baha’i children’s class ideas.

Cast of the play on “Accompaniment”, starring a group of Cambodian Baha’i youth.

On a recent trip to Cambodia (ok, not so recent), my wife and I were blessed to be able to attend a national training session for institute coordinators at the Baha’i centre in Battambang. The training was specifically for coordinators from those areas that counted more than 20 active junior youth groups. Battambang, for those who don’t know, is one of those places in the world where there’s been a lot of growth in the Baha’i community. In the mid-2000′s, it was known as “the ‘A’ cluster of all ‘A’ clusters”, because thousands of people had embraced the Faith of Baha’u'llah thanks to the dedicated efforts of the friends at that time. In some places around Battambang, entire neighbourhoods are designated “Baha’i Communities” because most of their inhabitants have accepted the Baha’i Faith. The explosive growth they experienced has slowed somewhat, of course, as the community’s focus shifted to embrace both expansion and consolidation as concurrent processes.

Anyway, while we were at the training, we watched a play about “Accompaniment” presented by some of the participants. The photos are mine, and the script included below is written by my good friend Prema Krish, of Battambang. The original play was performed in the Khmer language, of course, but this translation should be pretty accurate. I’ll let it speak for itself, but suffice to say, it provides an inspiring example of how we can approach families about establishing children’s classes, and the difference that accompaniment can make in helping people gain the confidence to arise to serve.

G: Oh, i just finished my Ruhi at the Battambang Baha’i centre during the recent intensive institute training. I want to start a children’s class but i don’t know what i should do first.
B: Well, to start a children’s class, we first need to find children…hmmm…how shall we gather the children from our village?
G: Do you think the village leader might be able to help?
B: Maybe. Let’s go and find out together!

G/B: Good afternoon, Mr. Village Leader (VL)
VL: Ah, good afternoon!
G: You look deep in thought. What is the matter?
VL: I’m just looking at the activities around our village. For the past few months, i’ve noticed that there’s been a lot of children’s classes and junior youth groups carried out by the Baha’is in our village. It’s alarming because i see our youth are so motivated to serve the community these days!
B: Mr. VL, we have here G, who just completed Book 3 in the Ruhi sequence of courses and she would also like to start a children’s class. We came to you to find out if you can suggest any families in this village whom we might approach to start one.
VL: Another one! Oh, very good, G. I’m happy for you that you completed the course. Sure, i’ll be happy to help. Let’s see…there’s the A family whose children i think are not participating in children’s classes yet. I see them loitering by the road during the evenings when others are in children’s classes.
G: The A family? Err, i don’t know if they’ll be impressed if i approach them directly. They’re always so busy..
VL: Don’t worry! Mr A is my good friend! Let me talk to him.

Part 3/5. The A Family

Mr. A: Where are the kids? I hardly get to see them these days.
Mrs. A: I have no idea where they are. They leave the house early in the morning and i don’t know where they go or what they do…it’s concerning.
Mr. A: What do you mean you don’t know where they are?
Mrs. A: You know kids…they go out and play with other children. I’m sure they’re not too far away.
Mr. A: We need to watch out for them. There are many dangers all around us.
Mrs. A: I know what you mean. I heard there was a snatch thief in the neighbouring village who robbed an elderly lady in broad daylight! The nerve of these people! But having said that, I’m having trouble with the kids. They just won’t listen to me these days! All they want to do is play.

Part 4/5. The Visit to Family A

VL: Hey, Mr. A! How have you been doing recently?
Mr. A: Good afternoon, Mr VL. What a pleasant surprise. Please come in.
Mrs. A: Please have a seat, Mr. VL.
Mr. A: What’s going on around our village these days?
VL: I was just going through the monthly reports and i’ve noticed a lot of classes for children and junior youth going on. I don’t know if you know G, she’s one of the youth who just finished a course…err..
G: Ruhi Book 3, sir.
VL: Ah, yes, Ruhi Book 3! And now, she wants to start another children’s class! That’ll be the 6th in our village!
Mrs. A: What is a children’s class?
B: Allow me, sir. Mr. and Mrs. A, the course G just completed is to empower her to start a class with about 10 children between the ages of 6 to 11. The classes teach children a short quotation and they learn to understand it through stories, songs, games and coloring activities and they will be able to remember this quotation well. The quotations are like “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth” or “Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself” which focuses on developing spiritual capabilities.
Mr. A: Hmmn, Mrs A and i were just discussing our concern for the children and the need to bring them up well.

The A kids, Aa and Ab, walk in with the neighbour, C…

Part 5/5. A Children’s Class is Formed.

Mrs A: Ah, there you are! We were just talking about you. Mr VL is here to visit, come and join us.
Aa/Ab: Good evening, Mr. VL.
Mr. A: Kids, big brother B has just been sharing with us about starting a children’s class. I think both of you should attend it.
Mrs. A: Where and when will this class be?
G: Err, i haven’t thought about it yet. You’re the first family we’re visiting…
Mr. A: Ah, good! Let’s have it here, at our house. Both Aa and Ab can join. Oh, maybe even C wants to join?
Mrs. A: C, why don’t you ask your parents about it tonight. Wouldn’t you want to learn together with Aa and Ab?
Ab: Mom, who will teaching us?
Mrs. A: Big sister G here will be teaching you.

Aa, Ab and C look at big sister G and they all smile at the same time :D

Everyone loves cookies, especially children; it’s little wonder why so many people around the world have incorporated baking cookies as an activity in their children’s classes. Long-time readers of this blog will remember that we’ve celebrated Naw-Ruz with cookie-baking several times now. Others have made it a tradition to bake cookies for ‘Ayyam-i-Ha. Children are genuinely proud to bake and decorate their own cookies—the sense of accomplishment that comes from successfully following a recipe can help children gain confidence in their abilities. When we tried our hand at baking, the children enjoyed it immensely, and looked forward to sharing with their families. Some of the children had been so industrious in making the cookies, and had amassed such a stack of them, that they started sharing their cookies with anybody they could find.

Baking cookies is pretty easy, and a quick Google search will turn up some good recipes. Good preparation is key; try making your own batch at home before the children’s class to make sure you understand how to do it (if you don’t already). A nice thing to bring along is a set of nine-pointed star cookie cutters—readily available online from Indiana-based Special Ideas. For those whose baking skills are more advanced, you may want to try your hand at Baha’i Cookie Temples—cookie models of Baha’i Houses of Worship, akin to gingerbread houses. (I seriously doubt my own skill level is that high!)

Jessica Craig, a seventh-grade student in the state of Washington, USA, recently wrote the following in an essay for United Nations Universal Human Rights Day; it might be nice to mention as a way of tying in the cookie-baking with Baha’i principles!

“Every cookie is made up of basically the same thing [...] flour, sugar, and baking soda. For humans it might be our brain, heart or lungs which are all the same, and completely necessary to be alive. In cookies you have the basic ingredients but the things that make each cookie different may be you add nuts, or dried fruit and chocolate chips! [...] All human beings are the same, but all of us have different beliefs and ideas.”

Related post: naw-rúz – baha’i new year, spring

“The cookies made by the #Bahai jryouth class for a local men’s shelter.” from @squarie

“I heard comments like, ‘This is the funnest activity ever!’ and ‘I wish I could do this everyday!’” from Erika

“gingerbread cookies, fresh out of the oven!” from dragfyre

“in the midst of decoration” from dragfyre

Today, baha’i children’s class ideas is live-blogging and tweeting the Baha’i Children’s Class Symposium, organized by the Baha’i Community of Ottawa, Canada. Although the Symposium is now over, you can participate in future live discussions by following us on twitter at @childrensclass!

5:02 PM, Dec 5th:
Baha’i Children’s Class Symposium closes with a presentation from the children. So wonderful! #bahai #education

5:00 PM, Dec 5th:
FYI, today is @UN’s International Volunteer Day—what better way 2 celebrate than 2 reflect on service as a children’s class teacher? #Bahai

4:58 PM, Dec 5th:
Many concerns aired about keeping an up-to-date list of children’s classes in the city: Assembly rep says this is an ongoing issue. #bahai

4:47 PM, Dec 5th:
Returning from groups, great reflection on Ridván 2010 message & further guidance, discussing local children’s classes. #bahai #education

4:15 PM, Dec 5th:
Discussing duality btwn “Baha’i schools” & “neighbourhood classes”: regularity vs. inclusivity. #Bahai #education

4:06 PM, Dec 5th:
Breaking up into groups now, for further reflection.

4:05 PM, Dec 5th:
“[We] cannot ignore children and junior youth, if the victories won in one generation are not to be lost with the passage of time.” #bahai

4:01 PM, Dec 5th:
Local Assembly rep. now addressing the >30-strong crowd, composed of parents, teachers, community members.

3:47 PM, Dec 5th:
Break ends with an extremely well-executed #Bahai joke. And now we’re onto a clip of anecdotes from the Arising to Serve video.

3:33 PM, Dec 5th:
Break time. Lots of encouraging stories abt engaging w/ parents, reaching out to new families.

3:26 PM, Dec 5th:
Parents know that the development of good character is important, so they sign up. Learning about the Faith itself happens over time.

3:24 PM, Dec 5th:
Another parent: “I have no concerns w/ my daughter attending, b/c she always comes home happy and talkative—I know it’s something good.”

3:22 PM, Dec 5th:
One parent: “Even tho I hv a prejudice against [Baha'is], I don’t want my daughter 2 grow up with the same prejudice, so I let her attend.”

3:20 PM, Dec 5th:
@DASLucas speaks abt his experience with expanding children’s classes: When ppl feel Baha’u'llah’s msg can make a difference, they’ll join.

3:13 PM, Dec 5th:
Floor open to feedback. Comments about the need 2 multiply children’s classes 2 gain experience on how 2 make them better. #bahai #education

3:07 PM, Dec 5th:
Discussion of current revisions of Ruhi Book 3, 3A, 3B. These books will make up a “branch” that provides an updated CC curriculum. #bahai

3:01 PM, Dec 5th:
Q&A: All of the classes we’re having in #Ottawa are held in ppl’s homes. Heavy neighbourhood focus.

3:01 PM, Dec 5th:
Wide variety of curriculum used, supplement each other: Ruhi Bks 3, 3A; Dr. Furutan’s books; Core Curriculum; Historical narratives. #bahai

2:58 PM, Dec 5th:
Age breakdown: 11 classes for 5-7 yr-olds, 7 for 7-9 yr-olds, 5 for 9+ yr-olds. Mostly younger kids, but often w/ major age gaps in classes.

2:57 PM, Dec 5th:
Local coordinator: #Ottawa’s #Bahai community is cur’ly organizing 23 children’s classes, w/ 123 children, 77 from Baha’i families.

2:54 PM, Dec 5th:
“#Justice demands universal participation.” —Universal House of Justice, Ridván 2010 #bahai #education #unity

2:50 PM, Dec 5th:
#Education is not just abt academic knowledge, but acquiring good character & becoming ready & able to serve humanity. #bahai

2:49 PM, Dec 5th:
Ms. Scoffield reads a disabled child’s poem abt bullying, asking “What is the remedy to bullying?” Answer: #Education. #bahai

2:42 PM, Dec 5th:
Opening: Aux. Board Member Rhona Scoffield speaks, explaining importance of the core activities (incl. children’s classes) #bahai #education

2:07 PM, Dec 5th:
The #Bahai Centre is steadily filling up, as we see highlights from the “Arising to Serve” video (http://www.bahai.org/arising/).

Readers of this blog will be pleased to know that not only am I still alive, but I have a number of things lined up for posting in the next little while. I’ve had to take some time away from blogging for the past few months due to personal busymaking, including a trip back to Vietnam to visit family. But fear not! More content is on the way, including stories about our weekly children’s class in Ottawa, anecdotes about building up the core activities in Vietnam, posts about the rise in Baha’i institutional capacity, and even some videos.

How about you? What would you like to see more of on baha’i children’s class ideas? I’m currently considering opening up the format of this blog a little, to include more blog-like posts and articles about what it takes to run a children’s class, anecdotes about how different Baha’i communities are implementing children’s classes, and ideas from elsewhere on the internet. Leave a comment with your suggestions!

Photo: Martin Braithwaite

during a recent class, we asked the children what they think of when they hear the word love. one of our older children said “nobody loves me”. I rebutted, asking him “what about your Mom?”, which he acknowledged. “What about your Dad?”, which he again acknowledged. “What about the rest of your family?”, and again, he acknowledged that they loved him. Later, when we asked the children to draw something related to love, he chose to draw his family. In his drawing (pictured above), he’s stepping on his father’s foot, and apologizing. his mom and dad say they love him all the same. Oh, and his sister (right) has an iPad. We also drew the word “love” in big letters in front of the neighbours’ house (pictured below), just to let them know what we talked about that day.

sidewalk chalk is easy to come by, and makes a nice, fun activity for kids who feel the need to move around a lot. as well, it has the added benefit of leaving a visible trace for neighbours and passers-by to see what we’re doing; we even got into a conversation with two older ladies who asked us what we were doing. Nice!

Check out more of our chalk drawing photos.

I’m back from Vietnam, newly married, and diving back into the fray of life in my home cluster—back to the Chinatown children’s class I’ve been writing about for the past few months (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…) and dealing with new challenges. Oddly enough, at our local reflection meeting, someone told a story of an individual initiative that echoed exactly what’s been happening with our class. He explained how he and his wife had reached out to their neighbours, gathering up about five families who agreed to support a children’s class in their home. “It started out well,” he explained, “but as time went on, fewer and fewer people came.” Week after week, he contacted each family, and, from one week to the next, they would give some sort of reason why they couldn’t come—too tired, too cold, late lunch, family visit, whatever. It got to the point where he was wondering whether it was worth it to continue holding the class each week; why bother holding the class if there’s only one child?

Our team has been dealing with this same issue in the past month—or so I’m told, since I’ve been away—it seems like family after family has been dropping out of their commitment to the class. It’s not like we’re going to give up, of course. I’ve been teaching children’s classes long enough to see the same kind of thing happen, and I’m determined to learn how to get past it. Still, it’s a real poser. When I first got back, we consulted and decided we had to find out why the families in question had dropped out. We investigated, and found that part of the answer might have been lack of interest in the class. The parents had never really insisted that their children come—they just left it up to the children, saying, “If they want to go, we’ll take them”. Apparently the children just didn’t want to come anymore. That sent the gears in our heads turning, thinking, how can we make the class more attractive to the children?

We identified a few strategies: first was to find better activities, and a more engaging format. We use a calendar to plan our classes (see above), so we added columns for each type of activity so we could plan several weeks in advance which craft, story, game, etc., we would feature for each class. That way, we would be better prepared for each class, and could incorporate more complex and engaging activities, ones that require more preparation than the ones listed in Ruhi Book 3. We had already decided beforehand to repeat each lesson two weeks in a row, and to use different activities each week to avoid too much repetition. We decided to increase the length of the classes from 1.5 hours to 2 hours, with a snack break in between (everyone loves snacks), splitting the class time into two portions. The first portion would be dedicated to the lesson: a few minutes of “presenting” the lesson, time to memorize a quote, and selected activities. The second portion would be devoted to arts and crafts, so that children could go home having accomplished something creative, yet still related to the lesson. Children who finish the craft quickly would be given a drawing or colouring exercise (dependent on age); drawing exercises (click for an example) would include some writing work as well.

This is a current issue for us, and in the next few months we’ll be focusing on class quality and outreach to gather more families into our community of interest. What a joy it is to make a commitment to learning about the core activities—there’s certainly not a boring moment.

So far during the month of January, our Chinatown class has gone through four lessons on the themes of truthfulness, steadfastness, humility, and preferring others before oneself. We started off at the beginning of January (the 2nd) with a special three-hour class, which we hoped would be attended by a large number of families so that we could start off with a bang—of course, things don’t always go the way we would hope. Class size has fluctuated between three to five children each week, and due to how busy some of the families are, we’ve also run into some punctuality problems. So far, though, we’ve managed to get most of the children to memorize at least one prayer—”O God, Guide Me”—and are working on having them memorize the second one suggested in Book 3—the one that goes “I am earthly, make me heavenly”. We got together as a teaching team and discussed curriculum; the plan is to finish the lessons from Book 3, and then continue by introducing the lessons of the Furutan curriculum, given in the books Baha’i Education for Children.

The three-hour class went remarkably well; I haven’t tried to go that long with a class in a while, and was pleasantly refreshed to see that we had enough material to keep the children engaged, having fun and learning through the whole time. After praying and singing a few of our favourite songs, we plunged straight into memorizing the well-known Baha’i quote, “Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues”. We tried explaining it in terms of the foundation of a building; I’m not sure whether the analogy helped them or confused them. I keep wondering about how good their command of English is, since most of them have only lived in Canada for a year, and I seem to end up explaining a lot of the words. Perhaps that’s actually normal for kids of their age (~6-7 years), and I’ve been coddled by only having gifted children to teach in the past. Well, whatever. This makes for great teaching experience.  The second half of the class, after a healthy snack, consisted of putting together a house out of wooden stir-sticks—illustrating how virtues can be a “foundation” for human spiritual life—and a dramatic presentation of the day’s story, which was a retelling of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. It was actually my first time successfully “doing” drama with the kids in a children’s class; we did it by eschewing a script and instead giving the children their roles and lines verbally, with extensive narration by one of the teachers. We had two children playing the mother and father, and one playing the titular character. The children took their cues from the narrator, acting out whatever the story said. The whole thing worked out well, I had my directorial debut, and they got a real kick from acting out the story.

The next two classes dealt with slightly more abstract themes, and I noticed that we had a tougher time getting the message across to all of the kids. During both the lesson on steadfastness and the lesson on humility, they seemed to have trouble understanding the theme, and I had to explain it a few times, leaving me wondering what they had come away with. I found that the description of Book 3 seemed to go a little over their heads, so I tried to explain humility to the children the following way: God is big and powerful, and we, on the other hand, are so small and weak by comparison. Humility is just remembering how big and powerful God is, and how small and weak we are. When we remember that we depend on God for everything, we stop thinking that we’re better than anyone else around us. It took us most of the class time to get to that point of understanding, though. I think we got it by the end, but of course, as suggested in Book 3 itself, we’ll have to repeat it later on to be sure.

Regarding steadfastness, I was pleased to see that nobody came away with nightmares from the story of Ruhu’llah and his father, which I decided to tell in its entirety, though as non-graphically as I could. I’ve heard Baha’is express misgivings about telling a story in which the main character, a young boy dedicated to teaching and spreading God’s message, watches his father die before him only to die himself after refusing to recant his faith—but, besides having to make certain disclaimers, I’ve never heard either parents or children object to the story. On one occasion, a child reacted with anxiety to think that children could be killed in such a way, at which point the parent on hand explained that, while such things may have happened in that place at that time (19th-century Persia), we don’t have to worry about it happening to us here in Canada, which seemed to bring the anxiety level down. I made sure to give the same disclaimer this time, and nobody even made a peep—which, again, made me wonder whether they had understood what I was saying… oh well.

Several members of our teaching team just spent part of the afternoon on the ice at Ottawa’s Dow’s Lake, where many people, both locals and visitors from far and near, spend the winter months skating around on the world’s longest skating rink. no skates for us, though—we were accompanying two families from our Chinatown children’s classes who had never been out on the ice before. boots for all, and at least one young child snoozing comfortably in a stroller. the kids were full of energy, and dashed up and down the frozen surface of the lake at least twice, hooting and hollering, falling over and getting back up again, bumping into each other and flourishing into big hold-on-for-dear-life hugs. despite the chaos of little feet scrambling around on the ice, we managed to reinforce some of the lessons from the children’s class, such as showing kindness by helping our siblings and friends up when they fall. one of the children, a six-year-old girl, was asking lots of questions about all the big buildings she saw around us, which i attempted to answer, explaining the long words in their names. Perhaps thinking of other big complicated words, she asked me, “What about that ‘Thou art’… you know?” “You mean, ‘Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful’?” I replied, citing the prayer we had been memorizing together. “Yeah, that one. How does it go again?” she advanced. I repeated the prayer for her (making sure to be reverent and respectful), and she repeated it afterwards. We talked about what “mighty” and “powerful” meant, and discussed what it means that God is Almighty and All-powerful.  Really nice. I felt like it was a great bonding experience between us and the families; sort of like friends getting to know each other better. We walked them home feeling lots of joy at being together, knowing that we would meet again soon for another class.

if you so happen to be subscribed to doberman pizza, my personal baha’i blog, you probably know that I’ve been busy over the past few months planning a voyage to Vietnam. I just so happen to be blogging from a Hanoi café (wireless internet café) at this very moment. With my usual children’s class safely in the hands of Baha’i friends back in Ottawa, I’ve turned my attention to such exotic projects as developing a national Baha’i website in Vietnamese for the community here. as well, seeing as I have a fair bit of experience holding children’s classes, I’ve been asked to put together a skills training workshop for prospective teachers of children’s classes, to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in July. A number of youth have eagerly signed up for the training, which will happen as part of a week-long intensive training session aimed at mobilizing Vietnamese youth into service, especially to support the growing intensive program of growth (IPG) in Ho Chi Minh City (previously known as Saigon) and two burgeoning IPGs in Da Nang and Hanoi, both to be launched soon.  I imagine that if the training session in HCMC is successful, it’ll be replicated in the other two places.

I’ll probably blog more about what the training workshop will look like, but just to give you a quick idea, I’m planning four days’ worth of sessions, with each day focusing on a particular aspect of children’s classes: arts and crafts, songs and memorization, storytelling, and games/drama. Each day will consist of an introduction / theoretical portion in the morning, followed by practical advice on how to plan for the day’s activity, and, after a lunch break, an afternoon of group work and presentations in which participants practice planning the different activities: telling stories, memorizing songs, and so on.

Has anyone had experience offering these kinds of workshops or training sessions? How about Book 3 refreshers in which lesson planning played a part? I’d love to hear from Baha’is who have tried this out before.

many thanks to those of you who’ve left comments in the past few weeks and months with so many encouraging words. it really makes a difference! just about to head off to bed right now, with a children’s class tomorrow morning, about how "God knows the secrets of our hearts". I’ll have to blog this lesson since I don’t think I’ve added it yet. We were slated to do that one on the first weekend of January, but nobody showed up that week. the next weekend (last weekend), everyone was off to Toronto for the regional conference (which was amazing). So the lesson’s left over for this week.  Later in the day, I’ll be helping run the children’s program for our local reflection meeting. I have an idea of what I’m going to do for that one; since our city’s World Religion Day celebration is the next day, we’ll be doing a related art project from our oneness of religion lesson to decorate the Baha’i Centre. busy day huh? I’ll let you all know how it goes.