This is the seventh page in the “Online Introduction to Radiant Hearts” series, focusing on the Printables.
For each Radiant Hearts lesson there is a document titled “Printables.” This document contains between 5 and 8 pages that assist with the activities in the lesson.
This is a description of the pages available in each Printables document.
Memorization Aid (also called Spiritual Treasure Box Projects)
For each lesson there is an idea for creating a card or other visual reminder for both the prayer and quotation in the lesson. The words for each selection is printed in slightly larger font which can be cut out and added to the projects. These projects can aid in memorization, and can also be used during recitation of the prayer/quotation if this works for your family.
You may like to keep these projects in a Spiritual Treasure Box. By creating a Spiritual Treasure Box, you will have a respectable place to keep the words to the prayers and quotations you are memorizing, and the projects will stay in one place so you can find them later. You can also store other Radiant Hearts materials (such as the booklet or other small crafts from the Daily Activities) in the box.
A Spiritual Treasure Box can be made by decorating a shoe box or purchasing a gift box. There is a sheet available for you to download under the Helpful Documents section on the Radiant Hearts main page (titled “Spiritual Treasure Box Décor”) with a title and some images you may wish to decorate your box with. The pictures on this sheet are based on the sun since the sun is often used as a metaphor to describe God’s love for us, and also shows other objects that appear in the Writings (trees, flowers, clouds).
Another idea for these projects is putting them into a book.
Devotional
The second page of the Printables is a Devotional program consisting of six short selections about the spiritual quality which are appropriate to read with young children. The selections are in slightly larger font and have extra spacing between them, in case you wish to cut them out to distribute to readers.
Your family may wish to host a Devotional using these selections, either with your own family or for a larger audience. You could do this once a week, once a month, or several times throughout the year. Find posts about hosting Devotionals with children listed on the Radiant Hearts main page.
Booklet
The third page of the Printables includes words and pictures to make a simple booklet about the spiritual quality. You can match up the pictures and words as you wish.
You may like to prepare the book ahead of time or make it with your child. Booklets can be made in many ways, and part of the fun will be creating a new and different booklet each month. You can experiment with page shapes, colors, and styles. Attach your pages to thick scrap book paper or laminate them if you wish to increase durability.
Here are some ideas for styles of booklets:
- Cut out all the words and pictures and have your child match them
- Staple pages, tie with ribbon or yarn, or tape pages together
- Use patterned paper, paper your child has scribbled or painted on, or poster board
- Make a lift the flap book (put the words on top of the flap, have the picture under it)
- Make a story board (use a folder or poster board to paste the words and pictures on)
- Make a fold-out book (attach pages in a zig zag which can stand on its own)
- Make flash cards (attach words and pictures to smaller sheets of paper which can be lined up in any order)
- Have your child illustrate instead of using the pictures, or write their own story instead of using the words
- Ask older children to copy the words in handwriting versus using the typed words
If you are planning to use this program for several years in a row, consider several different options. You may wish to make less durable booklets while children are young (for example, one year old) so they can help create the booklets again when they are older (for example, three years old). On the other hand, you may wish to make very durable booklets the first year so that you can re-use them again and again. Or you may wish to do a combination of the two options.
These booklets are also available in larger format through the Lesson Posters, where each sentence and corresponding picture fill up one page. These can be used as virtual booklets to read with your child, and can also be useful for “reading” to larger groups of children. Find the Lesson Poster button on each Online Lesson.
Note: All the Online Lessons have a link to the Virtue Library which lists several book titles that are recommended to expand on each spiritual quality. Families may wish to check out these books from the library or purchase them to help reinforce the concepts they are learning. You are encouraged to contribute your own favorite titles and book reviews to the Virtue Library by contributing to the comments at the end of the page.
Radiant Hearts Book Template
The fourth page in the Printables simply states the spiritual quality of the month and the lesson’s quotation. The rest of the paper can be used to help your child illustrate a story about the spiritual quality. Your family can use these pages to compile a book about the spiritual qualities you have learned about over the course of the year.
Some ideas for creating stories for this activity are:
- Telling a story about a situation when someone in your family exhibited the spiritual quality
- Making up a story with toys then writing it down
- Creating a story with characters your child is familiar with (from other stories they have heard)
- Imagining a whole new story with entirely new characters
The aim of this activity is to help your child remember examples of how people might display the spiritual quality, as well as to develop creativity and practice storytelling skills. Imagining the spiritual quality in a story can be a prelude to figuring out how the virtue can be put into action in their own life.
Throughout the year, the pages can be inserted into plastic sleeves and placed into a ring folder, or simply stapled together. There is a cover page you may wish to use for your Radiant Hearts Book, available to download from the Helpful Documents section on the Radiant Hearts main page called “Radiant Hearts Book Cover Page.” Your family may like to create a routine to look through this book together on the first or last day of each month, or at the end of the year. This will help you to review what spiritual qualities you have been working on together.
Monthly Letter Template
The fifth page in the Printables is a one-page template with the statement “This week our family is learning about the spiritual quality…” and the quotation of the month. At the end there is a place to add the date.
Children can use this page to create a visual representation of what they have been learning about and then give this artwork to someone outside the immediate family (they will essentially be making a “letter”). You can post it, deliver it by hand, scan it, take a picture of it and email it, or post the photo on a blog or website (and keep the original for your Radiant Hearts Book).
Sharing these letters is a great way to include extended family, friends, and neighbors in a family’s virtue learning, and will also give the recipients something meaningful to talk to your children about when they next visit.
Here are some ideas for who you may like to give these letters to:
- Grandparents, uncles and aunts, or cousins
- Friends of the family such as co-workers of the parents or long-time friends
- Neighbors
- Teachers
- Friends of your child
There are many different ways to use the Monthly Letter template and you can try various ideas, depending on your child’s interests and their age. Possibilities include:
- Decorating with stickers, glitter glue, shapes, and drawing (especially for young ones)
- Cutting out pictures from magazines or printing pictures from websites that show people exhibiting the spiritual quality
- Asking your child to tell you ways people show the spiritual quality which you could draw or write about together
- Taking a picture of your child exhibiting the spiritual quality and pasting it onto the page with a short description in their own words
- Listing ways family members have exhibited the spiritual quality in different colors
- Asking older children to draw pictures of a way they can show the spiritual quality or a way in which they have seen someone else show the spiritual quality
You may wish to include a note with the “letter” to explain that your family is learning about a spiritual quality each month and this is something they can talk to your child about. There is an example note (copied four times on a page) which you may wish to print out to attach to your Monthly Letters called “Monthly Letter Explanations,” available to download from the Helpful Documents section of the Radiant Hearts main page. It says:
[box] To:
Our family learns about a new spiritual quality each month. We talk about what the quality means and do various activities to learn more about it. At the end of the month we create a Monthly Letter to show some of the things we learned. Each month we choose a person to send this letter to, and this month you were chosen!
We hope you enjoy this letter. Feel free to talk to us about it next time we are in touch.
“The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct.” – Bahá’u’lláh
From:
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Additional Pages
If one of the Daily Activities requires additional Printable materials, these will be made available on the last page(s) of the Printables document. The pages will be labeled according to number of the corresponding Daily Activity on the list of pages in the Printables (located on page one of the Basic Lesson entitled “Getting Started”).
Crown of Virtues
The last of the Daily Activities for every month is “Add a jewel to the Crown of Virtues.” There are no pages included in the Printables for this activity however there is a simple poster available on the Radiant Hearts main page under the “Other Helpful Documents” section. This Crown of Virtues Poster can be used to add jewels to or you may like to draw a larger one, or create a crown your child can actually wear.
Whichever method is chosen, families may like to make one crown per family member or one crown for the whole family. Each month they can add a jewel to the crown by drawing or painting or using craft items such as plastic jewels, sequins or glitter glue shapes. If the jewel is cut out of paper the spiritual quality can even be written on it. At the end of the year, the crown will have 19 jewels and will be an attractive way to represent the family’s learning.
Ideas for using the Crown of Virtues:
- Keep the crown near the dinner table so you can use it as a reminder to talk about how everyone displayed the spiritual qualities during the day.
- Wear the crown during daily prayers on the last day of the month, after the new jewel is added.
- Take a picture of the child with the crown each month to chart its progress and their growth.
>>>>>> Go to the next page in the “Online Introduction to Radiant Hearts” series: More Ways to Use Radiant Hearts
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