Story Time with V & Me - Monkey Puzzle

Wasn't that sweet?

Poor butterfly just couldn't get it right!

There is are a few lessons here that we can teach our children, namely:

- Don't ever give up!

Keep at it and you will eventually succeed. Just remind your children that "Practise makes Progress" and as long as they take even a tiny step forward, that is progress. You could help them understand this concept more easily by describing something that they couldn't do, practised lots and can now do, for example walking, riding a bike, feeding themselves, brushing their teeth, etc.

- Be helpful and kind to others.

Butterfly chose to help Monkey out of the goodness of his heart and he eventually helped Monkey find his way to Daddy. Ask your children to describe how Monkey would feel if he couldn't find his family. This is an excellent opportunity for language extension and a quick little discussion about emotions. You could then elaborate and describe how much nicer it was to have Butterfly helping Monkey find his family.

- Use your words.

Monkey would of saved a lot of time and effort if he had used his words at the beginning and told Butterfly exactly what his Mummy looked like. (We wouldn't have had a story if he did!) Explain to your children that their words are powerful.

You could enact a scene where you ask your child to bring you a shirt, then when they bring it to you you tell them you wanted the red one. When they bring you a red shirt you tell them you want the red T-shirt. When they bring that, you send them off to get the red T-shirt with the blue collar, etc. They will soon get the idea. Next you send them off to get the blue packet with the red writing hanging behind the kitchen door that has a packet of tissues in it. Be as specific as possible so they cannot get it wrong. You then ask them to compare the two different activities and ask them which they preferred.

This let's them clearly see the power of their words and the importance of using them properly.

-Discuss all the animals.

This can be a fact finding mission for you both. Find one really interesting fact about each animal or you could do a deep dive on one animal.

Get your children to move and make the sounds of the animals in the book. This should bring forth squeals of delight amonst the hissing like a snake and stomping like an elephant.

Use the book for language extension, getting your child to talk about the animals, describing them and the things they see in the pictures. There are lots of other animals in the book that are not the main ones mentioned. Talk about the plants, count the flowers, look for all the insects, count the caterpillars, etc. Just explore the book with your child and get them to describe what they are seeing.

- Metamorphosis!

Yip, teach them that big word. You just need to say that metamorphosis means change. You then link it to the lifecycle of the butterfly and the frog. Show them pictures of these lifecycles (easy to Google) and explain that the frog and butterfly babies don't look anything like the adults and that at each stage metamorphosis happens until they eventually look like the adult. Depending on the season, you could take your child to the local pond and see if there is any frog spawn.

You could bring in other lifecycles here too.

And lastly, just enjoy the story!