Week 3 Story

Note to parents: These weekly stories are intended to be an additional resource as we work together to support the development of your child. These stories will align with the “theme of the week” for our upcoming class. In Week 3, our theme will be “there are good times ahead”. The purpose of this theme is to better understand and develop optimism. 

 

How to use these stories: When your child joined Legacy Kids, they were given a “stuffy”. These weekly stories will feature their “stuffy”. Encourage your child to have their stuffy with them while you read the story together and discuss the questions below. This process of externalizing the story to someone else (their stuffy) can be helpful as they internalize the principles discussed. Whenever you see "[stuffy]" in the story simply insert the name of your child's stuffy.

 

Week 3 Story: [Stuffy] and the Worst Day Ever.

 

Once upon a time, there was a stuffy named [stuffy]. [stuffy] was feeling excited because today was Saturday! [stuffy] loved Saturday’s because that meant no school and lots of time to do whatever [he/she] wanted! [stuffy] jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs knowing this would be the BEST DAY EVER!

 

But when [stuffy] got downstairs, [he/she] knew this was no longer going to be the best day ever. How did [he/she] know this? Because at the bottom of the stairs was [stuffy’s] Mom with a list of chores she wanted help with. All of [stuffy’s] happiness and excitement for Saturday was gone! [stuffy] couldn’t help [himself/herself] and shouted, “This is going to be the worst day EVERRRRR!”.

 

[stuffy’s] Mom smiled and said, “I know chores aren’t your favorite thing in the world, but it is important for us to tidy up and take care of our home”. 

 

[stuffy] began to whine like a whale with a tummy ache, “but whhhhhHHHhhhhhy me?! This is going to take ALLLLLLL day!”. 

 

[stuffy’s] Mom replied, “If we focus and work hard to get these things done, you will still have a lot of time for fun and playing with friends”. 

 

[stuffy], still feeling like the entire day was ruined, said, “This is so unfair! My whole day is ruined!”. 

 

[stuffy’s] mom said, “Trust me, your whole day is not ruined. Please try and be optimistic”. 

 

“Optimistic?!”, [stuffy] said in a huffy-puffy voice. “I don’t wanna be optimistic!”. 

 

“Do you know what optimistic means?”, [stuffy’s] Mom asked. 

 

[stuffy’s] voice got a little quieter, “Well…..no…..but it sounds like boring grown up stuff”. 

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom explained, “being optimistic means knowing that good times are ahead. It means that if something doesn’t go how we planned, we don't tell ourselves that everything is ruined. Does that makes sense?”. 

 

“Kind of”, responded [stuffy], “but what does that have to do with me?”. 

 

“Well, think about today”, [stuffy’s] mom explained, “when you found out that we were doing chores, what was the first thing you said?”. 

 

[stuffy] thought for a second and then [he/she] remembered. “I screamed that it was going to be the worst day ever”. [Stuffy] now realized maybe [he/she] over-reacted to being asked to help with chores. 

 

[stuffy’s] Mom then asked, “do you think it is possible for you to help with chores and still have a good day?”. 

 

[stuffy] thought about it for a couple of seconds. “Well, maybe”. As [he/she] thought about it,[stuffy] remembered there have been plenty of times in the past where they had done chores and still had a good day. [stuffy] also remembered there were even times when he enjoyed doing the chores with his Mom.

 

[stuffy’s] Mom asked, “What do you think? Should we get started?”.

 

“Sure!”, [stuffy] replied. “Can we do something fun like dress up like superheroes and listen to music while we do the chores?”. 

 

“Absolutely,” [his/her] Mom responded. 

 

[stuffy] helped his Mom finish the chores so quickly that [he/she] had plenty of time to do all the fun things [he/she] wanted to do that day. 

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