Director of Mary Bailey House
Everyone Belongs
Across Harmony Week we spoke with small groups of pre-schoolers about harmony, inclusiveness, respect and belonging at Mary Bailey House.
In our initial discussion we asked the children, ‘What does harmony mean? How do we play in harmony?’, and this is what they said:
Lasya: ‘You can play with other people that are different.’
Lasya: ‘You can play with different people, not just white people.’
Nina: ‘Some can be white, and some people are black, and some are brown.’
Educator: ‘Yes and boys and girls play together.’
Educator: ‘Luca and Lola play together. They are a boy and girl, so different but play the same game.’
Nina: ‘I like playing with Teddy.’
Teddy: ‘Yeah, I play with Nina and Roger.’
Nina: ‘Sometimes girls have short hair.’
Florence: ‘Yes, my nana has short hair.’
Educator: ‘Jasmine and Ariana have curly hair.’
Jamison: ‘Fox has curly hair too.’
Educator: ‘Jamison, Phoebe and Laura speak Mandarin like Wendy. Layla and Alice speak Korean like Soon and Christina.’
Nina: ‘I say some Slovakian words.’
Educator: ‘Yes and Benjamin speaks Spanish.’
We read The Peace Book by Todd Parr, which talks about living in harmony, celebrating difference, acceptance and helping others. We asked the children to draw their understanding of what harmony is and this is what they drew and said about their drawing.
Lasya: ‘They are doing harmony. They look different.’
Miller: ‘My daddy has black hair.’
Natalia: ‘My mum is different.’
Lasya: ‘It doesn’t matter if you are big or small.’
In another discussion we looked at the world map and talked about different countries and the languages and clothes people wear in them, and this is what they said:
Jamison: ‘Fox’s mum comes from America.’
Fox: ‘My mum comes from England.’
Nina: ‘My mum comes from India.’
Zendaya: ‘My mum was born in Sydney. My daddy comes from somewhere else. I can’t remember.’
Nina: ‘I was born in Slovakia. No, I was born in Hunter Street.’
Sophie M: ‘I have a Taiata.’
Nina: ‘My grandma comes from India.’
Jamison: ‘I speak Cantonese at home.’
Henry: ‘My dad comes from Australia.’
Fox: ‘I was born in England.’
Sophie M: ‘I was born in a hospital.’
Nina: ‘My grandpa was born in India too.’
Jamison: ‘Ariana’s mum comes from Brazil.’
Nina: ‘My dad comes from Slovakia.’
Jamison: ‘Fox’s mum speaks English.’
Following this discussion, we asked the children to draw their thoughts.
Nina: ‘I am drawing England. I’m drawing the land.’
Zendaya: ‘See how we are different. How can I draw that we are different? We make friends together.’
Fox: ‘We are jumping on the climbing frame. Jamison has flat hair and I have curly hair.’
Sophie M: ‘She is so cute (Sister Emily). She has light skin like me.’
Jamison: ‘We have different hair. We actually have the same skin.’
Jackie Baxter
Director of Mary Bailey House