FHE - Words that build, not words that break

FHE last night was about thinking carefully before we speak. 

I started by showing the kids a plate (an old, unused one that we'd previously drawn on).

I asked Seth what would happen if I held it up on the driveway and then dropped it. 

His reply....'No Mum, it broke'

So the kids stood on the doorstep in disbelief as I did just that. Actually Faith covered her eyes cause she couldn't believe I was going to purposely drop the plate and watch it smash.

I had to take this pic this morning as we left for school cause it was too dark last night

My next question....'If I say sorry to the plate will it unbreak?'

No. We all tried saying sorry to it to see if it would magically unbreak but it didn't. We were left with about 10 pieces of broken plate on the driveway. With that done, we walked back inside and talked about it in relation to saying unkind words, 'breaking' people's feelings and then trying to say sorry to make it all better. Damage is done and feelings get hurt when we say nasty things. Saying sorry can help a little, but they'll still remember what was said and that's not very nice.

Basically, we want to build people up with out words,  not break them.

I'd written out nice and nasty things that people could say on strips of paper and when I read them out, the others had to do thumbs up for 'building words' or thumbs down for 'breaking words'.

Then the best part of the lesson....a poem with their very own lip gloss

When they asked to use their lip glosses this morning (they're up high so they'll last more than 2 days!), I handed them over and asked 'what does this help us remember?' and they both said 'to use kind words', so thankfully the message got through. Hopefully they can remember that as they spend their days with lots of little (and big) people.