Here are the motivations for the class:
- I want Charlie to be involved in Baha'i classes from get go!
- There's lots of mums with young babies in the community, that find it difficult to make it to things. This is for them.
Here are the struggles:
- The mums getting there! Haha...
- The venue changing constantly -> not able to effectively invite people, because who knows where it will be next!
Here is our class for this morning:
- We practice saying "Allah'u'abha" to each other - "Allah'u'abha Anthea, Allah'u'abha Charlie" etc.
- We had prayers: one of the children sang "O God, guide me", and I sang "O God, educate these children."
- With our homemade rattles (rice in little jars), we sang "Joy gives us wings", "Love for Baha'u'llah, sweet and wonderful" and "Twinkle, twinkle little star".
- We talked about joy: happiness is in our heart. we can have all the toys and not be happy, or we can have no toys and be happy. It's about our heart, not our toys.
- We learnt the quote: "Rejoice in the gladness of thy heart..."
- We had story: There was a Baha'i in Akka, in prison with 'Abdu'l-Baha and Baha'u'llah! It was cold, and dirty, and smelly - but was he sad? No, he was happy because happiness was in his heart, not in the place that he lived. He didn't have very much - he had one little rug, one little water boiler, one cup and one teapot. But he was happy. And what made him more happy was saying something special (what? prayers!). And he would boil then water, and say, "listen to it! it sound so beautiful! and the weather is so good!" He would drink his tea and say "thank you God! this is a wonderful cup of tea! it's so beautiful and delicious." He would drink his tea, saying thank you to God, full of joy, the whole time!
- We had game: one of the jars of rice served to be our happiness. The jar would get hidden in the garden, and one child would have to find it. We would say "happy!" if the child came close and "sad" of the child was going away from the jar. (i.e. hot&cold). Once found, the child would put the jar of happiness on his/her heart.
- Refreshments!