Principles for a good life
The rocks workshop (for children, but not only)
We found ourselves on a magical beach in Italy in late September. The sand is thin, the water is clear and shallow, but a little cold. And rocks on the beach. Polished, beautiful, ones that have been through a lot of water and wind.
I decided it was a good time to give the kids the "Rocks workshop" I had been fantasizing about for years ...
So we went to collect beautiful stones ... After collecting stones of all kinds (I made sure there were all kinds) we started the workshop ...
I asked the children to fill the glass up to half of it with sand. Then insert the smaller rocks, and so on until the larger rocks.
On the other hand I asked them to do it in reverse order. First the large rocks, then the medium ones and then the small ones and the sand.
We checked where more rocks went in ...
Of course when we put the big rocks in first, there was room for gravel and sand to seep between them and even more water came in.
Our parable: If we put the big rocks in our lives first, there is also room for gravel and sand if we want.
What are the big rocks in our lives? The things that are most important to us: family, health, learning, peace, friends ... Everyone makes a list for themselves. This means that these are the things that will take precedence over other less important things, when we come to plan our day, week, month...
Everyone wrote on the rocks the topics that were important to him. When we got home (well, three years later ...), we framed them and hung them on the wall, so that it would always be in front of our eyes and guide us ...
The message is strong, and we also have a "language" or concept that was later easy to relate to, when the children became frustrated with things that did not work out for them ...