Introduction
Welcome
Nonviolence is not just for marches and bringing down dictators, but for transforming our personal lives too. Our families play an important role in creating a peaceful world — there’s truly no place like home when it comes to putting nonviolence into practice.
Peacemaker Family is a unique program for families of all kinds. It invites you to spend quality time together while being highly flexible for busy family schedules. This program is suitable for all ages, even for children as young as 3.
Through various activities, your family will come to define and practice your own values as peacemakers. You’re encouraged to be creative with and expand on the activities, especially with younger children.
The more families can practice nonviolence, the greater potential we all have for experiencing lasting peace as a global human family.
Peacemaker Family consists of 12 weeks of engaging material. Each week brings you a short video introduction, a short reading with conversation suggestions, and a simple nonviolence practice for your family to have fun experimenting with throughout the week.
Dear Friends,
It's our joy to welcome you to Peacemaker Family. In its essence, nonviolence is the practice of discovering and putting the force of love to work — in ourselves and in the world. We can’t think of a more appropriate, and wonderful, place to explore this loving force than in the family.
Mahatma Gandhi pointed out that love is as humble as it is powerful — and who holds more humble power than our children? They watch our choices; learn from our behaviors; listen to what we do and contrast it with what we say. One goal of Peacemaker Family is to empower children to discover their inner potential. While this program is suitable for children as young as 3, greater patience and creativity may be required with younger ages.
Peacemaker Family is about more than helping your own family and your own children flourish as a force for nonviolence. By engaging in this program, you’re helping the structure of the family to rediscover its purpose in the world: to be a heart-centered space for the transmission of life-affirming, constructive values that connect all of us to our larger human family.
With admiration,
The Metta Center team
About This Program
1. You’ll find it flexible.
Peacemaker Family is designed primarily around weekend activities, to accommodate quality family time. You’re warmly invited to expand on any activity or branch out in any way that feels right for your family.
With that said, you may find it most engaging to work through the material in chronological order, starting with Week 1, as the program is intended to build your understandings progressively. Each Week includes:
A short video introduction from Stephanie Van Hook, who is our executive director and a former Montessori educator
Reading a short chapter from a children’s book (more on that below)
Reflective questions your family can use to discuss the book chapter
A simple nonviolence practice to enjoy together during the week
It's best to begin with the Weekend Activities (even if you decide to start them on a weekday), then continue your week with the Practice.
2. Get your copy of Gandhi Searches for Truth: A Practical Biography for Children before starting the program.
Gandhi Searches for Truth can help grown-ups and children have important conversations about ideas related to nonviolence. The book, in 12 short chapters, explores how Gandhi discovered key principles and tools of nonviolence. These beautifully illustrated stories show how we can become peacemakers at any age. Each chapter opens with a quote, which is followed by a story and a nonviolence principle.
The book is available in print (just $7.85) and as an e-book (just $3.38) at Amazon.com.
Peacemaker Family is largely organized around the stories in this eye-opening book, so you’ll want to purchase your copy before starting the program (fun fact: all proceeds from the book directly support programs by the Metta Center for Nonviolence).
3. Choose a pace that works for you.
This is a self-paced program, so your family decides when to start and finish it. We encourage you to come back to the Family Peacemaker material as often as you’d like, even after you’ve completed the material—this program never expires for you. Take as much time as you’d like!
