Adventure, Play, Peace. This item is unavailable.Adventure, Play, Peace

So, how do play and peace go together? How do you make a play experience turn into a peacemaking lesson? How does a child learn compassion and kindness in the midst of fun and games? How can play possibly be a way to teach a child to express his or her feelings? While we play, in the midst of the experience, there will be opportunities to teach peacemaking skills. Those teachable moments can be considered peacemaking opportunities. You may start with an agenda for play; however, you might veer away from that plan when the children bring their own dynamics to the game. Peacemaking and compassion work are more important than the games. How you play matters more than what you play (safety concerns aside). The games are the means to learning skills for life. The games are the avenue to the expression of creativity. If you are going to play with children or support them in their free play, the concepts in this book can be the foundation on which you can build a compassionate community. The specifics of the games are secondary to these concepts. In a sense, you will have two bags of tricks: the concepts in one bag and the games in the other.

Nancy MacPhee Bower has worked in the experiential education field for most of her adult life. She was initially drawn to work with very young children when her own children were preschoolers. After 16 years of adventuring with preschoolers and elementary-aged children, she can happily say that she has found her niche. She teaches Adventure Play classes at a variety of schools in Maine. She also facilitates workshops for teachers and child care providers who want to add more play and more peace to the lives of the children they work with. She lives in Cumberland, Maine with her husband, Bob, and their three children.