Planning for Peace

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

Taken at a children's peace labyrinth we visited earlier this month.

The sign is made of a mosaic of children's drawings about peace.

Peace Day is coming up on Tuesday. Our family is joining with some friends for a Peace Party in the Park and then we will make our way over to the nearby town to participate in their annual human peace sign. We went last year and the kids had a blast.

I've been searching for some activities to do at our Peace Party and thought I would share what my friends and I found here and what we are planning for the day.

~ How to make an Origami Crane (we hope to make enough to leave some strings on the Children's monument we are gathering around)
~ Peace Bracelets inspired by the ones here
~ Pinwheels

Activities
~ If we have enough kids we plan on making a human peace sign.
~ We'll play a game about relying on friends to hold the world up. I did this at a Kids 4 Peace gathering we had a few years ago. We blow up balloons - about one for every two kids and then we give them all to one child to hold. Inevitably it is too many to keep track of and they fall on the ground. Then we invite in a friend to help and it gets easier but is still challenging. We keep inviting kids to help until by working together, we are able to keep all the balloons off the ground. Then we help the kids make the conclusion that not only was it easier when everyone was working together, it was more fun.
~ We'll have a Postcards for Peace station where kids can make postcards with their wishes for peace. For the holder children we will talk a bit about the MDG and the UN meeting that is taking place today to assess our collective (minimum) progress and then the kids can write to the Prime Minister and our MP about honouring their commitments to these goals. Younger children can make general postcards. We are looking for peace pen pals to share them with.
~ I've found some more activities in the educational resources section at Peace One Day

We'll also have some music supplied by a talented young friend and eventually I would like to get some CDs to play at events like this.

We'll also have a shared snack and some story time, and a chance to discuss a peace pledge.
Some of our favourite kids books about peace:
A little peace by Barbra Kerley,

Paths to peace: people who changed the world by Jane Breskin Zalben,
Peace one day by Jeremy Gilley,
Let there be light : poems and prayers for repairing the world by Jane Breskin Zalben,
Peace tales : world folktales to talk about by Margaret Read MacDonald,
Old Turtle by Douglas Wood
A million visions of peace : wisdom from the friends of Old Turtle by Jennifer Garrison,
Peace begins with you by Katherine Scholes,

Did you know that the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates called for the decade 2000 - 2010 to be a decade of peace?

Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.
~ Robert Fulghum

Dear Editor...

For the last two weekends a small group of young people has been “Pulling for Pakistan” at the Farmer's Market. In exchange for a donation to the Red Cross Pakistan Relief Fund, these kids would pull their wagons loaded with customers’ packages from the market to their vehicles.

Over the course of two weekends, through the incredible generosity of the market patrons, the children raised $1360, which will be matched by the Canadian government. We were all thrilled with the outcome. And as parents, we are so grateful to this community, not only for their donations, but for their encouragement and kind words to the children about their efforts to do something tangible in the face of this tragedy in Pakistan. Our children came away from the experience having learned the powerful lessons that even though they are young, they can make a real difference by working together and involving their community.

On behalf of the eleven families, and 30 kids that participated I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who offered their donations and good wishes. You touched many lives in many ways through your generosity.

Sincerely,

Karen and friends

Our letter of thanks to our community was published in today's paper.

Growing volunteers

This week we headed back to the nonprofit nursery with our friends to help get things ready for winter. The kids worked very hard - and some (the younger girls) even chose to keep working when they could have gone on a hike. They were on a mission to catch up to the boys in moving the crates of trees back onto the ground. It is always lovely to see their focus and commitment when they know their work is valuable and their efforts and abilities are acknowledged.

This particular nursery provides trees free of charge to homeowners and community groups doing reforestation projects and so all week the kids have been chatting up the value of this nursery to our friends and neighbours. It's easy to see how connected they are to this ideal.

The staff there are wonderful with the kids and I think that make all the difference. They found meaningful jobs for even the smallest among us, gave the kids plenty of choices about how they wanted to contribute and most of all trusted the kids to do the work they so wanted to do.   We have been lucky to find a few exceptional opportunities that the kids can get completely engaged in and I have often thought of writing down tips for volunteer organizations about how to work with young children as volunteers, because I think that most organizations don't know how to harness the energy and enthusiasm of a group of committed kids.

If we cared for one another's children

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

The solution to adult problems tomorrow depends on large measure upon how our children grow up today.
~ Margaret Mead

Today my kids and their friends launched their Pulling for Pakistan project. At 6:30 am we loaded up the van with our wagons and signs and headed down to our farmer's market.  We set up our info table and donation jar just outside the market and started offering shoppers help to their vehicles in exchange for a donation to the Canadian Red Cross Pakistan Flood Relief Fund.   It started off a bit slow but then our friends started to arrive and business picked up.  The kids would pull in teams, sometimes with a parent and other times on their own.

People were exceedingly generous. And patient. And so kind in their encouragement and comments to the kids.

I was a bit hesitant last night as I was searching online for pictures to print out that showed the extent of the need without being too upsetting (and no the sad irony of that was not lost on me.)  I was so disheartened at one point reading comments to the news stories about why people have been slow to give to this crisis. Religion. Politics. Donor fatigue. Helplessness. Skepticism and mistrust.

And then today I was blown away by the fact that none of that seemed to matter to the people who dropped coins and bills in our jars. Until, late in the day, one woman approached me and told me how much she disagreed with what we were doing. That Pakistan has nuclear weapons. That the "Muslim countries" aren't doing enough and that there are other people more deserving of our attention and our efforts.  Slightly alarmed, I tried to keep walking her away from the kids. I told her that I agreed with her concerns about peace but that the Red Cross is not the Pakistan government and that NGOs are trying to help people whose lives have been torn apart by this flood as best they can. I explained that all my children wanted to do was to help other children who were homeless, hungry, thirsty, at risk of serious disease and who were undoubtedly scared that no one would help them. That our kids had done similar things to raise funds and send care packages to Haiti, send books to First Nations communities, and collect food for the food bank. That what these children behind me wanted to do was help where they could, however they can, without reserve, because it is the right thing to do.

And I told her that perhaps if we cared for each others children, and we taught our children to care for each other more than we care about our politics, that perhaps, just perhaps, we could create a world without the need for weapons.

Our kids, through the generosity of others, raised $560 today.
We'll be back next week.
I'll be better prepared to handle questions.
But I can't see that I could be any more proud of these kids and the community they are creating.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

The young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown... The children, the young, must ask the questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers.

~ Margaret Mead

Storytelling and Peacebuilding

I came across this link today. I haven't had time to explore it fully but I plan to.

Description from the site:

Peace-building storytelling activities for teachers, parents and adults who work with children.
Constructing and sharing stories of hope and peace, stories with nonviolent plots and happy win-win endings may lead us to create similar elements especially in relation to the lives of our children and maybe even in our own.

The great kindness challenge - August 14

From here:
The Great Kindness Challenge is one day devoted to performing as many acts of kindness as possible. Our goal this year is to have over one million children participate. It is our hope that this day will inspire a lifelong commitment to service and kindness.
From sunup to sundown, children around the world will accomplish simple, kind deeds using The Great Kindness Challenge Checklist.
The checklist features 50 acts of kindness to choose from. Click here to download the checklist. Then just do what you can on August 14. Even the simplest acts can make a big difference in someone's life. And you just might be amazed at how fun it can be.
Do you belong to a group that could participate, or would you like to form one? We invite you to use The Great Kindness Challenge to perform group acts of kindness and have your own events to honor this special day.

Let's make our world a more kind, loving and compassionate place for all.
 
Check the Great Kindness Challenge website for more ideas and this post for some resources.

Raising Global Citizens

If you are coming over from the Family Matters radio show - welcome!

You can hear Ryan and I being interviewed about youth activism and raising global citizens here. (It takes a while to load.)

To learn more about Nishin you can watch him on youtube here and here.  You'll be blown away. He's awesome.

Foreign Policy Blog on Children

Check out this blog for booklists, tips about talking to kids about world conflict, resources and information about the status of the world's children. A great resource for parents wanting to educate themselves about issues affecting children.

Contagious

"If learning is embedded in real world context, where you blur the boundaries between school and life, then children go through a journey of aware where they can see the change, enabled where they can be changed and then empowered, lead the change." Kiran Sethi is the founder of a revolutionary new school in India, called The Riverside School. She’s changing the way we think about children, the way they think about themselves and her ideas are contagious!

What will matter

What Will Matter
By Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours, or minutes.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass on to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevant.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will all expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you come from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.
It won’t matter whether you are beautiful or brilliant.
Your gender, skin color, ethnicity will be irrelevant.

So, what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built.
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people knew you,

but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Found here

The dolls arrived

Back in February our homeschool group participated in the Dolly Donation drive for Haitian orphans affected by the earthquake. I was blown away by the response from our group and happily packed up 37 beautiful handmade dolls.
The dolls were delayed by the logistics of moving goods into Haiti but they recently arrived. My kids were beyond thrilled to spot some of the dolls we sent and one of the ones we sewed among the pictures posted on Sarah's blog

Love. My. Djembe.

Oh, the brave music of a distant drum!

~ Omar Khayyam

The kids (lucky!) got to do an African Drumming program today at a local library with a drummer, artist and storyteller. He began by having the kids listen to their heartbeat, to assure them that they have the rhythm in them. Then he introduced them to the drum and its history and lore. He taught them 3 basic drumming sequences by giving them each words to help the kids remember them. And after they practised he taught them how to answer the call of the drum, about the mother beat, tempo and poly rhythmic drumming. They were so excited to play. At the end of the session, he told them a Hyena and Hare story about a magic tree. It was a wonderful program and I was thrilled to have found it so soon after the kids were drumming in the park.  I just wish I could have played. They all had so much fun and music is such a fantastic way to introduce kids to the connections between cultures.

Resources
To be a drum by Evelyn Coleman,
African crafts : fun things to make and do from West Africa by Lynne Garner,
Africa for kids : exploring a vibrant continent, 19 activities by Harvey Croze,
Africa is not a country by Margy Burns Knight,

Plant a Row

We can be confident that action which is in accord with a few basic beliefs cannot be wrong and can at least testify to the values we will need to cultivate. These are the beliefs that the human race is a family that has inherited a place on the earth in common, that its members have an obligation to work toward sharing it so that none is deprived of the elementary needs for life, and that all have a responsibility to leave it undegraded for those who follow.

~ Gilbert F. White, Stewardship of the Earth,

This year marks our first as gardeners. We've been working a plot at our city's first community garden as our yard doesn't have enough sun to really grow a garden. It's been an amazing experience for the kids - and for me. They have a new connection to their food and an appreciation for the amount of effort it takes to put food on our table. It's given them a sense of responsibility and is a source of pride as they each harvest from "their" plants. The community aspect has been a powerful one for them. In the communal space, we've planted a blueberry bush whose fruit we may not harvest to "pay it forward" and to thank those gardeners before us who left blackberries and rhubarb and the beautiful raspberries.
We've also talked about food security issues. Even knowing that we have a thriving cherry tomato plant has given them an idea of how powerful growing our own food can be.

Our plot is small and packed full of many of  the vegetables and herbs we eat regularly and while I don't think we will be able to feed our family of 6 from the garden, chances are good we may have some zucchini and tomatoes to share.

We're blessed with a few local programs which can help gardeners and those interested in the local food movement help others.

Plant a row ~ Grow a row is  a program which matches gardeners with food banks who are happy to receive and pass on fresh local produce.

Our city also has a gleaning program where residents who have fruit or nut trees which may not be fully harvested can contact this organization and volunteers will pick the produce and donate it to the food bank or other community groups.

Sharing Backyards is a program which matches up people with unused gardening space with those who wish to garden but lack space. The land owner and the gardener each bring their resources to the table and share the harvest from the garden.

Resources:
I've listed a few here
Food for thought
Books for older kids
Food : ethical debates on what we eat by Jim Kerr, 
Reducing your foodprint : farming, cooking, and eating for a healthy planet by Ellen Rodger,

G8 and peaceful protests

Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
~ Howard Zinn

This is how change happens, though. It is a relay race, and we're very conscious of that, that our job really is to do our part of the race, and then we pass it on, and then someone picks it up, and it keeps going. And that is how it is. And we can do this, as a planet, with the consciousness that we may not get it, you know, today, but there's always a tomorrow.
- Alice Walker

We were lucky enough to spend much of June at a family cottage not too far from the small city where the G8 meetings were happening. I hemmed and hawed about taking the kids in to town on the day of the meeting. I really wanted them to get a chance to see some of the protests but if things were to get violent or out of control I didn't know the city well enough to escape quickly or find a safe place. Without Internet access at the cottage I was limited to getting info via the radio or the newspapers. On Friday morning after hearing the news stations all reporting small, peaceful and creative protests and given that the risks seemed very low, I thought it was important for the kids to see and hear first hand about some of the things we had been talking about leading up to the G8. We arrived before noon, in time to see some protests staged in order to air on the noon news programs, and watched plenty of journalists jockey for stories and space.  And then we wandered around town, listening to the locals discuss some of the issues. The police forces seemed to finally be exhaling as the day progressed without incident. The kids all chatted with various members of the force. We saw officers kidding with the clowns, and while they declined the free hugs, they did offer hearty handshakes.

The protesters were relatively small in number but they were creative and earnest in their appeals. World Vision had mimes of the world leaders on stilts, high above the crowds, waving symbolic money just out of the reach of of those below them. The Council of Canadians took a quintessential approach, trying to canoe past security. Locals, who had made water the focus for them, stood at their waterfront with signs and posters, proclaiming water as a right worth protecting.  A group of young activists tried the positive approach, urging the world leaders to believe that the Millennium Development Goals are still achievable.

All of this lead to some great discussions with the kids about the ways we can impact our world, the purpose of governments, the responsibilities of citizens, the reasons for protests, the need for police and necessity that their powers must stay balanced and in check, particularly in view of the situations that occurred in Toronto at the G20.

G8 Encouraging kids to connect

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One of the things that was wonderful and a bit surprising, was the way that the community of Huntsville, and the activist community encouraged and facilitated participating and inclusion of kids into the G8 experience, and not only through displays like the SGI Culture of Peace display. There was a young man encouraging community drumming at the water front, activist art which people were invited to sign, community concerts, even clowns doing a bit of street protest theatre, bubble machines and sidewalk chalk.

My kids may remember some of the details of the protests we saw, but I am almost sure they will remember drumming in community as one way to be heard, or talking about how art can be more than just one person's expression, or listening to the community concert on the theme of water.