Posted by
Taryn on Thursday, August 27th 2009
One of Kiera’s assignments this week was to write a short 10-12 line bedtime story featuring a mouse. Well, I didn’t read the instructions properly, and left out the mouse part. Instead, she planned a story about a kitten and a dog. Usually, writing is not her strong suit and she balks at long stories, because it means a sore hand and frustration at not being able to form her letters as neatly as she (or mom) would like. But, for some reason, the idea of creating a bedtime story that she could read to her Build-A-Bear appealed to her and she wrote a beautiful story. To encourage her to write a good story, I let her start it in her own handwriting and once she had written a page, I took over as scribe. Well, this 10-12 liner turned into a much longer story! I promised to type it up for her so that we could turn it into a Build-a-Bear sized book. So, while I am typing it up, I thought I would pop it up here in our family journal for her to peruse when she is older. I was really chuffed with her story-telling. Reading books has helped her enormously with establishing a plot, moving from scene to scene and character development. This is entirely her own story with only 3 helps from me on logistic bits.
Here it is:
A Bedtime Story
by Kiera-Lee Hayes
“Mittens!” cried Jenny as Mittens went under the covers of the neatly made bed.
Miaw!” said mittens.
Just then Jenny’s mom came in.
“Jenny,” she said sternly, ‘What is this noise about?”
“Mittens is under my covers. I’m trying to make my bed and that’s the third time she’s got under my covers!”
“Mittens! I told you to get out of her room just now!” said Jenny’s mom. She kicked Mittens and Mittens ran out the room and went to find Benny, the dog.
Benny was outside in the back yard. His person’s name was Jeremy. Jeremy was rather cross when Benny didn’t do what he wanted him to do. Benny was having time out in the yard. He looked bored from waiting. He smiled when he saw Mittens come into the yard.
“Benny!’ said Mittens, “I have a great idea! Because our owners are mean and cruel to us, why don’t we run away?”
“What a good idea, Mittens!” cried Benny, “when should we run away?”
“Maybe on Christmas morning or maybe the night before Christmas morning?”
“I think the night before,” said Benny, “we don’t ever get presents. Our owners are so cruel to us.”
“Alright, ” said Mittens, “do you sleep in your kennel on the night before Christmas morn?”
Benny said, “I sleep in my kennel every night except Christmas night. So we can run away on Christmas eve.”
On Christmas Eve, Mittens met Benny in his kennel. They squeezed under the gap in the hedge and ran out into the town. They padded on the road past the buildings. They went out into the countryside. They found a nice place to sleep, quite far from the town.
In the morning, Jenny woke up. She looked around to see if Mittens was there. There was no Mittens. “Good,” she said. She got up and went to breakfast.
“Jeremy!” called Jeremy’s mom, “do you want to go see where Benny is and feed him?”
“Alright, ” said Jeremy.
Jeremy went to find Benny but Benny wasn’t there. “Mom, ” he called, “Benny’s not here!”
Benny and Mittens woke up together. At the same time, they remembered that they must run as fast as they could, so that they wouldn’t be caught.
They found an old ladder leading up to a tree house. They ran up it, barking and meowing at the same time. A kind old man came out of the house. He smiled when he saw the cat and dog.
“Ah, ” he said, “I know you two! You look like you’ve run away from your cruel owners. I will give you each a collar and you can be mine. I will look after you well”
They came into his house and it looked like to him that it was still Christmas Eve for it was very late. It ended as a very happy Christmas indeed!
And guess what? Nobody ever found them!
Sonlight
) My heart wanted to pitch a fit and yell at her for being clumsy. And, I’m ashamed to say that I did pitch a fit the last time she broke one of those bowls. Thankfully, the Lord got a hold of my tongue before I could unleash it on the poor girl – in time for me to see her pale face, locked between horror and grief at her mistake. I had to remind myself “just things, Taryn, just material things.” 
