“Once upon a time there was a . . .”
I tell Ellen stories and we always start with the important form: “Once upon a time.” I insist on making the stories up, always trying to outdo the story I told the time before. Though my stories are not from scratch (I shamelessly steal material from any source, be it Homer or Grimm), their final form is wholly mine, and Ellen’s, who at two is a willing author to our tales. When I don’t know where to go next, I’ll often pause and ask for her input. “Once upon a time there was a . . . What do you think there was?”
“A frog,” she’ll tell me, obviously remembering our previous tale about the frog and the scissors (he cut down every lilly pad in town – very inappropriate). Sometimes I’ll take her suggestion, other times I’ll chose a different direction so I won’t have to compete so directly with my previous tales.
Yesterday evening, however, I followed Ellen’s initial suggestion, and she refused to relinquish the story’s reins.
“Once upon a time, there was a . . .”
“Girl.”
“Yes!” I decided with enthusiasm, “who lived in a shoe!”
“No,” she interjected without hesitation.
“What do you mean no?”
“Her foot is in the shoe.”
“But what if it’s a big shoe – bigger than our house?”
“Her foot is in the shoe,” she repeated with finality, forcing me to concede and choose another strand.
“Okay . . . but she only had one shoe!”
“She has two shoes.”
“Two shoes? But I wanted her to have one shoe.”
“She has two shoes.”
“Okay.” At this point, I saw the pattern, and I was more prepared to give in, so I moved to other scenarios. “But she only had one glove!”
“And your mommy find the other glove” (Two Gloves). Her solutions were becoming more creative, and I had to admire that. I retraced our story, establishing what we now had: a girl, with two shoes, and two gloves. I suggested that it was cold outside and she was going out, but she had no hat, a suggestion Ellen rebuffed: “She probably put a hat on” (Hat on).
And so my once promising tale about a woman who lived in a shoe turned into a regular account about a responsible girl who dresses properly for cold weather. As a dad, I suppose I should be grateful for having such a clear-headed daughter. But I admittedly view this scene more as an English teacher, and in that role, I’m tickled that she experiences stories not as a spectator, but as an involved participant with a unique role for interpreting and, in this case, influencing.
Tomorrow morning, I will return to English class to try to convince my TV-saturated teens of the same thing. May I discover the “once upon a time” that will draw their ire enough to make them interact.
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that was a really cute story Mr. Sheehy. it’s funny how she told herself the whole story before bedtime. usually it’s the other way around. anyways i think you should have the other kids read this because it let’s us know what you as a teacher want us to understand about the stories that we read and how they will have an impact on how we will learn and grow to become better people. thanks for being a great teacher.
[...] “Once upon a time there was Annie in a shoe! The end. BOO!” – Ellen in her highchair, telling a story (you can read the original girl in a shoe story here). [...]