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The Young Peacemaker
The Young Peacemaker Set includes a 200 page Teacher Manual designed in a workbook format. Divided into three Understanding, Responding and Preventing Conflict, each lesson has a goal, objectives, principle, and needs clearly outlined at the beginning, and is followed by teacher's notes on setting the stage and questions to ask. Reproducible student activity sheets for all twelve lessons are included on an enclosed CD for ease of duplication. Help illustrate the conflicts and talk about possible solutions--good and bad--and what's wrong with the bad solutions. A lesson summary reaffirms the lesson's main points.Recommended for grades 3-7, but can be adapted for younger or older students.
343 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 18, 2024
I went through this workbook with my children when they were 8 and 6 years old and having frequent conflicts with one another.
The author was a teacher and school counselor for a total of fifteen years. The Young Peacemaker says it is designed for “intermediate and middle school” students. I personally would not use it with middle school students. (I think most would find it too condescending.) I would guess it works best for 2nd – 5th graders. It suited my rising third grader well, but was a bit beyond my rising first grader. I worked through the book separately and at different times with each child because trying to do it with both at same time just led to…fights. Oh, the irony.
The teacher’s book comes with a CD containing a workbook for each chapter that you can print out so the kids have their own thing to work through. It retells the stories you read with comics and has a few activities. My kids like the comics, but the activities are lame. They are poorly thought out and drawn up, either overly simplistic and repetitive or difficult to do for various reasons, such as a crossword lacking numbers. We usually ended up skipping the activities or just using them for discussion fodder. The discussion questions were often of a nature that made them difficult to respond to (either because one would be regurgitating the obvious or, on the other end, because they were too open-ended for a young child). I often skipped or modified the questions, and we did not do the role-playing at all, though that may work in a group setting.
I do think working through the workbook was at least somewhat helpful at the time. I actually heard my kids resolve a conflict peaceably on their own during the course of going through this book. My son apparently broke something of his sibling’s, and instead of great cries on both sides, I heard him say, “I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?” and his sibling reply, “Yes, I forgive you. Please be more careful next time.” It warmed a mother’s heart.
My older child certainly learned the vocabulary in this book. On a car ride home from the pool one day, this conversation occurred – Younger Child: “[Sibling] called me stupid at the pool!” Older Child: “No I didn’t it!” Me: “Well, put-downs are a bad response to conflict and create further conflict.” Older Child: “Oh, I just used denial because I wanted to avoid the consequences of my choices.” (The kid was pretty much quoting the book, so I guess that one stuck.)
The main virtue of the book is that the text and comics themselves (if not so much the questions) provide a jumping point for discussions on how to react and respond to conflict. (More so with my 8-year-old than my 6-year-old.) It also reinforces what parents want to teach their kids from a “third-party source” so they are more inclined to accept it. My eldest was quite interested in working through the book and asked to work on it almost daily. It was also helpful for me, because I often lacked the patience and gentleness I needed to handle my children’s conflicts with one another, and doing this book with them reminded me that when they push my buttons with their bickering, I need to react in a way that will not model bad conflict resolution skills.
The book would be useful for a homeschooling parent or a private Christian school as well as the individual Christian parent. It would be good for these skills to be taught in public school as well, but the explicitly Christian content and frequent Bible verses would rule out direct use of this material. However, it could potentially be modified for use in such a setting, and I understand the author has worked with public school teachers on the issue of conflict resolution.
The author was a teacher and school counselor for a total of fifteen years. The Young Peacemaker says it is designed for “intermediate and middle school” students. I personally would not use it with middle school students. (I think most would find it too condescending.) I would guess it works best for 2nd – 5th graders. It suited my rising third grader well, but was a bit beyond my rising first grader. I worked through the book separately and at different times with each child because trying to do it with both at same time just led to…fights. Oh, the irony.
The teacher’s book comes with a CD containing a workbook for each chapter that you can print out so the kids have their own thing to work through. It retells the stories you read with comics and has a few activities. My kids like the comics, but the activities are lame. They are poorly thought out and drawn up, either overly simplistic and repetitive or difficult to do for various reasons, such as a crossword lacking numbers. We usually ended up skipping the activities or just using them for discussion fodder. The discussion questions were often of a nature that made them difficult to respond to (either because one would be regurgitating the obvious or, on the other end, because they were too open-ended for a young child). I often skipped or modified the questions, and we did not do the role-playing at all, though that may work in a group setting.
I do think working through the workbook was at least somewhat helpful at the time. I actually heard my kids resolve a conflict peaceably on their own during the course of going through this book. My son apparently broke something of his sibling’s, and instead of great cries on both sides, I heard him say, “I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?” and his sibling reply, “Yes, I forgive you. Please be more careful next time.” It warmed a mother’s heart.
My older child certainly learned the vocabulary in this book. On a car ride home from the pool one day, this conversation occurred – Younger Child: “[Sibling] called me stupid at the pool!” Older Child: “No I didn’t it!” Me: “Well, put-downs are a bad response to conflict and create further conflict.” Older Child: “Oh, I just used denial because I wanted to avoid the consequences of my choices.” (The kid was pretty much quoting the book, so I guess that one stuck.)
The main virtue of the book is that the text and comics themselves (if not so much the questions) provide a jumping point for discussions on how to react and respond to conflict. (More so with my 8-year-old than my 6-year-old.) It also reinforces what parents want to teach their kids from a “third-party source” so they are more inclined to accept it. My eldest was quite interested in working through the book and asked to work on it almost daily. It was also helpful for me, because I often lacked the patience and gentleness I needed to handle my children’s conflicts with one another, and doing this book with them reminded me that when they push my buttons with their bickering, I need to react in a way that will not model bad conflict resolution skills.
The book would be useful for a homeschooling parent or a private Christian school as well as the individual Christian parent. It would be good for these skills to be taught in public school as well, but the explicitly Christian content and frequent Bible verses would rule out direct use of this material. However, it could potentially be modified for use in such a setting, and I understand the author has worked with public school teachers on the issue of conflict resolution.
October 9, 2022
I first read Ken Sande’s “The Peace Maker”, immediately wishing I’d read it much earlier, recommending it to everyone. It was beyond our kids at their ages now; imagine my delight when a friend recommended this book made with kids in mind. Who doesn’t need discipleship on being peaceable? This would be an outstanding Sunday school curriculum. The graphics were dated, as is obvious on the cover. But the material was memorable and enjoyable and clear. Excellent tool.
April 11, 2010
Great information in here for adults about peacemaking skills, even though it's geared for elementary-aged children. I am looking forward to reading the author's husband's book for adults (Peacemaking for Families) when I can get my hands on a copy.
February 11, 2012
I'm using this for the dorm (modifying it for high school) and it has been remarkable both in its content and the response that content elicits. I love the trajectory of the lessons and the gospel-focus of each week.
I do wish she had a book geared toward young adults (perhaps the "real" Peacemaker book would work) . . . .
I do wish she had a book geared toward young adults (perhaps the "real" Peacemaker book would work) . . . .
January 13, 2008
This book is directed toward the middle school age, but I have used it successfully with fourth graders. The principles are so clearly biblical, that much of the teaching could be adapted to almost any age.
August 23, 2009
A must-teach for every family of elementary-age children. Our school has adopted it as part of our fifth-grade curriculum.
March 7, 2012
The Hinton family is on our second trip through this material, and it will not be our last. If your kids fight, you should get this. Which pretty much means you should get this.
January 7, 2022
This is a very good presentation on how to handle conflict. I would say it is best for children grades 7-12, but my younger children have benefitted from it as well.
September 10, 2017
[For school]
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews