Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Week 1 Storytelling: The Boy who Planned on Getting a New Toy

Timothy was a very young lad and had a fruitful mind. He knew exactly what he wanted and he was very careful about planning out how to get what he wanted. For two whole weeks Timothy had his eye on a brand new toy car that had just come out. During this time he had created a plan to get what he wanted. He asked his mother if he could clean the house for some allowance. She was hesitant at first because the family did not have much money to spare on frivolous items such as toys.

"Why don't you help me set the table, and then go and play with your friends? You don't need a toy to be happy" She said.

“Oh, please mom, the whoooole house,” he begged.

She could not say no to her precious boy and he was soon at work cleaning the house. While his friends played outside he found himself sweeping and mopping, dusting and scrubbing and worst of all changing the cat's littler! All the while he cleaned he could only think about the brand new toy he would get, but first he had to come up with a plan to make enough money for even cleaning the house was not going to be near enough to afford the new toy.
 
He planned to buy an apple from the grocery store and plant the seeds in the into the garden of his backyard. When his apple tree was grown he would then sell the apples and make a very large profit, enough to buy many toys.  

“Soon,” he exclaimed “I will have that toy.”

He was given his allowance, as promised by his mother, and ran as fast as possible to the grocery store. As he walked into the entrance he was stopped by a beautiful gum ball machine. With money in his hand he wasted no time and was soon happily chomping on a bubblegum flavored gum ball. Continuing on his journey to buy an apple his dream of owing this brand new toy was unknowingly cut short when the cashier said, “That will be thirty-eight cents please.” Panicked Timothy had just learnt of his mistake, he had spent all but a nickel of his allowance. With the purchase of the gum ball vanished his apple seed, tree and all hopes of every owning that new car toy.


Authors Note: Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
This story was about a milkmaid who planned to use her milk to make butter to sell to then buy eggs and hatch chickens and then sell to buy a dress and look good for potential suitors. Unfortunately for her, the milk spilled and he dreams and plans were washed away and she could no longer find a suitor.

Bibliography:
The Aesop for Children. Aesop. N.p.: n.p., n.d. The Project Gutenberg. Rand McNally & Company, 2 Dec. 2002. Web. 13 Aug. 2014.


4 comments:

  1. Oh, this is so cute, Christian: I love the idea of telling this story about a little child because little children especially can fall into this trap so easily. They don't know yet how the ways of the world will upset your best-laid plans in all kinds of ways. And the gumball image is just perfect ... seeds can grow, but not gumballs, ha ha. It works wonderfully! Plus, this is a good excuse for me to share with you a great folklorist, Dan Ashliman, and his amazing website where he has collected stories classified by their Aarne-Thompson index numbers. This particular story is called Air Castle; you can see his collection of these stories here:
    Air Castles: folktales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 1430
    about daydreams of wealth and fame
    http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1430.html
    It's a story found all over the world, as you can see there in the LONG list of stories, including the Aesop's fable you started from.

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  2. Again FROM HANNAH:

    =========


    Hey Christian!

    Hahaha this kid. That is a really good story! Kids always jump the gun when it comes to waiting for the ultimate satisfaction. I love how you changed it from milk maid to child, that's very creative! It reminded me of the Marsh-mellow test I learned about this summer: let a child sit in a room with a single marsh-mellow in front of him or her for five minutes. The incentive to not eat the marsh-mellow is that after five minutes they will get another marsh-mellow and be allowed to eat both; double the satisfaction. If the child cannot wait five minutes, wants immediate satisfaction, and eats the treat, it predicts that they will behave throughout life with immediate goals as priority, supposedly. So waiting for a marsh-mellow or a cool new car toy is difficult for kids! Here's the link to the video if you want to watch! It's pretty hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ

    Great job!

    Hannah

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  3. Aww, this is so adorable. Somehow even I was disappointed that he couldn't get his toy car! You'll get it some day, little man! This is a great story and I think you did well turning it into something little kids can really relate to. Actually, going through this exact kind of situation might be good for children. Then it's a good lesson on money management!

    I also really like your writing style. I say anyone who can get an emotional response out of readers is a good writer. :)

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  4. Christian,
    I like your story. The kid really did have a flawless plan! It would have taken him many years of patience to wait for the tree to grow, but if he had the diligence to make the tree grow, he could have done it. It's a good morale to ponder: you can either plant your seed or eat it.

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