With the 2020 BLM protests and talks about prejudice headlining in current news, we believe it is important to teach our children about discrimination, empathy and celebrating diversity.
We know it can be tough to talk about and explain the different events unfolding all over the world right now to a child in an age-appropriate manner. But we are amid a civil rights movement and your children need to understand what is happening and why it is happening.
To help explain the current situation in a kid-friendly manner and make children aware of some key concepts, here’s a letter from Cate:
Hello Everybody!
I hope everyone is healthy and keeping themselves safe in quarantine. Last night, Papa sat my 8 siblings and me down to have a chat. I wondered who had eaten the blueberry which Papa was waiting to ripen, it certainly wasn’t me.
But instead of looking for the blueberry burglar, Papa told us a story:
In an acorn tree, there once lived a family of butterflies. They were the Monarch butterflies. Once when the Monarch Papa was visiting his favourite Miss Molly Bush, he came across an estranged fuzzy caterpillar. Feeling sorry for the lost caterpillar, Papa Monarch brought the poor young one to their home.
The fuzzy caterpillar was named Ruby who became good friends with the Monarch caterpillars, Suzy and Reggie. They played together with squirrels among the branches and swung from little acorns.
The young friends grew too quickly and soon all the caterpillars wrapped themselves in a cocoon for the ultimate transformation.
When the Monarch Caterpillars came out of their cocoons, they had shiny and bright wings that shimmered when the sunlight hit them.
But, when Ruby came out of her cocoon, she looked different than the others. She had dulled but rich brown and yellow wings. SHE WAS A DARK BORDERED BEAUTY MOTH!
Suzy was appalled! All her life, she had the opinion that butterflies were the most beautiful creatures ever which is why when she realised that her best friend was a moth, she began to dislike Ruby.
Suzy’s behaviour made Ruby immensely sad but Reggie, who had grown up to be a beautiful Monarch himself, thought Ruby looked just as fabulous as they all did. Sure, her wings were a different colour, but they were just wings after all!
When Papa Monarch heard about Suzy’s bad behaviour from Reggie, he explained to her, “There are lots of different kinds of butterflies and moths and one way that we’re different is the color of our wings. Even if we look different, it’s important to make sure that everyone is treated fairly. It’s important to consider how other people feel because different people have different feelings. It can help to think about how you would feel if the same thing that happened to your friend, happened to you.”
Suzy felt silly for her behaviour and apologized to Ruby quickly realising her mistakes. Ruby forgave her best friend immediately and they immediately flew off the acorn tree to try some air somersaults with their new wings!
This story made me realise that it’s absolutely ridiculous to not be friends with someone if they are a little different from you.
I just hope everyone can be friends with each other regardless of the color of their wings.
Your friend,
Cate Caterpillar
P.S. I made a new friend today, Bobby Walt the Bee!
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