Note to parents: These weekly stories are intended to be an additional resource as we work together to support the development of your child. These stories will align with the “theme of the week” for our upcoming class. In Week 10, our theme is “When the going gets tough, the tough get going". The purpose of this theme is to help children learn what it means to have "grit". 

 

How to use these stories: When your child joined Legacy Kids, they were given a “stuffy”. These weekly stories will feature their “stuffy”. Encourage your child to have their stuffy with them while you read the story together and discuss the questions below. This process of externalizing the story to someone else (their stuffy) can be helpful as they internalize the principles discussed. Whenever you see "[stuffy]" in the story simply insert the name of your child's stuffy.

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Week 10 Story:

[Stuffy] Learns About "Grit"

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Once upon a time there was a stuffy named [Stuffy].

 

[Stuffy] had been working hard on [his/her] Legacy Project. For [his/her] project, [Stuffy] was learning to ride a bike without training wheels. As [he/she] worked on this project, [Stuffy] realized that it was going to take a lot of work. 

 

After a really hard practice session with [his/her] bike, [Stuffy] told [his/her] Mom, “Maybe I should do something else for my Legacy Project. Learning to ride a bike is really hard!”.

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom thought for a second and replied, “Hmm, I’m sure there are other things you could choose that would be easier, but you seemed really excited about the idea of learning to ride your bike. Is that something you are still wanting to do?”.

 

“Well, yeah”, [Stuffy] replied, “but it’s taking such a long time to learn.”

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom came over to sit by [him/her] and said, “We can think about changing your project if you would like to, but remember that one of the things we are trying to learn about with this project is “grit”.” 

 

[Stuffy] had never heard that word before, “Grit? What is grit?”.

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom explained, “So you know how when we want to make cookies, we need different ingredients that we mix together? Well grit is kind of like that. We help ourselves have grit by mixing two things: passion and persistence. Passion means that the project is something we love. Persistence means we keep working on the project, even when things get tough. Does that make sense?”. 

 

“Kind of”, [Stuffy] replied, “but what does that have to do with my Legacy Project?”

 

“Okay, so think about riding your bike”, [Stuffy’s] Mom replied, “would you love being able to ride your bike without the training wheels?”.

 

“Yes, very much!”, [Stuffy] replied.

 

“Okay, great! That’s means you have the passion for your project", [Stuffy’s] Mom explained, “now you just need the other ingredient. Do you remember what is was?”

 

[Stuffy] thought about it, “Wasn’t the word something like “flub-distance”...."pertabulence".... or something like that?”.

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom chuckled, “Very close [Stuffy]! The word was persistence, which means that you keep working on your project even if it gets hard. That’s why your choice to learn to ride your bike for your project was such a great idea, because it is something you love and something that you would have to work hard to do”. 

 

“So do you think I should keep my project the same?”, [Stuffy] asked.

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom replied, “It’s up to you to decide if you’d like to change your project, but I do know how excited you are to learn to ride your bike. What are you thinking you would like to do?”. 

 

[Stuffy] thought about it for a moment, “I think I want to keep working on riding my bike. I want to show everyone how fast I can zoom around!”.

 

[Stuffy’s] Mom said, “That sounds great! Would you like me to come outside with you and help you practice?”.

 

“Yes!”, [Stuffy] replied, “but could we make some cookies first?!”.

 

"Absolutely", [Stuffy's] Mom replied, "let's gather up our ingredients!". 

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And that’s the end of the story.