Page 12 - Issue 17

cool thing. You should check it out) and thinking,
"how do I utilize these tools for conflict de-
escalation in this situation"? I decide to grab some
water balloons from one of the kids and break
them over my own head to get his attention. I
shout at him to throw the water balloons at me. I
tell him i want to get wet. The other kids don't. He
is... confused. Eventually he throws one balloon
and it breaks on me. He throws another and it
bounces off. Another member of his group refuses
to throw the water balloons at me. Within a
minute or two, the kvutzah has left with their
madrich to process everything that just happened.

But just as water can be a significant source of
conflict, it can also be a source of fun and
bonding. One of the things we expect the kids in
our after school program to do is take
responsibility for chores. It can feel like pulling
teeth to get them to do the chores, but there’s
one chore that they love. Cleaning the floor. That’s
because in Israel, the way you clean floors is to
throw soapy water on the floor and squeegee it
out the door.

We do this chore once a week. The first time we
do it it’s a warm day. We empty the room of all
the furniture. I throw soap on the floor and start
spraying water from the sink. Somehow, within a
few minutes, the room has turned into a slip-n-
slide. All of the chanichimot are body surfing the
floor in soapy water. Eventually, I manage to
convince them that it’s time to pick up the