Travelingjenny

Today, Grace attended story time at our local library while Tess and I played and selected books. One of the books we brought home, The Peace Book (by Todd Parr), has been an instant hit. It is filled with sweet statements and colorful illustrations to attempt to convey the different kinds of peace to young children. Some excerpts:

"Peace is giving shoes to someone who needs them."

"Peace is watching it snow."

"Peace is saying you’re sorry when you hurt someone."

"Peace is wearing different clothes." This is illustrated by a character wearing a burqa (Grace said: "I think that one is from China"), and a character with a huge yellow afro and crazy clothes ("I think that one’s from Ohio," she said. Do I really dress that badly?).

"Peace is offering a hug to a friend." Upon hearing this, Grace hugged me and said: "We’re doing peace!" Then it struck me that the first, and perhaps best, way to teach peace is within our own family. We started this right away, by having family dance time. Tess found this very amusing since her daddy, as you know, has got some pretty awesome dance moves (and I must say, Gracie seems to be following in his very nimble footsteps). Then, before bed, we had a group hug. "Doing peace" together is pretty fun.