Happy Cat & Merry Cat Make a Choice…

…Freedom of Choice We All Have It! …Do we Accept this Precious Gift Responsibly, or Gift it Away?

Tuesday of week three and you might be finding the kids are somewhat antsy. You might be trying to keep them distracted, mediating sibling disputes, frustrated with kids whining, “I’m bored.”

This video reading and downloadable copy for print, so that your children can illustrate the story, is meant to get kids and families thinking about CHOICE of thoughts and behaviour. Please note the language is rich and you will have to coach the kids through meanings, BUT don’t let this be a turn off as rich vocabulary is linked to achievement. Does it take a bit more effort on behalf of parents and teachers? Heck yes AND it is worth it! (see links below)

The backstory, a close friend Melanie Brown-Robson was teaching at the time. She and her class read our publication Happy Cat and Merry Cat, providing us with a back cover review. Their response was, “Ask Dazzle if there are more Happy Cat and Merry Cat stories coming? We want to see more adventures.”

The cover for the children's story "Happy Cat and Merry Cat answer, 'Who's Steering Your Ship?'"

As it turned out I had just completed Happy Cat and Merry Cat Meet Merry-Lynn and began brainstorming other ideas. One thing lead to another and decided to imagine what would it be like if these two girls in Mel’s class, incorporating Mel’s “Nanny McPhee” approach with the basic premises of Dr. Glasser’s Choice Theory. Happy Cat and Merry Cat Answer, “Who’s Steering Your Ship?” was born. It was meant as a tribute to her career and a gift to her students the year of her retirement. Funny enough when I gave her the story, she had quite the drama unfold earlier that year with girls bullying and not making effective choices.

Her students illustrated the story. That was a very interesting process as they learned how difficult it is to illustrate a story (capturing the essence of that scene, creating drawings that are dark enough, using the full page etc.)

Dazzle’s Challenge:

  1. Download the story, illustrate it and share it on Facebook with an iMovie or PDF.
  2. Do some research on classics, like William Shakespeare.
  3. BIG word of the day at the family meal. Discuss it. Use it then maybe follow by playing Scrabble.
  4. Play charades with the list of ‘tough” words from the story.

“People with an impoverished vocabulary live an impoverished emotional life; people with rich vocabularies have a multihued palette of colors with which to paint their experience, not only for others, but for themselves as well.” (Robinns, 1991).

The vocabulary list follows at the end:

prance: dance in a joyful manner, lifting legs or strutting

deemed: thought

misdemeanour: wrong, a crime, an effective choice

dread: fear

outwit: out smart

intimate: close and secret

reflection: thinking

compassion: concern, empathy, thinking of another

respect: admire with action

felines: cats

distracted: unfocused

arrogance: overconfident, thinking one is better than the other

winced: cringed, shuttered

welfare: good or happiness

destiny: fate or ending

grimaced: pout

smirk: sneer

consequences: result

laissez-faire: relaxed

serene: calm

bleak: drab or miserable

proprietorship: owning a business

eavesdropping: spying, listening in

realization: understanding

verdict: decision

transform: change