photos via Instagram/@generationmindful
PeaceMakers cards at work.
When my son first saw the deck of colorful PeaceMakers cards lying on the counter, he smiled and asked, “What are THESE, Mama?”
He dove right in, mixing them up and picking ones for me to read. He’s only four years old, but he immediately took action on the card that says, “I am huggable. Let’s hug!” He did not have much to say about a card reading, “With my ears and my whole body, I listen,” but later on, he mentioned that he talks with his whole body, which led to a giggly demonstration.
This is the kind of parent-child connection Suzanne Tucker hoped for when she started her now-successful Kickstarter campaign to launch PeaceMakers cards and her company, Generation Mindful. Tucker, a St. Louis parent educator with 20 years of experience, raised more than $7,000, more than 150 percent of her original goal.
“Parents are overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, and that makes them feel powerless,” Tucker tells SLM. “I want to help them realize that they are enough, and give them a parent tool that’s playful and empowerment based.”
Attendees in Tucker’s Positive Parenting classes kept telling her they wanted a way to remember her helpful sayings when they needed to most: at home, when things got stressful. Tucker wanted a tool that would be easy to grab and playful, because as she says, “Play is how we learn to learn.”
Enter PeaceMakers, a 42-card deck of seven “grown-up” cards and 35 “kid” cards, each bearing a message that falls into one of seven color-coded themes, such as balance, love, power and joy. Each theme has its own animal, increasing the kid appeal.
The idea is simple: Pull a card, have your kid read it (or read it to them) and then talk about it. Or not. The deck comes with seven ways to play, including planning activities or creating art based on the card’s message. The “grown-up” cards offer a point of positive focus for parents but can also be shared with kids.
The deck also aims to build emotional intelligence, or EQ, to help kids cope with big emotions, learn to navigate relationships and communicate more effectively. Tucker believes that taking time to play with big emotional concepts not only helps kids understand them but also helps parents keep calm when the heat is on.
In one play session, my son asked for the “I am a leader” card over and over. When I asked why, he talked about being the leader at school, a cherished privilege. Had I asked him directly, he probably would have said, “I don’t know,” because that’s just how he is most days. The cards gave me a fun, relaxed way to edge into his little psyche.
Driving to school one day, I asked him his favorite thing about the cards. He said, “When you read them to me, Mama.”
And that’s what PeaceMakers are really all about – creating moments of connection with your kids.
Get a deck of your own at GenMindful.com.
Heidi Dean is a writer and stay-at-home mom to a preschooler. You can read more of her work on her blog Mama-Come-Lately.
