UPDATED STORY
Children are curious, they seem to always be asking questions. Sometimes you may not always have an answer, especially for some of the most random questions. This is a story about the time my son AJ asked me "why is a tiger so sneaky and strong?"
On a Sunday afternoon, me and AJ were relaxing and enjoying our day off. He was watching some cartoons and I was reading a book. He came and sat on my lap and said "mom, how come tigers are so sneaky?? And why are they so mean and strong? What made them like that?"
I didn't really have an answer for him because well, it is not something I have ever thought about. So I searched on google until I found a story that I believed would appease him.
We sat there and I began the story...
"A long time ago, when there weren't buildings, cars, technology, or any of the things that we have now, animals and humans just roamed around aimlessly. Sometimes it was crazy outside because none of the animals or humans really had a specific thing they were doing or good at. One day, a man realized this and went to rub a lamp to hopefully make a genie appear. Kind of like Aladdin, remember that movie AJ?" I said
"Yeah! We went and saw it outside at the drive up movie!!" He said with excitement.
"Yeah! That one! Well, the genie ended up appearing and the man of course had three wishes. Knowing there was not any order to the chaos currently, he wished for the genie to assign a quality to every animal, including the humans so that maybe this would make things a little less crazy. The genie gave the man the quality of wisdom, which means he was smart." I paused to drink some water because this story was taking a lot longer to explain than I imagined.
"How smart?" AJ asked.
"Very smart. The genie also gave the tiger the ability to walk around quietly, he was now able to be sneaky. This is how you see the tigers now right?" I asked him to make sure he was still following along.
"Yeah, they are super sneaky! And strong!" AJ said excitedly.
"Yes they are! Well, the man was happy for awhile and didn't think he needed to use anymore of the wishes until he realized that he didn't have super strength. He got jealous seeing some of the animals. So he went back to the genie and asked for the genie to make him stronger. The genie told the man to come back the next day because he was really busy. The whole time the man was talking to the genie, guess who was there listening?!"
AJ thought for a moment and then finally said ."uhmmm.... I don't know.."
"The tiger! Because he is so quiet and sneaky! The tiger decided that he wanted the super strength, so we waited until the next day and asked the genie to give him super strength because he needed to be able to fight off bigger animals. The genie thought for a moment and decided that he could do this for the tiger. So he gave the tiger the super strength. Later on, when the man came back to get this super strength the genie was very apologetic because he forgot that he had told the man that he could have super strength, and he couldn't take it away from the tiger now."
"Oh no..so now the tiger is super strong and sneaky.. which means it can get the man!!" AJ said in a worried tone.
"Well not quite, you see the man was given wisdom remember? That means he's smart! So he went back and thought about how he could protect himself from the tiger and any other man or animal stronger than him. He came up with the bow and arrow, he created it and was able to use it to protect himself when he was in danger. So while he didn't get the super strength, he could still protect himself. That is how the tiger got his strength and was able to become so sneaky. Isn't that cool?"
"Yeah, can you turn cartoons back on now."
Authors note: The original story is about how the tiger got his strength and I follow it pretty closely. Instead of a genie, it was really a the Bleis (gods) who called for the Durbar (a type of king) to give each animal a quality to help contain the chaos. Also, the man didn't come up with the bow and arrow himself with his wisdom. The Durbar gave him a bow and arrow and gave him to skill to learn how to make them. I chose to tell this story as if I was telling my son if he asked how a tiger got his strength because I thought it was fun and really is a random question a kid would ask. I ended it this way because in my experience, a kid really just wants a short answer sometimes and they get bored easily, even though my story was totally not boring!
Story Source: Folk Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K.U. Rafy
Children are curious, they seem to always be asking questions. Sometimes you may not always have an answer, especially for some of the most random questions. This is a story about the time my son AJ asked me "why is a tiger so sneaky and strong?"
On a Sunday afternoon, me and AJ were relaxing and enjoying our day off. He was watching some cartoons and I was reading a book. He came and sat on my lap and said "mom, how come tigers are so sneaky?? And why are they so mean and strong? What made them like that?"
I didn't really have an answer for him because well, it is not something I have ever thought about. So I searched on google until I found a story that I believed would appease him.
We sat there and I began the story...
"A long time ago, when there weren't buildings, cars, technology, or any of the things that we have now, animals and humans just roamed around aimlessly. Sometimes it was crazy outside because none of the animals or humans really had a specific thing they were doing or good at. One day, a man realized this and went to rub a lamp to hopefully make a genie appear. Kind of like Aladdin, remember that movie AJ?" I said
"Yeah! We went and saw it outside at the drive up movie!!" He said with excitement.
"Yeah! That one! Well, the genie ended up appearing and the man of course had three wishes. Knowing there was not any order to the chaos currently, he wished for the genie to assign a quality to every animal, including the humans so that maybe this would make things a little less crazy. The genie gave the man the quality of wisdom, which means he was smart." I paused to drink some water because this story was taking a lot longer to explain than I imagined.
"How smart?" AJ asked.
"Very smart. The genie also gave the tiger the ability to walk around quietly, he was now able to be sneaky. This is how you see the tigers now right?" I asked him to make sure he was still following along.
"Yeah, they are super sneaky! And strong!" AJ said excitedly.
"Yes they are! Well, the man was happy for awhile and didn't think he needed to use anymore of the wishes until he realized that he didn't have super strength. He got jealous seeing some of the animals. So he went back to the genie and asked for the genie to make him stronger. The genie told the man to come back the next day because he was really busy. The whole time the man was talking to the genie, guess who was there listening?!"
AJ thought for a moment and then finally said ."uhmmm.... I don't know.."
"The tiger! Because he is so quiet and sneaky! The tiger decided that he wanted the super strength, so we waited until the next day and asked the genie to give him super strength because he needed to be able to fight off bigger animals. The genie thought for a moment and decided that he could do this for the tiger. So he gave the tiger the super strength. Later on, when the man came back to get this super strength the genie was very apologetic because he forgot that he had told the man that he could have super strength, and he couldn't take it away from the tiger now."
"Oh no..so now the tiger is super strong and sneaky.. which means it can get the man!!" AJ said in a worried tone.
"Well not quite, you see the man was given wisdom remember? That means he's smart! So he went back and thought about how he could protect himself from the tiger and any other man or animal stronger than him. He came up with the bow and arrow, he created it and was able to use it to protect himself when he was in danger. So while he didn't get the super strength, he could still protect himself. That is how the tiger got his strength and was able to become so sneaky. Isn't that cool?"
"Yeah, can you turn cartoons back on now."
Authors note: The original story is about how the tiger got his strength and I follow it pretty closely. Instead of a genie, it was really a the Bleis (gods) who called for the Durbar (a type of king) to give each animal a quality to help contain the chaos. Also, the man didn't come up with the bow and arrow himself with his wisdom. The Durbar gave him a bow and arrow and gave him to skill to learn how to make them. I chose to tell this story as if I was telling my son if he asked how a tiger got his strength because I thought it was fun and really is a random question a kid would ask. I ended it this way because in my experience, a kid really just wants a short answer sometimes and they get bored easily, even though my story was totally not boring!
Story Source: Folk Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K.U. Rafy
Hey, Destiny!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cute story. I love the idea of telling this story to your son - have you told him about any of the stories you're reading about for this class? These types of stories are meant to explain why the world is the way it is, so telling it in this situation, to a curious kid who wants to understand how the world works, is perfect! Thanks for the great story!
Hi there again!
ReplyDeleteI love the way in which you wrote the story, in the form of telling it your son. Never would have thought about this method until reading yours today.
I'm not a massive critic when it comes to anyone else's writing because we all have our own ways of telling stories. This was a fantastic story in my opinion as you made a new story from the original source. Making something your own is a great way of grabbing my attention and keeping me locked in on your story telling.
I look forward to reading more from you as we progress through the semester.
Hello Destiny,
ReplyDeleteI would like to start off by saying this was a good story. I like the way you wrote this story in the form of telling it to your son. This story also kept my attention which is a plus in my book. It is also very neat that your son was very interested in the story also. Overall, good job with your story.