Tales that teach

I've recently needed to address some difficult behaviors in Hannah. This is never fun, of course, for either of us. Okay, it's not fun for the rest of the family, either. But I've discovered one tactic that works very well: storytelling. Hannah will settle down for a story even if she'd just been screaming her head off at me...which is, of course, hypothetical, since my sweet kids wouldn't ever raise their voices...

But I digress. I've invented a farmer with 50 dairy cows, 30 sheep, 20 chickens, and 3 horses. He and his wife have 3 small children who aren't old enough to help with the chores. This poor man has had some very difficult times getting farm help. He can't take care of all that milking on his own, so he has to have someone. The first hired help was pretty good, but then started showing up for work later and later, and one Saturday, when the farmer had taken his family to visit their grandparents (fully trusting that the hired help would be there to take care of the farm) the help didn't show up until after 3 p.m.! Needless to say, he didn't last.

Today, a new hired hand decided to play baseball when he was supposed to be milking. When the farmer asked him to return to his task, he threw the ball at the farmer's head (luckily the farmer has quick reflexes and ducked in time) and then stomped off to the barn, angrily finishing his chores, but upsetting the cows quite a bit. He was let go, too.

This farmer has been VERY helpful to me, despite his difficulties in hiring good help.

I've also invented a town with 2 bus drivers -- they switch off days. The one occasionally falls asleep at the wheel and drives off the road, and many people in the bus get injured. Naturally, the mom in our story decides to stay home on the days that this driver is in charge of the bus, even though it only happens sometimes. Hannah was most indignant when the occasionally careless driver offered to drive the mom around in an attempt to convince her that he wasn't such a bad driver after all. "Hannah, do you think the mom took her kids on the bus with him?"
"NO!!"

Hannah is a junky for stories, verbal or written -- they calm her down and allow her to focus on something besides her feelings of ill-usage. When I use them to illustrate why certain behaviors are undesireable, she seems to get the picture much better than if I only tell her what the problem is and how I would like it fixed.