Remember...

We have a public holiday on November 11th for Remembrance Day so I always talk about Poppy Day the week before.

My island home has been very blessed in that we have never had a war fought on our land although we have supported military bases of other countries and played our part in World War Two.

We have very few veterans left and nearly all of them fought in WWII. Very few of our young men or women have served overseas in war zones - which means that few of our children have been exposed to the loss and heartbreak that occurs when family members are lost.

Of course there are the children who know that their grandparents died fighting - and some have family members who are enlisted but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Every year I find it more and more difficult to help my class see the importance of Remembrance Day. We are so removed from the concept of war that they don't seem to be able to relate to the "remembering" aspect of Poppy Day. For them it's just a holiday - a day off from school.

So we talk about Remembrance Day - about why we keep it, what it means. We read "Flanders Field" and discuss it and we watch a slide show that I made 3 years ago for an assembly - set to the song "Where Have all the Flowers Gone" - and discuss our reactions.

We talk about how war starts in our hearts - and how we can become peacemakers even when we are very little. We can forgive, we can be kind, we can find ways to solve problems.

And then we make our poppies.

This year I slightly adapted a project I found on thatartistwoman.