Once Upon a Child's Heart

Your Challenge:    Tell a "That's Good.  That's Bad."  story with your children this week.  Report back by commenting on this post and tell how it went. Story Tip:  Try this game on Christmas Eve when kids are having trouble sleeping. Tonight at dinner we played a new story game.  It was brilliant!  We came up with it on the fly.  With two boys and one on the way dinner discussion can often be about bodily functions, body parts, or just plain fighting.  It can drive the Bug with Black Spots and I crazy.  We try to come to the table prepared with a good question or topic for discussion.  Tonight we got talking about books and somehow a story that the boys really enjoy came up.  It’s called “That’s Good, That’s Bad” by Margery Cuyler .  The boys clearly enjoy this story.  We decided to make up our own version of the story at the dinner table.  Reading the book would be a great idea for your family....

If there is one thing that pushes me over the edge with my kids it's their incessant "It's not fair!"  I've come to the point where I don't even no what to say to that statement anymore.  Of course it's not fair.  Life never is.  Besides, I don't want it to be fair IF fair means every one gets the exact same thing.  Because to me that doesn't seem fair.  If one child gets a broken leg it's silly to break the other child's leg too. Right?  For me I'm realizing that fair means each child gets uniquely what he or she needs not necessarily what they want.  Which is never enough for them anyway.  Can you relate? On the other hand, I have one child that is always hungry.  He eats because he's bored and needs stimulation and sometimes lacks a little imagination to supply these things for himself.  Should I just feed him to keep him busy and shut him up?   I have another child who gets so engaged in what he's doing he doesn't w...

In preparation for an upcoming post I wanted to share a bit of my story journey with you. In my pursuit to teach my first born son, Thing One, through his insatiable desire for stories I stumbled across a book called "Healing Stories for Challenging Behaviors" by Susan Perrow published by Hawthorn Press, Gloucestershire .  This book was so affirming to me.  It encouraged me to make up stories to tell my boys that would address specific problems I was having with them.  Or even to make up stories to address problems we were having in our relationships with each other.  After a while this developed into making up stories to hopefully preempt problems, like the story I'm going to share with you in my next post. A Healing Story is just that, a story to heal.  In some cases Healing Stories can work where medicine can't.  They aren't for healing broken arms or burns of course.  They are for wounds of the heart, soul and mind.  At the very least Hea...

Today I am sharing, for the first time I might add, a story I have written.  I'm a little nervous about this.  It feels super vulnerable. So be kind to me :)  It's a story for St. Nicholas Day, which is tomorrow.  If you do nothing else for this day at least read this story.   Oh!  I've added a "Print Friendly" button to the bottom of my posts so you can print this story out and read it more easily to your Littles and Bigs. I love the imagination that St. Nick brings to children.  The stories around him are full of fantasy and mystery.  They create an opportunity to ponder the Mystery of Christ and the inner workings of our hearts.  I tell this story, "St. Nick and The Sausage Machine", on St. Nicholas Eve in anticipation of his visit the next morning.  And let me tell you it's a gripping story.  My boys are on the edge of their seats every time!  Then afterwards we sprinkle special magical glitter dust on our doorste...

Okay friends, I have a confession to make.  Santa doesn’t come to my family’s house.  Well, at least not on Christmas day.  No, we think Santa is special enough to have his very own day!  December 6 th .  It’s the first thing my family changed when we started to revive our Advent season.  After reading Gertrud Mueller Nelson’s book “To Dance with God” I fell in love with St. Nicholas, AKA, Santa Clause.  St. Nick is a type of Christ.  If you use him properly he can point wonderfully to Christ on Christmas.  Much like John the Baptist did for Christ on Easter.  If you want to know more about Santa Clause here is a site called, St. Nicholas Center: discovering the truth about Santa Claus , that Gertrud Mueller Nelson herself directed me to.  Ms. Nelson said she has a play about the very same story I'm going to share in my next post on this site.  Of course you should read Gertrud Mueller Nelson’s book.  It is very inspirin...

So it begins!  The most anticipated time of the year, the Advent season.  I love this time of year!  But I just hate that last stressful crunch between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It leaves me distracted, tired and completely unprepared for the Promise of Christ.  It leaves me no room for the contemplation that should happen during that time, during Advent. Four years ago my good friend, Kim, introduced me to a book that revolutionized my families Advent season.  It’s called “To Dance with God” by Gertrud Mueller Nelson and published by the Paulist Press .   If you want to truly have more meaning in your Advent and Christmas season this book is a must read.  Admittedly, you should start on Advent preparation way before the first day of Advent, which happens to be November 27 th this year.  However, don’t be daunted.  Use reading this book as your own personal Advent this year.  Don’t be tempted to add anything to your Ad...

Torture your guests with a story when their mouths are full of pie on Thanksgiving Day. My extended family always roll their eyes when I bust out my holiday stories.  I'm teased mercilessly by my sisters.  It's funny how if I don't bring one to share they complain.  So don't be daunted by a few skeptical comments.  They'll get over it. O. Henry is one of the best loved classic writers.  Here he writes a story for the adults and your Biggers.  The Littles may have trouble following it but there's nothing in it to harm them.   Two Old Thanksgiving Gentlemen by O. Henry InternetAccuracyproject.org There is one day that is ours. There is one day when all we Americans who are not self-made go back to the old home to eat saleratus biscuits and marvel how much nearer to the porch the old pump looks than it used to. Bless the day. President Roosevelt gives it to us. We hear some talk of the Puritans, but don't just remember who th...

  Thanksgiving is upon us.  You need a story or maybe even two.  Start with this Native American story. Ooo...some popcorn would be perfect with this story!   The Spirit of the Corn An Iroquois Legend by Harriet Maxwell Converse (Adapted) Apples4theteacher.com There was a time, says the Iroquois grandmother, when it was not needful to plant the corn- seed nor to hoe the fields, for the corn sprang up of itself, and filled the broad meadows. Its stalks grew strong and tall, and were covered with leaves like waving banners, and filled with ears of pearly grain wrapped in silken green husks. In those days Onatah, the Spirit of the Corn, walked upon the earth. The sun lovingly touched her dusky face with the blush of the morning, and her eyes grew soft as the gleam of the stars on dark streams. Her night-black hair was spread before the breeze like a wind-driven cloud. As she walked through the fields, the corn, the Indian maize, sprang up of itself from the ear...

The Advent season is my very favorite.  After all it is preparing us for Christ's birth on Christmas day.  Instead of the typical countdown advent calendar why don't you try something different this year?  How about a count down using stories? Two years ago my sister-in-law gave us Jotham's Journey: an advent story book .  It has become one of our families most favorite Advent activity.  It has all that a child could want.  Adventure, love, mystery, suspense, and a happy ending.  Here is the Amazon description of the book. "In this widely popular, exciting story for the advent season, readers follow ten-year-old Jotham across Israel as he searches for his family. Though he faces thieves, robbers, and kidnappers, Jotham also encounters the wise men, shepherds, and innkeepers until at last he finds his way to the Savior born in Bethlehem."  The best part is there are at least two other Advent story books to follow this one.  By the t...

Anyone who knows me well, knows I love stories.  Especially stories for kids.  Even more particularly I love making up stories for my own kids.  It gives me a way to connect to them a way to reach their heart a way to tell them I love them.  No matter what happens during the day if I end the day with a story and a back rub then at least the last thing I've done with my children was positive. I have stories that want telling.  So I've decided to tell them and share them with you.  I am not a professional storyteller.  I can't spell nor do I claim to be a writer.  Thankfully my kids don't care. They just want to be told a story.  My hope is that you will pass these stories from my heart on to your children.  And that eventually they will become your stories.  I will here and there post a story for you to read or practice telling to your kids.  Sometimes it will be a story game, a story challenge, or a book review.  Perha...