Promises indicate that we really trust, value or love another person. It may be a promise not to share a secret, a commitment of marriage or a promise to keep one’s word. 

Why do promises matter?

On an emotional level, a promise can have the same value as a contract, even if it is not signed. When a person makes a firm commitment, the recipient of their promise takes it as truth. Breaking promises leads to feelings of disillusionment, sadness or anger, and even a sense of heartbreak or betrayal. Imagining how these sensations feel to a child is a helpful reminder to be good role models ourselves, and to fulfill our own promises.

What happens when promises are broken?

Unfulfilled promises undermine adults’ authority. We lose credibility and create disappointment and confusion. Children may begin to distrust their caregivers, their environment, and even their own self worth.

How can I encourage my kids to keep the promises they make?

There are lots of times when kids need to fulfill promises they’ve made – for example, promising to return a borrowed toy to a friend, promising to carry out a chore or promising to share something fairly.

Storyberries provides free children’s books, as well as parenting tips, to encourage kids to keep their promises.

Making promises we can actually keep

The main keys to promises is that they can be kept and that they are realistic. It is unrealistic, for example, to promise a child a computer tablet or the latest game console, to improve their relationship with their teacher.

In a wider sense, it is also worth reflecting on whether it is necessary or desirable to materialise either the relationship or the behaviour.

Keeping promises wherever possible

A promise is an ethical and moral commitment, so when we know that our child has made an agreement, we need to make sure they fulfill it, even if they don’t want to. This transmits values of personal responsibility, honesty, trust, and stability.

Thinking before making a promise

Explain to children that it is good idea for them to think before they make promises, This avoid impulsivity, and also helps them to be aware of their own motives. As care-givers we can also try to avoid making promises out of a sense of guilt, or as a quick way to get out of trouble.

Showing appreciation

Use positive messaging, and take advantage of everyday events,, to show appreciation of fulfilled promises: “I am so happy you picked up your toys as you promised” or “Juan was pleased because we attended his birthday, as we said we would.”

Multi-sensory learning

There are excellent children’s stories, and beautiful cartoon episodes to do with promises. In the movie Finding Nemo, for example, Dory does her best to look for Nemo, thus fulfilling a promise she’d made.

Being a good role model

So much of what children learn is from watching and copying the adults around them, so we can help by setting a good example of how to make and keep promises ourselves.

 

Some Free Books About Promises At Storyberries

Keeping Lala Land Clean

In this beautifully illustrated and simple to understand picture book, all the animals in Lala land help to keep things clean and tidy. A helpful book to introduce the idea of helping one another, and doing the things we agree to do.

Where is Lulu?

Young children love to borrow things but find it much harder to give them back! Lulu hides when it’s time to give her favourite book back to the library. A fun story to enjoy, and a delightful book to talk about borrowing, sharing and keeping promises.

This Forgetful Elephant

To be able to keep our promises we need to remember them! In this lovely short story, Peter the Forgetful Elephant knows that Susie will want him to remember their anniversary – not so easy for a very forgetful elephant! A great story for talking about commitment, promises and feelings.

Article by Luzmery M. Romero Gamboa and Fleur Rodgers

Luzmery works in the area of clinical psychology as a psychotherapist for children, adolescents and families. Since 2016, she has run a Psychological Center in Venezuela called Psicoluz. She offers workshop facilitations to parents, is involved in recreational activities for children, and has been working as a freelancer since 2017 performing online psychotherapy. 

Fleur is a meditation teacher in France and uses a compassion and loving-kindness based approach to meditation and slow-minded living. Fleur posts regularly to Instagram @rodgers.fleur . She has two children, is a qualified teacher in adult education and is the founder of Timeouttobreathe.com 

The post Helping kids understand the value of keeping promises first appeared on Bedtime Stories.

Greed is the excessive desire to acquire, consume or possess. It is related to envy – feeling hostility towards someone else who is seen to have more advantage. Envy can carry feelings of sadness, anger, jealousy or resentment. It is usually felt most in children who find it hard to get their needs met; and therefore feel frustrated or insecure, and is often connected to low self esteem. 

Accepting that greed and envy are a natural tendency.

Even from a very young age we can see envy playing out in children. They might  express it in the form of squabbles and tantrums, when they can’t have something they want.  If unchecked; feelings of greed, jealousy or envy can grow and intensify over time.

Why do kids find it so hard to share?

It is not easy for young children to understand the concept of property or to distinguish what is theirs, and what belongs to someone else. If something catches their attention, they take it as if it were their own. They can also find it hard to lend their belongings to others. Forcing children to share is unhelpful – children may see the forced act as a form of punishment; it can spark resentment instead of generosity, thus causing the opposite of what was intended.

Helping kids to express what they need.

Children need to learn to ask for what they want, and also to be helped to understand that at times their requests will be refused. In this article, Storyberries offers free books and practical suggestions for encouraging sharing and co-operation.

Talking about sharing in an age-appropriate way

Young children will not understand the concept of sharing or its implications. Just tell them it’s good and encourage them  to share. With older children we can encourage empathy and compassion for the child who doesn’t have what they have, thus delving deeper into the implications of sharing. By helping our children understand the feelings and realities of those around them, we can naturally foster the value of sharing.

Try not to worry – it takes time to learn to share!

Learning to share is a long process, with normal setbacks. Most of us learn best when we are feeling relaxed, so it helps if, as adults, we can let go of our own worries and frustration.

Notice when kids are sharing well

Telling children they are selfish does not help them to share. Labels, far from helping, make situations worse. If a child hears repeatedly they are selfish, they will end up believing it, and that of course is what we want to avoid! Instead, you might say “I love seeing you being generous with your toys!” or “Look how happy your friend Charlie is when you share with him!”

Encourage kids to play together

Children learn best when learning is playful and practical. Arrange for your child to play as much as possible with more children (if there are older children who already know how to share, even better).

Being a role model ourselves

We can set a positive example, and be a mirror for our children, by being generous ourselves.

Share your gifts with the world!

Participating in community activities that promote solidarity and generosity, and inviting the children to participate as much as possible. In this way we can help them to recognise the privileges, strengths and resources they have, and give them confidence that their sharing is making a positive difference to their own and other people’s lives. 

 

Some Free Books About Greed and Sharing at Storyberries

Muncha Buncha Luncha

Kids will love this poem about a child with the nickname of Luncha Buncha who can’t help eating everyone else’s lunches! The minute their backs are turned, Muncha Buncha eats everything, in all sorts of funny combinations! A great poem for talking about greed, personal belongings and sharing.

Numpurrs

Come and see how twenty adorable cats work together to create a wonderful feast. A super book to encourage sharing and co-operation. It’s also a brilliant book for young readers who are learning to count.

Greedy Pig

Everyone in the Guts family loves spaghetti night! Peter Guts is so excited, and so keen to eat lots, that he doesn’t notice that something very unusual is happening! His brothers do, and between them they learn the valuable lesson of sharing.

Article by Luzmery M. Romero Gamboa and Fleur Rodgers

Luzmery works in the area of clinical psychology as a psychotherapist for children, adolescents and families. Since 2016, she has run a Psychological Center in Venezuela called Psicoluz. She offers workshop facilitations to parents, is involved in recreational activities for children, and has been working as a freelancer since 2017 performing online psychotherapy. 

Fleur is a meditation teacher in France and uses a compassion and loving-kindness based approach to meditation and slow-minded living. Fleur posts regularly to Instagram @rodgers.fleur . She has two children, is a qualified teacher in adult education and is the founder of Timeouttobreathe.com 

The post Managing greed and encouraging kids to share first appeared on Bedtime Stories.

No matter what happened she wouldn’t share. Her nuts were her nuts and she just didn’t care

that Dilmont the deer and Harry the hare and Ronnie the robin and Benny the bear

were hungry. As hungry as hungry could be. Squirrely Shirley just watched them from high in her tree.

She laughed while she popped each nut into her mouth, while the others were searching for food north and south.

Squirrely Shirley lived in a tree till she got so fat she could hardly see.

Then one day she noticed an overlooked nut on the end of a twig and she wanted it, but

She had gotten so heavy the branch broke in two and she fell to the ground; became squirrel and nut stew.

Which just goes to show that it’s not smart to be a selfish, fat squirrel when you live in a tree.

Copyright Arden Davidson, 2019

POEM FOR KIDS WRITTEN BY ARDEN DAVIDSON

Illustration by Kseniya Shagieva

LET’S CHAT ABOUT THE POEM ~ IDEAS FOR TALKING WITH KIDS

Sharing

1. Do you think Squirrely Shirley should have shared her nuts? Why or why not?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO READ MORE POEMS FROM THE SAME AUTHOR?

What’s Weird About A Mirror: 101 Curious Poems

written by Arden Davidson and published by Storyberries.

It’s a long-awaited, hilarious collection of children’s poems by poet Arden Davidson, and includes topics ranging from a snoring grandma to a six-footed camel to reflections on the weirdness of mirrors.

The post Squirrely Shirley first appeared on Bedtime Stories.

Visit Storyberries Bookstore

SHORT STORY FOR KIDS WRITTEN BY PAUL KENNEDY

ILLUSTRATED BY GRAHAM PATERSON

DESIGNED BY NICK MULGREW

EDITED BY ARTHUR ATTWELL AND TARRYN-ANNE ANDERSON

* THE STORY ‘SLEEPY MR SLOTH’ WAS CREATED BY BOOK DASH AND IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION 4.0 LICENSE. MINOR FORMATTING CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE ORIGINAL WORK FOR EASE OF READING ON OUR WEBSITE.

LET’S DISCUSS THE STORIES ~ IDEAS FOR TALKING WITH KIDS

Sharing

1. It’s not very comfortable for everyone to be sharing the one tree. But all the animals find a solution. How do they do this?

2. Can you think of some reasons why the animals might want to share the same tree?

The post Sleepy Mr Sloth first appeared on Bedtime Stories.

But never were gods so unlucky before! In spite of their hunger, the pot would not boil. They piled on the wood until the great flames crackled and licked the pot with their fiery tongues, but every time the cover was lifted there was the meat just as raw as when it was put in. It is easy to imagine that the travellers were not in very good humour. As they were talking about it, and wondering how it could be, a voice called out from the branches of the oak overhead, “If you will give me my fill, I’ll make the pot boil.”

The gods looked first at each other and then into the tree, and there they discovered a great eagle. They were glad enough to get their supper on almost any terms, so they told the eagle he might have what he wanted if he would only get the meat cooked. The bird was as good as his word, and in less time than it takes to tell it supper was ready. Then the eagle flew down and picked out both shoulders and both legs. This was a pretty large share, it must be confessed, and Loki, who was always angry when anybody got more than he, no sooner saw what the eagle had taken, than he seized a great pole and began to beat the rapacious bird unmercifully. Whereupon a very singular thing happened, as singular things always used to happen when the gods were concerned: the pole stuck fast in the huge talons of the eagle at one end, and Loki stuck fast at the other end. Struggle as he might, he could not get loose, and as the great bird sailed away over the tops of the trees, Loki went pounding along on the ground, striking against rocks and branches until he was bruised half to death.

The eagle was not an ordinary bird by any means, as Loki soon found when he begged for mercy. The giant Thjasse happened to be flying abroad in his eagle plumage when the hungry travellers came under the oak and tried to cook the ox. It was into his hands that Loki had fallen, and he was not to get away until he had promised to pay roundly for his freedom.

If there was one thing which the gods prized above their other treasures in Asgard, it was the beautiful fruit of Idun, kept by the goddess in a golden casket and given to the gods to keep them forever young and fair. Without these Apples all their power could not have kept them from getting old like the meanest of mortals. Without these Apples of Idun, Asgard itself would have lost its charm; for what would heaven be without youth and beauty forever shining through it?

Thjasse told Loki that he could not go unless he would promise to bring him the Apples of Idun. Loki was wicked enough for anything; but when it came to robbing the gods of their immortality, even he hesitated. And while he hesitated the eagle dashed hither and thither, flinging him against the sides of the mountains and dragging him through the great tough boughs of the oaks until his courage gave out entirely, and he promised to steal the Apples out of Asgard and give them to the giant.

Loki was bruised and sore enough when he got on his feet again to hate the giant who handled him so roughly, with all his heart, but he was not unwilling to keep his promise to steal the Apples, if only for the sake of tormenting the other gods. But how was it to be done? Idun guarded the golden fruit of immortality with sleepless watchfulness. No one ever touched it but herself, and a beautiful sight it was to see her fair hands spread it forth for the morning feasts in Asgard. The power which Loki possessed lay not so much in his own strength, although he had a smooth way of deceiving people, as in the goodness of others who had no thought of his doing wrong because they never did wrong themselves.

Not long after all this happened, Loki came carelessly up to Idun as she was gathering her Apples to put them away in the beautiful carven box which held them.

“Good-morning, goddess,” said he. “How fair and golden your Apples are!”

“Yes,” answered Idun; “the bloom of youth keeps them always beautiful.”

“I never saw anything like them,” continued Loki slowly, as if he were talking about a matter of no importance, “until the other day.”

Idun looked up at once with the greatest interest and curiosity in her face. She was very proud of her Apples, and she knew no earthly trees, however large and fair, bore the immortal fruit.

“Where have you seen any Apples like them?” she asked.

“Oh, just outside the gates,” said Loki indifferently. “If you care to see them I’ll take you there. It will keep you but a moment. The tree is only a little way off.”

Idun was anxious to go at once.

“Better take your Apples with you, to compare them with the others,” said the wily god, as she prepared to go.

Idun gathered up the golden Apples and went out of Asgard, carrying with her all that made it heaven. No sooner was she beyond the gates than a mighty rushing sound was heard, like the coming of a tempest, and before she could think or act, the giant Thjasse, in his eagle plumage, was bearing her swiftly away through the air to his desolate, icy home in Thrymheim, where, after vainly trying to persuade her to let him eat the Apples and be forever young like the gods, he kept her a lonely prisoner.

Loki, after keeping his promise and delivering Idun into the hands of the giant, strayed back into Asgard as if nothing had happened. The next morning, when the gods assembled for their feast, there was no Idun. Day after day went past, and still the beautiful goddess did not come. Little by little the light of youth and beauty faded from the home of the gods, and they themselves became old and haggard. Their strong, young faces were lined with care and furrowed by age, their raven locks passed from gray to white, and their flashing eyes became dim and hollow. Brage, the god of poetry, could make no music while his beautiful wife was gone he knew not whither.

Morning after morning the faded light broke on paler and ever paler faces, until even in heaven the eternal light of youth seemed to be going out forever.

Finally the gods could bear the loss of power and joy no longer. They made rigorous inquiry. They tracked Loki on that fair morning when he led Idun beyond the gates; they seized him and brought him into solemn council, and when he read in their haggard faces the deadly hate which flamed in all their hearts against his treachery, his courage failed, and he promised to bring Idun back to Asgard if the goddess Freyja would lend him her falcon guise. No sooner said than done; and with eager gaze the gods watched him as he flew away, becoming at last only a dark moving speck against the sky.

After long and weary flight Loki came to Thrymheim, and was glad enough to find Thjasse gone to sea and Idun alone in his dreary house. He changed her instantly into a nut, and taking her thus disguised in his talons, flew away as fast as his falcon wings could carry him. And he had need of all his speed, for Thjasse, coming suddenly home and finding Idun and her precious fruit gone, guessed what had happened, and, putting on his eagle plumage, flew forth in a mighty rage, with vengeance in his heart. Like the rushing wings of a tempest, his mighty pinions beat the air and bore him swiftly onward. From mountain peak to mountain peak he measured his wide course, almost grazing at times the murmuring pine forests, and then sweeping high in mid-air with nothing above but the arching sky, and nothing beneath but the tossing sea.

At last he saw the falcon far ahead, and now his flight became like the flash of the lightning for swiftness, and like the rushing of clouds for uproar. The haggard faces of the gods lined the walls of Asgard and watched the race with tremulous eagerness. Youth and immortality were staked upon the winning of Loki. He was weary enough and frightened enough, too, as the eagle swept on close behind him; but he made desperate efforts to widen the distance between them. Little by little the eagle gained on the falcon. The gods grew white with fear; they rushed off and prepared great fires upon the walls. With fainting, drooping wing the falcon passed over and dropped exhausted by the wall. In an instant the fires were lighted, and the great flames roared to heaven. The eagle swept across the fiery line a second later, and fell, maimed and burned, to the ground, where a dozen fierce hands smited the life out of him, and the great giant Thjasse perished among his foes.

Idun resumed her natural form as Brage rushed to meet her. The gods crowded round her. She spread the feast, the golden Apples gleaming with unspeakable lustre in the eyes of the gods. They ate; and once more their faces glowed with the beauty of immortal youth, their eyes flashed with the radiance of divine power, and, while Idun stood like a star for beauty among the throng, the song of Brage was heard once more; for poetry and immortality were wedded again.

Short story for kids edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie, Edward Everett Hale, and William Byron Forbush

Header illustration adapted from vintage illustration by John Bauer.

Let’s Chat About The Stories ~ Ideas for Talking With Kids

Non-Violence

1. When Loki saw the eagle get more than he believed was his fair share, he took his staff and beat the eagle with it. Do you think this was the right reaction to have? Why or why not?

Empathy

1. Loki kidnaps the goddess Idun and her apples and doesn’t care when she is imprisoned. How do you think you would act in this situation?

Sharing

1. There is a saying that it’s not good to look at anybody else’s plate, unless it’s to check that they have enough food. Why did Loki look at how much the eagle ate? If Loki had known this saying, how do you think it could have made things easier for him?

Creativity

1. What do you think a world without poetry would look like?

The post The Apples of Idun – A Tale of Odin and Loki first appeared on Bedtime Stories.

LET’S CHAT ABOUT THE STORIES ~ IDEAS FOR TALKING WITH KIDS

Co-operation, Sharing

1. Why do you think the little boy in this story is happy to share his cap with the moon? What is it about sharing things that you think might make us happy?

SHORT STORY FOR KIDS WRITTEN BY NONI

ILLUSTRATED BY ANGIE AND UPESH

* THE STORY ‘THE MOON AND THE CAP’ WAS CREATED BY PRATHAM BOOKS AND IS LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS -BY-3.0 LICENSE. MINOR FORMATTING CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE ORIGINAL WORK FOR EASE OF READING ON OUR WEBSITE.

The post The Moon and the Cap first appeared on Bedtime Stories.