With Remembrance Day before us, it is a sobering reminder that it is time to have hard conversations with our children about some of the more complicated parts of life. While we want to instil the importance of the holiday, we also want to protect them from the hard truths and sadness associated with war, sacrifice and loss.
When researching Remembrance Day Ceremonies within HRM, I came across the Royal Canadian Legion website and noticed a section called Youth and Remembrance. The Royal Canadian Legion is committed to ensuring that youth understand and continue the tradition of Remembrance. The website lists a number of ways to get involved, from holding Remembrance ceremonies, to writing poetry, gardening and expressing yourself through arts and crafts.
One of the activities that stood out to me was a downloadable instruction sheet of a simple Kirigami poppy. Being a self-proclaimed ‘crafty person’, I had all of the material on hand, and knew it was the right time to break out the scissors and glue. While the activity was still a bit too complex to hold the attention of my two and half-year-old, I got to work and created a sweet little Poppy that both my son and I like to admire on the fridge.
I must admit, upon first glance I thought, “I’ve got this”, and didn’t bother to follow instructions – a pattern I have started to notice about myself, particularly when it comes to IKEA furniture, but that is a story for another time. Upon unfolding my flower, the petals fell threw my fingers as if I was playing a game of “he loves me…he loves me not..”. When I finally took the time to follow along, everything worked out the way it was intended. A cautionary tale for you to follow the instructions as directed. However, this does suggest that you use a twist tie, which I do not think is as accessible as it once was. I checked all of our garbage bag boxes, the clear, the blue, the black the white ( you know what i mean if you live in Halifax), and none of them appeared to travel with twist ties. I elected to use a green piece of paper and simply cut out a steam. Troubleshooting at its best.
Check out the step-by-step video of our Poppy making process here.
If you are still wondering which Remembrance Ceremony to attend, we suggest you check out our list of Remembrance Day Ceremonies in HRM.
