activities
story: The stories of Ruhu’llah, Badi, or Tahirih would be quite adaptable to this lesson. Ruhi Book 3, Grade 1 also tells the story of ‘Ali-’Askar, a Persian Baha’i merchant, who courageously stands up for his principles.
song: “Source of Courage”, from Ruhi Book 3, Grade 1.
game: “True or False”–children line up in a row, side by side. Make a statement about a well-known subject; if the statement is true, children must advance by one step, and if it is false, they must retreat by one step. Each time, allow the children to choose between “true” and “false”.

reading/prayer for study
The source of courage and power is the promotion of the Word of God, and steadfastness in His Love. (Bahá’u'lláh)

reference

experience
January 28, 2012: Coming soon.

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

“All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. ” Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990 pocket-size edition. p.215.

activities
story: Story of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Merchant and the Coal. From Book 3.

song: “It’s Me Who Builds Community”:

It’s me, it’s me, it’s me who builds commu-ni-ty. (x4)

Roll over the ocean, roll over the sea, come and do your part to build community. (x2)

Perform this song with actions. e.g. point out “me”, “you”, “we”, alternate putting one fist on top of the other at “build community”, etc.

drawing: Imagine that you have a shirt with a special pocket on it. This pocket connects to the spiritual worlds of God and allows you to pull out any virtue or spiritual quality you need to create unity in any situation, but you must decide which virtue or quality to pull out. Then imagine how the people involved could use it in the following situations:

• A classmate really wants to read a book you’re reading, but you’re not finished with it.
• An apple tree is growing between two houses, but the neighbours disagree on who the apples belong to.
• Someone stole and ate your lunch, and you know who did it.
• A friend borrowed your bicycle three months ago and hasn’t given it back, even though she said she would bring it back in a week.
• A car accident has happened. No one’s injured, but the cars are badly damaged.

game:The Octopus game: One player, the “octopus”, starts in the middle of the playing field, and the rest are lined up against one wall. The players try to cross the field over and over without getting caught by the octopus. Whoever gets caught must link hands with the octopus and catch more players. When all but one player has been caught, the game begins again and the remaining player becomes the next “octopus”.

pantomime:Children start with physical space exercises and basic mime exercises (as mentioned in Book 3A), and then start a group pantomime where they must mime being different parts of a complex object. Examples:

• A car. (Mime the engine, a door, wheels…)
• An elephant. (Mime the ears, a trunk, the belly, the legs, the tail…)
• A table. (Mime the four legs, perhaps supporting the top by picking it up and holding above their heads.)
• A crane (the machine, not the animal). (Mime the treads, the cabin, the driver, the neck and hook…)
• A room. (Mime the four walls, one with a door, maybe a window…)

reference
“O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.” Bahá’u'lláh. The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh. US Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1985 reprint. p.52.

“I desire distinction for you. The Bahá’ís must be distinguished from others of humanity. But this distinction must not depend upon wealth — that they should become more affluent than other people. I do not desire for you financial distinction. It is not an ordinary distinction I desire; not scientific, commercial, industrial distinction. For you I desire spiritual distinction — that is, you must become eminent and distinguished in morals. In the love of God you must become distinguished from all else. You must become distinguished for loving humanity, for unity and accord, for love and justice. In brief, you must become distinguished in all the virtues of the human world — for faithfulness and sincerity, for justice and fidelity, for firmness and steadfastness, for philanthropic deeds and service to the human world, for love toward every human being, for unity and accord with all people, for removing prejudices and promoting international peace. Finally, you must become distinguished for heavenly illumination and for acquiring the bestowals of God. I desire this distinction for you. This must be the point of distinction among you.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “The Promulgation of Universal Peace”, p. 190.

If this warfare and conflict are not entirely effaced, if the whole world of humanity is not united and in accord, if the various races refuse to associate with one another, how can we ever aspire to the realization of that dream of the millennium of which it is said, “The earth will be transformed into a delectable paradise and all the children of men will live in the utmost happiness”? If the members of a family are perfectly united it will add to their comfort and joy. If the people of a city are inspired with civic unity the whole community will advance. If the inhabitants of a great continent become one spirit in different bodies marvelous progress will be made and if the people of the entire globe are welded into one great commonwealth the prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven,” will be a reality for each will have the kingdom within himself. Attributed to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. From notes compiled by Isabel Fraser Chamberlain. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on Divine Philosophy. Tudor Press, Boston. 1918. pp.182-183.

We must be patient with each other’s shortcomings, and always strive to create love and unity among the believers, who, after all, are still immature in many ways and far from perfect. The Faith itself is the great thing, and the Bahá’ís must strive to become ever more perfect instruments for Bahá’u'lláh to use and to accomplish His purpose through. From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 26 May 1946 to an individual believer. Excellence in All Things, from the Compilation of Compilations, Vol. I. 1990 revision.

experience
April 10, 2011: 4 hours. Coming soon.

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

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/).

The game’s original rules (given in the link above) describe a competitive version, in which the last team to “find their flock” is counted out, leaving winners and losers. We chose to eliminate this competitive element, to focus on the cooperative skills required in matching oneself up with one’s flock; instead of being counted out, we simply play the game as many times as we wish, with everyone participating. To keep the game interesting without resorting to competition, we can introduce different modes of play. For example, instead of using sounds, we can use nonverbal visual cues. Players might mime flapping wings for birds, or walking like a cat or a dog; or, conversely, they might mime taking care of one’s animal—calling to a bird on one’s finger, petting a cat or walking a dog, etc. Competition, which can lead the children to develop the undesirable habit of seeking conflict, is thus avoided by the application of creativity—finding different, innovative ways of keeping games interesting.

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.

activities
story: The Boy Who Cried Wolf. There is an excellent retelling in Book 2 of Bahá’í Education for Children, aka the Furútan curriculum. Our children could relate to it a lot.
song: “Tell the Truth” or “Truthfulness”, from Ruhi Book 3.
craft: Nine-pointed stars—cut out three equilateral triangles for each child; help them put them together to form a regular nine-pointed star. They may either (1) place them on another piece of paper, trace them, and cut out the resulting nine-pointed star, or (2) glue the three triangles together to form a nine-pointed star. They can then decorate the star as they wish; they may also want to punch a hole in one point and run a string through to hang it somewhere when finished.

reading/prayer for study
Let truthfulness and courtesy be your adorning. (Bahá’u'lláh)

Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues. (‘Abdu’l-Bahá)

reference
O SON OF MAN! Neglect not My commandments if thou lovest My beauty, and forget not My counsels if thou wouldst attain My good pleasure. (Bahá’u'lláh, Arabic Hidden Word no.39)

experience
December 2, 2006: 2 hours, 10 children, average age 6-7. Pretty good class this afternoon; our only hang-up, lesson-wise, was that I didn’t prepare the craft in time, and we ended up cutting out the triangles at the last minute. Miraculously, the kids didn’t implode out of impatience. I was surprised to find such an amazing retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, too. The kids weren’t looking forward to the story too much today—too much sitting quietly, I guess—but all of them got into it and could empathize with the main character. The story focused on the consequences of the boy’s actions (which were mainly along the lines of disappointing his family and his community and losing their trust) and wasn’t cheesy at all. I was afraid that telling that story would elicit groans from the kids—everyone’s heard that story way too many times, right? I was happily mistaken.

A quick word about our renewed focus on discipline: we have been taking certain steps to quiet the children down at the beginning of the class, and it seems to be paying off. While the children aren’t necessarily at their best every moment of each class, the class seems to be more manageable now. We haven’t yet had the need to apply a punishment (what Ruhi Book 3 refers to as “sanctions”—in our case, sitting apart from the class during the colouring period that now follows prayers); God willing, we won’t have to, but in the meantime all of us (the co-teachers) have to be ready to do so if disruptive behaviour arises.

August 17, 2007: 1 hours, 3 children, average age 7-8. Our calmest outreach class so far! Due to rain, we had to move the classes inside for the evening, at the home of a Baha’i who recently moved into the area. (more in a bit.)

December 5, 2007: 1 hour, 3 children, average age 8. Outreach class. wow. pretty interesting class. discipline went well even though we had some normally feisty kids in the class – things have gone better since we introduced the painting activity, which has given our more tactile/kinesthetic learners a stronger reason to engage themselves in the class. after reading prayers and singing two songs (“Tell the Truth” and “Blessed is the Spot”), we memorized the quotation (“Truthfulness is the foundation of all human virtues”), which brought us into a discussion about what a “foundation” means. I think we got the idea across well enough—we introduced the idea of the foundation of a house, and how a house would fall over if it didn’t have a good enough foundation; we then compared our souls to those houses, and explained that without truthfulness, our “soul houses” (as it were) would have nothing to stand on, just like a real house. We then launched into the story—which I hammed up a great deal, but which again seemed to have gotten the point across—and, to end off the class, we had about five or ten minutes to paint with the kids. usually we have more time to paint, but I guess I hammed up the story a little too much!

One of the children told me something interesting that made me think; I’ll share with you an abridged version. She said she had gotten into the habit of lying about little things, for example, making a mess in the house—and then blaming said mess on one of her younger sisters out of the fear of punishment. When guilt finally overtook her later on, she would confess the truth to her parents, at which point she would be punished—perhaps worse than if she had told the truth in the first place. We encouraged her to see that as a good reason to tell the truth up front, but instead she cited the inevitable punishments as being “why I don’t tell the truth anymore”. yikes. How do you go about helping a child to learn to love telling the truth when they come out with something like that? (comments welcome…)

July 3, 2010: Trying it yet again! Outreach again this time. A group of us have been doing outreach in Chinatown and met some families all living in one apartment building who showed interest in a children’s class. After meeting a few times and sharing Anna’s presentation with the families (through a significant language barrier), we finally had a class of sorts, with 4-6 boys (I’d say about 5-8 years old). We played a lot more games than usual for us, and they loved it. in fact the class was mostly games, proportion-wise. all the same, we worked on memorizing “O God, guide me” and the quote on truthfulness. The prayers were amazing, as the older children stayed in quiet meditation for a full minute after the prayers were done–I’ve never seen that in all my time doing children’s classes. My co-teacher suggested it might have been due to their Buddhist background… in any case, it was astounding and MOST welcome, and we’ll encourage them to continue doing this for sure. They loved the story about the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and they seemed to grasp all the concepts well. overall, a great summer class after a very uneventful spring season.

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.