Peacefulness is as every bit as important of a skillset for your child to acquire as Language, Math, or Science. It will quite literally impact the quality of their lives and the lives of their future family. In our classrooms we seek to, from a very early ages, give children the skillsets to manage the ups and downs of social and emotional situations.
Learning to be a happy, well adjusted, the human is not an easy task, those of us that partner with them on this amazing journey, parents, family, and teachers, must be patient and consistent. Our help must not be enabling. Our goal is to give them the gift of age-appropriate independence, teach them about service to others, and mindfulness.
Peace education is anything that results in teaching our children how to be more peaceful with themselves, their family, and their community. Peace begins with the individual. Have you ever walked into a room and the energy felt “off” or “tense”? The same applies to our Montessori classrooms and your home environment, we each seek to make them havens of peace for our children.
In our Montessori classrooms, we have Peace areas. These areas are set aside so our children can go to relax and be calm. They may read, trace a labyrinth, rake the Japanese sand garden, look at various semi-precious rocks, paint with water on the Buddha Board, use the Yoga Pretzel Cards, (yes! The children do yoga!) the list goes on for calming activities the children may partake.
One highlight of the Peace area is the book, The Peace Rose and the silk rose in the vase on the table. The book details the method in which the kiddos can maneuver disagreements with their friends with much more ease and no hurt feelings. The premise is that whichever friend is holding the silk rose, has the floor, and may speak until they pass the rose, the other friend/friends remain listening as a courtesy even if they disagree until they gain possession of the rose. The teacher is close by monitoring the process in case of problems until the children are capable of managing on their own.
The book, The Peace Rose and silk rose will always an excellent addition to your home life since anytime home and school reflects each other the children benefit and learn much more quickly. Many families have even created their own peace areas at home.
Peace. Rose Book:
Yoga Pretzel Cards:
Buddha Board:
