In honor of International Peace Day we discussed what peace means to us and what it means to be a peacemaker. The top photo shows the books we read and talked about today. Bean loves "The Peace Book" by Todd Parr and I really like the "Can You Say Peace?" book that shows how children around the world say peace in their native language. He also decorated a peace sign with rainbow foam squares that we can hang in the house. The bottom picture shows our new mini Zen Garden! I've had this for years and thought it would be a nice addition to the classroom. We talked about how people use Zen Gardens to bring peace to their minds and hearts. As he was having some frustrations this morning, he really took to this work. He silently and carefully raked the sand until he told me he was "all peaced up, Mom"-which I took to mean he was feeling better :) The card below is part of a peacemaker set I downloaded from Montessori Print Shop. One side is the picture of the person and the other side has a quote that we will talk about and discuss it's meaning. Today's quote was from the Dalai Lama and talked about having peace within yourself before there can be peace in the world. Again, a great tie-in to how frustrated he was feeling and then how much more peaceful the whole house was after he had regained his balance and peaceful heart. Since I have 11 more of these peacemaker cards and a bunch more peace-related activities and books to share with Bean I'm sure it will be a regular part of our work this year.
Looks like so much fun. I miss homeschooling.
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