be turned towards mercy, forsake the things that profit thee and cleave unto that which will profit mankind. And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself. Humility exalteth man to the heaven of glory and power, whilst pride abaseth him to the depths of wretchedness and degradation.
(Bahá’u'lláh, Kalímát-i-Firdawsíyyih (Words of Paradise), Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p.64)

Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander, abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men. (Bahá’u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Ahd (Book of the Covenant), Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed After the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, p.269)

"Breathe not the sins of others so long as thou art thyself a sinner." (The Hidden Words, Arabic, no.27, p.10)

"Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great…" (The Hidden Words, Persian, no.44, p.37)

"O Son of Being! How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me." (The Hidden Words, Arabic, no.26, p.10)

experience

October 25, 2008: 9 kids(!), ages 6-9. 1.5 hrs.  Class was not too bad at all. we took the extra step this class of putting up a poster with the ground rules that we defined during last week’s class.  if nothing else, this helped the children remember the rules, and in the long term it should help the class become a little more manageable ("what’s rule #4?")

we played a number of games today, and it worked out just as well, because I didn’t have the time to prepare the craft real well. a very bright spot was that the same parent who stayed for her children’s first class stayed again today, and indicated her desire to continue staying in the class throughout the year, in order to have some extra time with her children (being a single mother, she doesn’t have the chance to be with them all the time). having her in the class made it much more livable; otherwise, I would have been alone, and it would have been a lot more difficult to handle everyone.  the class built on the previous week’s theme of backbiting, and focused on gossip, using the "scattering feathers" story, which seemed to have an impact on the kids. (yay!) for some reason, toys seemed to start drifting into the classroom as the lesson continued; new rule required, perhaps? after we ended up with a squeaky ball on our hands (which I confiscated, along with a sort of LED taser/flashlight), we got in a circle and played a game of catch, where we had to say our name (to introduce the new children) and state a good quality (a virtue), without using the same ones more than once.  That worked well for a while, and then we switched to "telephone", which we used to illustrate how someone’s words can be twisted during the process of gossiping.

by the time we finished the games, it was nearly time to finish, so since I didn’t have my other craft idea prepared on time (feather wreaths), we just busted out the stamps that were used for the greeting cards we made during the class on obedience to parents. the kids seemed to enjoy that; one of boys, however, figured he didn’t need to play with the stamps since he was there when we did it last time, so he busted out the legos instead. i didn’t notice this until it was too late, and soon all the other boys were following his lead.  whoops.  oh well, it happens.