activities
story: The Lion and the Mouse - Aesop’s fable. “Even the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves.”
song: “God’s Creatures” from Ruhi Book 3.
drama/skits: Divide the children into teams of two. One team at a time, have the children improvise activities depicting kindness or unkindness to animals. (They may need to be cautioned about not acting too roughly.) One child is to be the animal and the other the person. Then have them reverse the roles.
drawing: have the children draw one of the scenarios depicted in one of the drama activities they did. Alternatively, have the children draw one scene each from the “Lion and the Mouse” story, and then bring the drawings all together in order to retell the story in pictures.
origami animals: One of the children showed us how he had learned to make origami animals last year, so I figured it might be a good activity for all of us to take part in. I guess I have to learn origami first :O

reading/prayer for study
“Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks

reference
Because animals do not have the power of speech, `Abdu’l-Bahá states that they are to be treated with even more consideration than are people: “. . . ye do worse to harm an animal, for man hath a language, he can lodge a complaint, he can cry out and moan; if injured he can have recourse to the authorities and these will protect him from his aggressor. But the hapless beast is mute, able neither to express its hurt nor take its case to the authorities. If a man inflict a thousand ills upon a beast, it can neither ward him off with speech nor hale him into court. Therefore is it essential that ye show forth the utmost consideration to the animal, and that ye be even kinder to him than to your fellow man.”
(Source?)

“The world of existence is an emanation of the merciful attribute of God. God has shone forth upon the phenomena of being through His effulgence of mercy and He is clement and kind to all His creation. […] Consequently man must learn the lesson of kindness and beneficence from God Himself. Just as God is kind to all humanity, man also must be kind to his fellow creatures. If his attitude is just and loving toward his fellow men, toward all creation, then indeed is he worthy of being pronounced the image and likeness of God.”
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p.79)

Then, O ye friends of God! Ye must not only have kind and merciful feelings for mankind, but ye should also exercise the utmost kindness towards every living creature. The physical sensibilities and instincts are common to animal and man. Man is, however, negligent of this reality and imagines that sensibility is peculiar to mankind, therefore he practices cruelty to the animal. In reality what difference is there in physical sensations! Sensibility is the same whether you harm man or animal: there is no difference. Nay, rather, cruelty to the animal is more painful because man has a tongue and he sighs, complains and groans when he receives an injury and complains to the government and the government protects him from cruelty; but the poor animal cannot speak, it can neither show its suffering nor is it able to appeal to the government. If it is harmed a thousand times by man it is not able to defend itself in words nor can it seek justice or retaliate. Therefore one must be very considerate towards animals and show greater kindness to them than to man. Educate the children in their infancy in such a way that they may become exceedingly kind and merciful to the animals. If an animal is sick they should endeavor to cure it; if it is hungry, they should feed it; if it is thirsty, they should satisfy its thirst; if it is tired, they should give it rest.
Man is generally sinful and the animal is innocent; unquestionably one must be more kind and merciful to the innocent. […] This sympathy and kindness is one of the fundamental principles of the divine kingdom. Ye should pay great attention to this question.
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p.374)

experience
October 4, 2008: Next class; watch this space. The activity we’ll be doing is making origami animals.

November 11, 2006: 2 hours, 7 children, average age 6-7. By now we’ve had some good experience with this lesson, so it wasn’t too hard to give. We used a nice new quote from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to go with this lesson: “Do not be content with showing friendship in words alone, let your heart burn with loving kindness for all who may cross your path.” It goes along with the subject, and it’s general enough that the kids can apply it to animals, people, and whatever else - so the kids could add it to the prayer book they’re creating. We told the story of the lion and the mouse again - many of them remembered it - after which the kids drew pictures of different parts of the story. We collected them all at the end so that we could stick them on the wall in order - a nice way to show off the kids’ work and a good way for them to remember the lesson later on. Many of the children had quite a few comments and questions about animals - including how to handle dangerous or poisonous animals, and so on. Their curiosity is really heartening. On the spur of the moment, we suggested that maybe we could dedicate a future class to learning about different animals of the world… maybe when we review the topic - either November 26th or January 6th (I love having a class calendar all planned out!)

June 24, 2006: 2 hours, 2 children, ages 6-7. This was a weird class! We were going to focus on another topic for this week, but one of the children brought his new pet hamster to the class so it seemed logical to switch topics. We had quite a lot of fun interacting with the hamster and talking about how we should treat animals with respect and do our best not to scare them. It was a bit disorganized and unfortunately, I didn’t have appropriate quotes with me to go over with the children. Should I put together a binder with materials we’ve used in the past, so we can go back to them at a moment’s notice? Or perhaps a small notebook with quotes we’ve studied? I guess I’m not really satisfied with my level of preparation for this class. Oh well, it’s done. One of our more difficult children (a 6-year-old boy) sang a prayer with the other boy who was present, of his own accord - usually we struggle to get him to say prayers. God bless these children - I can become so confused with them sometimes. Before going outside for the day, we worked on a craft we started last week - paper-people chains. OMG they loved this to pieces. One of them drew clothes and faces on his people, the other cut out pants and shirts from different-coloured paper. AWESOME activity (although not strictly in line with the topic).

Another note - I was mostly alone in teaching this class today, which I found more difficult than usual. There were only two children present, so it wasn’t a major disaster or anything. I find that when I’m alone with the children, though, I get easily distracted. Me being easily distracted means that I lose control of the class easily. That’s why I prefer co-teaching to being on my own. I’m not sure what I can do to build up my ability to stay on top of things - maybe to build my own confidence, I just need more practice, more experience.

June 3, 2006: 2 hours, 5 children, average age 6-7. Apparently, the class went quite well - I was out of town for the weekend, so I wasn’t there to take part. We had two versions of the story available to read (our class operates in French, so we had to find translations). The versions we found used language that was a bit difficult for the children to understand, so the story was read once more in paraphrase to make sure everybody got it. Once the story was done, we made time for drama - we started by miming animals and having the rest of the kids guess what animal was being mimed. Afterwards, the children broke into groups and performed the skits as described above. It seems like they did well with these - I was afraid that there might have been problems with the kids being too rough, but that doesn’t seem to have been an issue. Once the skits were done, it was colouring time - we had prepared two drawings, one of a lion and one of a mouse, to go along with the story. Everyone in our class seems to love drawing and colouring time. They love getting their hands on the pens and colouring in different images.

There seemed to have been two main problems during this class: first was that the materials we prepared didn’t last long enough, leaving us with jumping and screaming kids rampaging around inside at the end of the class (it was raining, so we couldn’t take them outside); second was the uncooperative attitude that some of the younger members of the class displayed. The first is relatively easy to take care of - we just have to be able to come up with more activities to have on hand during the class (potentially crafts, which are popular because of the hands-on aspect). The second isn’t so easy to resolve and has been a challenge with our class from the get-go. To be honest, it’s difficult to conduct a class for a wide age range (our oldest member is going on 11 (almost a junior youth!), and our youngest member is still 4 years old). Perhaps we need to split into several groups at some point in our class, so that each group can take part in age-appropriate activities that may better stimulate them and allow them to develop the capacities they’re struggling to develop. But what’s the difference? That’s what I’m wondering. I’ve become comfortable dealing with the older children (say, 7 to 10), but I admit that I still have a lot to learn about dealing with the younger children (4 to 6) in ways that really support their development. Any comments from readers?

activities
story of Lua Getsinger: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks Lua to take care of a sick man. Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 5.
story of Bahá’u'lláh and the hunter: Bahá’u'lláh asks an expert hunter not to kill innocent birds… Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 13.
simon says: the classic game. a teacher (or a child) is ’simon’ and everyone must do as simon says, as long as simon says ’simon says’ first.
circle, triangle, square: a memory game from Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 10.
‘blind man’: one child plays a blind person, and another acts as a guide. the guide must help the blind person navigate safely through obstacles from one end of a course to the other. var 1: the guide holds the hand of the blind person. var 2: the guide does not touch the blind person and only gives verbal commands. Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 13.
crafts: cards or gifts for parents - works well on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, parents’ birthdays… something that shows the love and appreciation towards those who we obey.

reading/prayer for study
O Thou the Compassionate God! Bestow upon me a heart which, like unto glass, may be illumined with the light of Thy love, and confer upon me thoughts which may change this world into a rose garden through the outpourings of heavenly grace.
Thou art the Compassionate, the Merciful. Thou art the Great Beneficent God.
(’Abdu’l-Bahá, Baha’i Prayers)

reference
O SON OF MAN! For everything there is a sign. The sign of love is fortitude under My decree and patience under My trials. (Arabic Hidden Words, no.49)

Say: From My laws the sweet-smelling savour of My garment can be smelled, and by their aid the standards of Victory will be planted upon the highest peaks. The Tongue of My power hath, from the heaven of My omnipotent glory, addressed to My creation these words: “Observe My commandments, for the love of My beauty.” Happy is the lover that hath inhaled the divine fragrance of his Best-Beloved from these words, laden with the perfume of a grace which no tongue can describe. By My life! He who hath drunk the choice wine of fairness from the hands of My bountiful favour will circle around My commandments that shine above the Dayspring of My creation. (Kitab-i-Aqdas, para.4, page 20)

experience
September 27, 2008: 1.5 hours, 3 children, average age 8-9. we’re back to one teacher again (me). got off to a bit of a rough start (wow, how many times have I written that) and had to go over the rules with the kids. now that I think of it, I totally should have expected to spend this class going over ground rules. one of the children was especially impatient, “we already know the rules!!” (yet was throwing pillows and sitting improperly, etc). so we ended up spending a fair bit of time at the beginning just trying to get ready for prayers, which is never much fun. same child also wanted to read “the longest prayer in the prayer book”; had to reason with him a little on that point (we don’t want to discourage children to say prayers!).  so I asked if the children knew people that they really loved talking to and listening to—conversing with—someone to whom they could feel comfortable telling anything.  then I explained that praying is the same, but conversing with God.  God listens to us, and we are able to tell Him anything that’s on our minds or on our hearts.  if we pick a prayer from the prayer book and recite what it says, and yet our minds are elsewhere being silly and not paying attention to what we’re saying, then God wants to hear us and listen to us, but there’s nothing to listen to.

we’ll have to revisit this concept with the children, but especially with that one child—the concept that prayer is not just parroting the words in a book, but is something you genuinely feel.  perhaps we should devote a part of one class to “how to choose a prayer”; is this an issue that others have had? how did you deal with it? is it something that becomes clearer to the children as they grow older? is it better to deal with it when they become junior youth? dunno, lol.

craft went very well; we made cards for our parents—I did a run to the new art superstore that opened up close to here, and picked up some really nice materials and stamps for the kids to use. it was genuinely fun to do for all of us—we weren’t many, of course, so that probably helped things go smoothly. kids were very excited to hear that there would be more art projects. need to fit in more games, though, especially for the one child who seems to have a lot of trouble learning without them. it almost seems like we should be taking more time for the class, that an hour and a half isn’t enough. now that our kids are older (8-9) they should have the capacity to keep their attention on the lesson as long as it is reasonably varied, and today’s experience seems to have borne that out.

October 21, 2006: 2 hours, 8(?) children, average age 6-7. (…)

June 17, 2006: 2 hours, 3 children, ages 4, 6, and 7. Another class that went well, especially since I didn’t really take all that much time to prepare. Before the class, we (the teachers) had a little time to chat and determined that we should focus on having each of the children say a prayer, or at least participate in the prayers. Some of our kids don’t really like saying prayers - we haven’t quite figured out why. I’ve been wondering whether it might be related to the atmosphere we create surrounding prayers - perhaps they need some quiet-down time before starting with prayers, or perhaps we just need to be firmer. Anyway, we took advantage of the class’s theme, starting the class by telling the kids we would be talking about obedience today, and that one way we show our obedience (to God) is by praying. One of the kids was more than happy to recite prayers, but the other two (the younger ones - not sure if that’s relevant?) didn’t want to. One of them eventually lip-synched a prayer and we ended the prayers by singing a prayer together, so we left it at that. I’d really appreciate feedback from people who’ve had similar issues surrounding prayers… we’re trying to understand what we might be doing or not doing that is keeping certain children from participating in the prayers (to the point of consistently refusing!)

The other point of revisiting obedience is because this week’s class falls on Father’s Day weekend - you know, obedience to parents and all that. After reading a story about Lua Getsinger and her obedience to ‘Abdu’l-Baha and performing some skits comparing obedience and disobedience, we set to work on Father’s Day cards. These were sheets of paper folded in 4, on which the kids drew and wrote “Happy Father’s Day” type messages. We had planned several other things to work on (such as prize ribbons made by paper-folding) in case we had extra time, but ended up finishing on time without having gone into the extra activities. The activities went well because folding paper is just fun, but I think the kids found it difficult not to have an example already finished to guide them. We’ve come across this before… food for thought! All in all, the class flew by (which is a good sign, I suppose). We seem to have some pretty good luck with this topic - every time we talk about obedience, the kids are more obedient. Maybe we’re too soft the rest of the time! Actually, that’s another thing we’ve discussed - we tend to be soft on discipline and not to push too hard when the kids don’t want to do something. That can be a big problem though, especially when it comes to prayers - God tells us to pray, so we can’t just not do it.

Thoughts about all this are greatly welcomed!!!

April 8, 2006: 1.5 hours, 4 children, average age 6-7. This class went well - better than we had expected! It had been a while since we had revisited the topic of obedience and it was long overdue. Most of the children had just come back from a birthday party (one of them was the birthday boy) so they were a bit rowdy and undoubtedly full of sugar, so it took a little while to get them calmed down, but miraculously, it happened. We said prayers (with some difficulty) and sang some songs, after which we had a talk about obedience. I think the children were able to catch what we were saying on some level; we gave all sorts of examples, and even asked them if some of the things they were doing (for example, writhing on the floor or sitting quietly, being loud or showing reverence during prayers, etc) were examples of obedience or not. Their conduct seemed to improve during the colouring period / artistic activity, where we used the drawing from Ruhi Book 3 - of a young boy kneeling to pray. We explained the connection between the drawing and the content of the lesson. They were even sharing pencils and felt pens while colouring, and patiently waiting for their turn with certain colours (with minimal grabbing)!

The simple nature of this lesson seems to be what made it so successful (at least in our eyes). In fact, most of the lesson was taken straight from Ruhi Book 3 - you can’t get much simpler. As well as being simple, the lesson was also focused - since the Ruhi lessons are designed to reinforce the theme of each lesson in many different ways (through memorization, songs, stories, games and art).

activities
story: any story about asking permission may do; the story of the fish inside the reservoir from Ruhi Book 3 might do in a pinch.
maze: “Obtaining Permission” (Obtenir la Permission) (PDF); children must navigate a maze that seems simple to complete, but before they are able to complete it, they must first “obtain permission” (in the form of a detour).
drama: children act out situations where they share their possessions with friends—for example, playing together with toys, sharing crayons, etc. how do the children feel when someone takes something of theirs without their permission?

reference

experience
Dec. 8, 2007: 1.5 hours, 6 children, average age 7-8. I was skeptical about how this class would turn out, because, to be honest, the topic seemed bizarre at first—how do you explain this Bahá’í law to children? Of course, the curriculum we’re using is quite clear—when we observe this law by asking permission before entering a home or laying hands on someone’s belongings, we are showing them courtesy and respect. So we spoke to the kids about this during the lesson; they seemed to get it, but in retrospect, I think I may have spent too much time talking. we could have integrated some sort of activity to help the children understand, for instance, a short dramatic exercise. that’s for next time, maybe. All in all, this lesson went well. the children found the maze challenging, which was the point behind it—I designed it from scratch to illustrate that we need to have the presence of mind to ask permission before impulsively infringing on someone’s property. in retrospect, this kind of thing applies in many different situations in class—sharing crayons during the colouring portion of class, respecting the property of the Baha’i Centre where we hold our classes, asking for permission before taking snacks out of the cupboards, and so on.

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…)

activities
story: the children write their own story! ask the children about a time when they paid a visit to a doctor, either because they were sick, or simply for a check-up. help them to describe their visit by asking questions: what season was it? was the doctor in an office building or a house? was the doctor a man or a woman? Did he or she give you medication? A shot? Did you lie on a table, or sit on a chair? then, ask the children to draw a picture of their visit, and to write a few lines below it to tell the story.
game: help the sick, aka learning rescue carries.
drama: Ruhi Book 3A (the old book 5) often has the children performing skits, and this would be a perfect opportunity for one—one child plays the doctor, one plays a parent and another plays the child. they can act out a story told by one of the children during the lesson, or make up a scenario about a visit to the doctor.

reference
Resort ye, in times of sickness, to competent physicians; We have not set aside the use of material means, rather have We confirmed it through this Pen, which God hath made to be the Dawning-place of His shining and glorious Cause. (Baha’u'llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas, para. 113)

experience
Nov. 10, 2007: 1.5 hours, 7 children, average age 7-8. Great class! There is a lot to be said for team efforts. The class started with beautiful prayers—which the children love and vie with each other to say (!)—and continued with songs in which everyone joined in. We had four Haitian children (all related), so one of the songs we sang was “O God, Guide Me” in Haitian Creole, which is fun to sing and has a catchy rhythm. All the kids like singing it. Then we continued on with the lesson, which I had read a few times the night before—I still found I needed the sheet in front of me, though, and I still started to waffle on at some points (caught myself before losing the kids’ attention, though). The children had so much to say about visiting the doctor that we had to moderate the conversation a lot. It was really a topic they got into. So much so, in fact, that while we were working on the activity later on, they were so focused that you could hear a pin drop. Part of that, of course, should fall onto the skill of the teacher who animated that part of the class.

The activity itself worked out quite well; since they seemed to have a natural interest in the topic, it was perfectly natural for them to express their own experiences visiting the doctor’s office. We put together a sheet similar to the one provided in the Alaskan Materials for the Furutan lessons, with a quote at the top, an empty space to draw, and a few lines at the bottom to tell the story. We noticed a few things during the activity: the children shared limited materials together (pencils, markers, etc), which is important for them to develop collaboration skills, and, thanks to having three teachers on hand, we were able to give at least a little time to help each of them bring out their ideas and nurture their own creativity. We focused on getting some of the younger children to practice their handwriting skills, and allowed them to finish by colouring their drawings.

activities
projects: The children can be encouraged to take on a service project to learn about the importance of serving humanity. Examples could include putting together care packages for disadvantaged families, weeding and/or planting a garden, cleaning the local Baha’i centre or other gathering place, and so on.
story of Lua Getsinger: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks Lua to take care of a sick man. Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 5.
song: “Look At Me, Follow Me”.
drama/skits: The children can act out different scenarios of service, including the story of Lua Getsinger (without attempting to portray ‘Abdu’l-Baha, of course).
game: “Help the Sick”. one child pretends to be sick, while two others clasp their hands to form a chair and carry the “sick” child over to the “health center”. children can be taught various rescue carries in this way. Ruhi Book 3, Lesson 5.
drawing: “Tending the Garden”. Children can either colour a black-and-white drawing of someone tending a garden, or draw themselves tending a garden. The teachers may accompany this drawing with the quote of ‘Abdu’l-Baha given below.

reading/prayer for study
“That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race.”

reference
That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. In another passage He hath proclaimed: It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens. (Baha’u'llah, Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p.250)

“To one who visited in Haifa, ‘Abdu’l-Baha said substantially, in likening the Cause of God to a Garden: ‘At the gate of the garden some stand and look within, but do not care to enter. Others step inside, behold its beauty, but do not penetrate far. Still others encircle this garden inhaling the fragrance of the flowers, having enjoyed its full beauty, pass out again by the same gate. But there are always some who enter and, becoming intoxicated with the splendor of what they behold, remain for life to tend the garden’.” (”The Garden of the Heart”, a compilation by Frances Esty)

experience
August 4, 2007: ~2 hours, 2 children, average age 8.
With a little maternal help (thanks mom!) we weeded the garden inside the patio at the Baha’i Centre and planted a beautiful row of geraniums there. To give a little bit of context, we looked at a photo of the terraces at the Baha’i World Centre beforehand and explained how the Baha’is had created the beautiful gardens there for the entire world to enjoy.

our garden supplies.

weeding the garden.

mom gives the kids a botany lesson.

our kids with a stubborn root they helped dig up.

after weeding and planting.

August 16, 2007: ~1 hour, 4 children, average age 6-7. Outreach class. Our last outdoor outreach class during the two-week pilot phase. With a week and a half’s worth of experience with these children under our belt, we were able to manage the class better than before. We used lots of movement-based activities to accommodate the uppity ones; they all enjoyed learning the “rescue carry” maneuver during the game. The entire class was basically taken straight from Lesson 5 of Ruhi Book 3, including the song (”Look At Me, Follow Me”), the quote, and the story. I think the children liked it, although there was an incident where I had to physically restrain one of the children while telling the story to avoid allowing him to fight with others. I took him aside afterwards, before we played the games, and told him firmly that he was welcome to stay in the class as long as he cooperated in the activities and respected the other children in the class—meaning no more fighting. It seems to have helped, even though we still had to monitor him very closely to curb any further outbursts.

August 18, 2007: 1.5 hours, 8 children, average age 8. Our last regular children’s class before school starts again! We had five of our usual kids and three cousins, and the group dynamic was great—although there was a little too much between-cousins tousling for the spiritual atmosphere of the children’s class. After two weeks of daily outreach classes, though, I had gotten used to playing kindergarten cop, so it was manageable. Most of the children said prayers, after which we memorized “O God, guide me” for the sake of our new students (and to refresh the memory of the kids who hadn’t been around during the summer) and then sang the same prayer in Haitian Creole (since several of our children come from Haitian families). We used the “step game” to help memorize the quote, but we noticed a couple of problems with it: 1) the game doesn’t work so well when there are lots of children (say, eight or more) in a line; 2) the game doesn’t work so well when the children can’t read well. We may adapt it for use with this class, which typically takes place indoors rather than outdoors and has fewer high-energy children than the outreach class. One nice thing is that we involved the children in snack time more than usual; for example, one set out a plate of cookies and poured juice for the others, while another helped wash dishes afterwards, and others helped to put away the colouring materials before we went outside for the end of class. The child who washed dishes—usually a rather distracted child—even thanked us for letting him serve in that way. nice :)

activities
story: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the unkind man, Ruhi Book 3, pp.45-46. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá shows love to a man who reviles and curses him for twenty-four years.
handprint flowers: trace your hand and turn it into a flower! a lily, to be precise.
rose tag: played much like freeze tag, except that when a player is tagged, he/she must sit down; a player must untag them by kneeling, touching the ground and saying (planting) “the rose of love”. helps the related quote (see below) to sink in.

reading/prayer for study
In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love.

reference
O FRIEND! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loosen not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.
(Hidden Words of Bahá’u'lláh, Arabic, No.3)

experience
May 13, 2006: ~1.5 hours, 2 children, average age 6. Mother’s day. The class started late, but we managed to hit on most of the main activities. We practiced and sang prayers with our two participants: “Blessed is the Spot” and “Say God Sufficeth”. We read the story of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the unkind man and had a good conversation about love and gratitude, which segued very well into the handprint flowers - the children’s Mother’s Day gift. Gotta go - more soon.

August 15, 2007: ~1 hour, 3 children, average age 8. Outreach class. We began with a new format for this class, to accommodate our group’s high energy level: colouring first to calm the kids down. So far, it seems to work like a charm - it may take a few minutes to convince some of them to colour instead of playing games, but once they’re convinced, they’ll be able to concentrate enough to say prayers together. We also created a new movement-based game for this lesson, called “rose tag”; it’s explained above.

activities
story: pp. 43-44, Ruhi Book 3: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in the stagecoach.
games: we often play games as examples of justice… is it just to break the rules? how can we ensure that we can be just while we play games?

reference
Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path. (Gleanings, p.250)

The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes. (Hidden Words, No.2, Arabic)

“The light of men is Justice,” He moreover states, “Quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny. The purpose of justice is the appearance of unity among men.” “No radiance,” He declares, “can compare with that of justice. The organization of the world and the tranquillity of mankind depend upon it.” (quoted in Advent of Divine Justice, p.28)

experience
May 6, 2006: ~2 hours, 6 children, average age 6-7. The class went well. I was able to consult with the children to see what sort of games we could play, and we ended up playing a game called “tic-tac-toe” which is basically a variant of “hot potato” - we passed a ball around in a circle while one child repeated “tic, tac, tic, tac…” and whoever was holding the ball when he/she said “toe” would have to leave the circle and replace him/her counting. The kids loved it.

August 9, 2007: ~1 hours, 4 children, average age 8. Outreach class. We basically took this class straight out of Ruhi Book 3 with very few modifications, and it went alright. The boys in our class, including one who seems to have something similar to ADHD, had some trouble staying still—and hence participating—so it wasn’t perfect. To accomodate, we introduced a new type of movement-based activity to help them have the patience to memorize quotes and prayers: the “step game”, in which children stand in a line and slowly advance one step at a time, each saying one word of a quote in sequence when they step ahead, continuing until they cross a finish line. We used bristol board to write out quotes and prayers in large print so that they can easily be seen from a distance; the kids love this game, and always want to take turns holding the bristol board for the others. We’ll be using this game a lot in future.

starting the step game.

let’s go!

sharing towel space (from Ruhi Bk 3).