Children are small developing human beings . As adults, educators and parents, it should be our obligation to provide them with a safe and sensible world in which they can grow up safe and happy. To this end, we propose some resources to explain what peace is to the smallest of the house.
Peace is a concept that can be strange in the young mind of a child . But how could we define it concretely? Perhaps as a social state of stability and equilibrium or as a state that occurs between parts that form a harmonic unity. Other experts consider it as the absence of war, violence and restlessness.
Resources to explain what peace is
Currently, a good part of society is aware of the benefits that the culture of peace brings to living together . Therefore, if we want it to continue like this, it is important that children internalize it as soon as possible.
Peace is a guarantor of personal and social harmony . In this way, the right environment for violence prevention and conflict resolution is created in a peaceful manner, through tools such as dialogue.
If this education in and for peace begins in the family environment and extends to the school, we can train balanced children and adolescents capable of overcoming emotional and social conflicts . We will establish a very valuable firewall against episodes of risk and violence, such as cyberbullying or bullying.
That is why all kinds of activities that relate to peace are so important. Educating in values is essential to move towards an increasingly balanced and peaceful society .
Conflict theater
Children often like to act and feel part of a group of actors in a theater or theater. Therefore, both at home and in the classroom, what is called conflict theater can be prepared.
To perform this activity you can improvise a simple scenario and imagine a list of habitual conflicts between children . For example, the classic fight for a toy, the last ice cream eaten by the older brother and not the little one, the classic disagreements between parents and children when the elders have obligations and the little ones want to play, etc.
Once we have imagined the conflict, it must be represented on the stage improvisedly designed by a group of children. The rest must identify the conflict. Once identified, the emotions generated by the conflict and the best way to respond to them in a peaceful manner will be discussed .
Symbolic cuisine
The kitchen can be an excellent resource for explaining peace to children. And sometimes confrontations can arise when choosing how to cook food.
One way to make a symbolic kitchen is to organize the ingredients . For example, to make a cake, some will be used and others not. Therefore, we will associate a concept with each of those ingredients.
Let’s see an example. To cook the aforementioned cake, we will not use salt, so to this product we will associate, for example, the term violence. But we will use cream, so to this food we will add the concept of respect. And so, with a series of products, some that will be used and others that will not.
Once this is done, we will invite the children to choose the foods that will be used to cook a peace cake . In this way, the boys will discover what the associated values are.
Story Reading
We know one more of the many resources to explain what peace is to children that exist today. Reading stories , both classic and modern, is a useful work in this case.
Once one is chosen, it is interesting to read it out loud so that everyone listens to it and, after the event, set up a debate in which children can give their opinions, analyze and discover the values transmitted by history.
All these resources to explain what peace is to children are useful and necessary to create a peaceful world and a good environment in which the little ones can develop happily and with assurances and certainties.