Cultivating Peace

From the P2 Blog: “Ms. Melissa has introduced a peace curriculum into our classroom based on Sonnie McFarland’s book Honoring the Light of the Child. It is an in-depth presentation of creating peace step-by-step, of learning how to be an active listener (of oneself and with others), and of problem-solving, all based on ‘activities to nurture peaceful living skills in young children.’

 

One of the first skills we practiced is learning how to make silence. It goes like this:

Silence

I cross my legs

I place my hands on my knees,

I make my back very straight,

I tell my body to be still,

I tell my mouth to be quiet,

I take a deep breath,

I close my eyes,

I make Silence and feel my love

You would not believe the quality of silence we witness on a regular basis when the children ‘make silence.’ It immediately puts them in an alert and quiet mood and we see the positive effects of this exercise during the work cycle that follows.

We also learned to recognize that each of us has a ‘light of love within ourselves.’ This was demonstrated by creating a person template, with a shadow template. The teaching is ‘that our own love light is always shining and there are times that we feel mad, sad or afraid. When this happens, it is difficult to feel our love lights.’

Even when we are feeling these emotions, our love light is always shining. There are ways to help our love light shine brighter.  We can take a moment and breathe deeply, practice the art of making silence, and allow the cloudy moment to pass, as it always will.

You may have seen your child wearing a little yellow felt circle pin. This is symbolic of their love light and when they feel like wearing one in the classroom they visit our peace area and pick one out to wear.”

To see more pictures and read more about the goings on in P2, click here.

Foothills Montessori School is a private Montessori school serving families in Henderson, Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.