
- If you try to explain anything to kids on their terms, they will not only understand it, they will take it to heart.: To our surprise, the exhibit had a monologue edited for children to better tell both Kiwi and Jey’s story in a softer, more kid-friendly way. At age 5, they were completely able to follow along and understand that we were walking through these two kids’ lives somewhere far away.
- Kids have so much compassion: We watched the expressions on their faces as they went room to room. They were connected to these two kids telling their stories on the iPhone/headset so much that they wanted to make sure they were okay. That they now had food. That they now had families. That they now had a place to live and were still alive.
- My kids are spoiled. We live in one of the most affluent, safest places in the world and they have no idea. However, how can they know if we don’t show them the other side?: At the end of each room, we stated and reinstated, “Do you know what this is? This is where Kiwi lived. This is where Jey slept. This is all they had to eat. That dirty water, that was all they had.”. My children were in disbelief. BUT, after we discussed on the way home, they started to piece it together and make sense of it all. They came to their own conclusion after we broke it down and talked about what they experienced, discussed, and put it into terms of what if this was you, your friend, your room, and so on.
- The impact is non-existent unless we discuss, discuss, and discuss again.: Peanuts wanted to know all about it. When, where, how, why and what. Angel on the other hand after a few minutes of discussing didn’t want to talk about it because it would give her nightmares and made her “very, very sad”. We explained to them that this is reality. They are safe. They are fed. They have lots of people that love them. This is not their reality, BUT it is for many, many people and they need to understand it. Our parenting style – for it or against it – is that they need to know the reality of things. Not everyone gets a trophy. Not everyone is good in this world. You will fall down. You will fail at times. To us, this exhibit was an introductory to some of the causes we are going to be working with this year and to start them thinking outside of their own existence.



