Ok, friends. Here’s a Pure Heart Art idea to kick the learning into a fun gear. It draws inspiration from this quote:

“A pure heart is as a mirror.”  – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

I find it really helps kids to think of a Pure Heart as a mirror.

They get it. And they get that, like a mirror, a Pure Heart can best reflect Light when it’s clear of debris and negativity.

This art activity demonstrates all of this clearly, all while enabling your child to express herself creatively.

But first, a visual sampler:

Beautiful, huh? I didn’t get pictures of all the steps, so here’s the nitty gritty:

 

Pure Heart Art Activity

Goal: For each child to create their unique Pure Heart Art and then explore how a heart can become filled with negative thoughts, emotions, and actions and then cleansed to restore it to its Pure Heart state.

Materials:

•         Aluminum Foil
• White yardstick (8 1/2 x 11 or A1)
• Glue sticks
• Washable paint
• Foam brushes or cotton balls
• Paint brushes and cups of water
• Paper towel or rags
• Flashlight

Process:

1. CUT: Invite your child to cut out a shape that will represent their heart/soul. This can be a traditional shape for a heart, a star, an amorphic blob, or a biological heart as my science-loving 6-year-old wanted to create after visiting the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia last month. 😉  If the child wants a symmetrical traditional heart, it helps to fold the foil in half to trace and cut out a half-heart shape.
2. GLUE: Once she has cut out the shape she wants, she can apply glue stick glue to the dull side. Then glue it on the cardstock. Smooth over it to make sure it’s well glued down. She can decorate her art with additional shiny pieces coming off the heart to represent its radiance if she likes. Anything goes. Just check that everything is well-glued down.
3. PAINT all over the paper and the shiny heart. Have your child pick a few colors of paint  and set it up as you like. (We squirted paint into paper bowls.) She can use the foam brush or cotton balls to apply paint to the paper and heart. Encourage her to cover it thickly with paint, talking about how this is like how negative thoughts, feelings, and actions can block the radiance of a Pure Heart.
4. SHINE? Ask her to shine the flashlight on the Pure Heart “mirror” and see if the light reflects well. Discuss how the heart covered with paint/negativity is no longer reflective like a mirror.
5. CLEANSE: Once she’s finished painting, bring in the paint brush with a cup of water and invite her to cleanse her heart of the day’s yuckiness by washing the paint off of the aluminum foil heart. If she prefers to use cotton balls dipped in water, go that route. If it gets too wet, use a paper towel or rag to wipe off the excess moisture. The goal is to have fun revealing the shiny heart after it’s been covered in paint. Talk about what we each can do to cleanse our inner selves to restore our Pure Hearts (ie. do a Pure Heart Start).
6. SHINE? Once again, invite your child to shine a flashlight on the Pure Heart “mirror” in the artwork to see how it’s light can reflect beautifully now.
7. WRAP UP: Finish by discussing the Pure Heart Start more as you like.

Notes and Variations:

• Some children will paint a face on the heart and not want to cover it up. That’s fine! This art demo only works well if it doesn’t upset the child by forcing a certain approach or understanding. It can be a starting point for discussing it and even demoing it further another day. And if the child never wants to cover their heart with paint representing yucky feelings, thoughts, etc. that’s fine too. Perhaps this is because she takes the idea of keeping her heart pure very seriously. Honor it as such.

• If your child really wants to finish by adding a face onto the heart, that’s fine. You can even use this as a daily tool, where at the end of the day or when the child is unsettled, invite her to draw with washable markers what she feels like on the heart (ie. facial expression, etc.). Then invite her to try a centering activity that will help her cleanse herself of that feeling. Finish by inviting her to wipe off the negative image and release that negative energy with it. If she likes to then draw more on the heart to reflect her positive outcome, let her. This is her expressive tool.

The art pictured above is from our children’s Virtues Class. They did such a fab job and had a lot of fun doing these. And it seemed like most of them connected with the concept.

If you tried the Pure Heart Art activity, how’d it go? Do you have other art ideas to help our kids explore the idea of a Pure Heart? Please share!