As I told you when I shared my first children´s story, my son who has special needs, has problems managing his frustration and the annoying thoughts that sometimes assail him. These are issues that we work both at school and at home. But, in addition, we have our magic weapon. The power of storytelling. If you want to know a little more about our history, you can read it here.
These stories, although a great help in our personal situation, are by no means therapeutic stories. They are just funny stories that any little kid may find fun and engaging.
Let me share a bit about the story behind this new story. Our son often gets frustrated about “forgetting things”. I´ve obviously explained to him that forgetting stuff is normal. We all forget things from time to time. In fact, I’m pretty absent-minded, so I often review with him all the things that I forgot throughout the day, words that I no longer remember in English or people whose names I can´t recall. He surprises me on numerous occasions with memories that had already vanished from my mind. He can remember his first swim teacher´s name, whom he only briefly interacted with, seven years back. He often talks about our house in China where we lived until the end of 2011. He remembers things like the colour of the vacuum cleaner we had back then or the scary noise of some electrical appliances. So, he gives me plenty of examples in which I can prove to him that his memory is better than mine.
However, when frustration strikes, rational explanations never help me too much. My “forgetting” examples annoy him as much as his own. Probably because it is more about how he is feeling in general rather than about the specific thought that he is complaining about. So, in this context is how the Forgetting Monster was born. The story structure is very similar to the one you saw in my previous tale. We take something “abstract”, an annoyance, and we turn it into something physical, a Monster. Then, armed with our wit and cleverness, we are able to fix the problem. As a result, our interaction with some abstract entity that had been bothering us turns into a fun shared activity together.
So here I bring you Victor and Emma´s new adventure. They are confronting a new monster coming from the Imaginary World. It is a fragment of a longer story, but I have tried to capture the story in a way that makes sense. I hope you like it!
Children’s Tales: The Forgetting Monster Has Escaped
(At the end of the post, there is a transcript of the text shown in the images below)
If you enjoyed this new Monster Tale.
Transcript of the text shown in the images above:
Victor says: Hi! Do you remember me? We met during the Confusion Monster Adventure. Today I’m going to tell you a bit more about me. There are things I like and dislike at the same time. I love musical instruments but their sounds scare me.
Emma says: But it’s ok! I’m not playing musical instruments when Victor is around. Unless he pesters me! Then I chase him with a toy accordion in my hand!
Victor says: The Ugly-Thought monsters are still scaping from the imaginary world. They are finding a lot of ugly thoughts and after they eat them they grow and get big enough to jump into the real world.
Victor is in his living-room looking puzzled: “I think that the forgetting monster has found his way out into the real world. Emma, I’m feeling a bit funny I can’t remember what I had for breakfast!”
Narrator: The Forgetting Monster is a jelly-like blue monster. He has a hole in his head because he has no memories whatsoever. If you see him down the Street, run away. If he traps you, you won’t even remember your name.
Emma says: In order to banish the monsters you need to lock them away from human contact. I have an idea Victor I’m going to pretend that I’m also forgetting everything.
Emma pretends to have lost something to lure the Monster out: “Oh no, I’ve forgotten where I put my super-secret super fun toy”
Forgetting monster says: Ha, ha, she forgot! Super secret? Super fun? I’ve got to see that! Did you say you last saw it in the garage?
Narrator: As soon as the Forgetting Monster gets into the garage, Victor and Emma lock the door.
Forgetting Monster begs: It was a trick! Let me out!
Victor and Emma jump happily saying: “In your dreams! Go back to the imaginary world, little monster”
