Metaphors for Children Flashcards
Anger
ANGRY STONES (for boys)
A boy who was sometimes angry. He would shout, throw things and say bad things. People were often hurt. His father decided to help his son. The next time the boy was angry, his father told him: ‘Go to the end of the garden and throw a stone into the pond. Then keep throwing stones in there until you stop feeling angry. Sometimes, he threw in many stones. This went on for some time, until his father felt the moment was right. Then they went up to the end of the garden together. And his father said: ‘Take every stone out of the pond.’ ; there was nothing but a thin layer of water over the stones. It took a long time to clear the pond of all the stones. And at the bottom, when he finished, was a puddle of water. Nothing was alive.
Acceptance
ANXIOUS DAISY
Daisies are cheerful flowers. Daisies love the sun. One particular daisy never felt quite as cheerful as the others. She worried about herself instead; ‘How many of the other daisies are my friend?’ ‘What can I do to make more plants my friend?’ ‘What do the other plants think of me?’ She was an anxious daisy and she thought a lot about herself. Near the lawn where the daisy grew, was a old wise stinging nettle. The nettle said to the daisy: ‘We plants don’t think as much about you - as you think we do!’ The daisy had a lood look around her at the other plants. Not one was looking at her at all! Each plant was the centre of their own lives, After that, she knew that she did not need to really worry about what people thought of her after all.
Loss
BLOWING BUBBLES
Everyone loves blowing bubbles. We all know how to dip a ring into liquid and blow them into life. Bubbles can be large, small, perfect circles or even long and thin. If you look at bubbles in the sunlight, you can see a rainbow of colours in them. Each is beautiful and unique and special. Bubbles love to float in the air, feeling the gentle current and moving and dancing wherever the breeze takes them. But bubbles do not last - and all must pop. Some pop very quickly - whilst others are lucky enough to enjoy floating and dancing in the air for longer. The pattern is always the same for each one. The thing that really matters is the time the bubble lives, floats and dances in that gentle breeze.
Acceptance
CLOUD GAZING
I wonder if you can think of a time when you have simply laid back on the grass and just stared up into the sky… Sometimes the weather is so fine and the sun is so warm. And although it’s nice to lie with your eyes closed, it’s also fun to stare up and watch the clouds. Clouds never stay still. They will put themselves into patterns that look like faces or animals or even mermaids. But they don’t ever stay still, because clouds are always changing shape. Sometimes the cloud shapes are fun and happy and sometimes they are scary or sad - but all pass on. As old clouds move away new, different clouds will appear. And so it is with life, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, change happens. And the wonderful thing about that is that difficult times will pass, just as the clouds change, every moment of every day.
Loss
DRAGONFLIES
I wonder if you can think of a glorious summer day. Amongst the trees and water, you will find dragonflies; they love to fly and they love ponds. They have beautiful turquoise, red, black and yellow bodies which glimmer in the sunlight. They have large eyes that can look in many directions at once. And they fly using their shimmering, red-tipped, transparent wings. But the most special thing about a dragonfly, is that their life is very short, just a few days or weeks at most. Some people feel very sad for the dragonfly because that does not seem a very long time to them. If you were to ask the dragonfly, they would say that they were blessed with a life which had sunshine, water, the smell of cut grass, and the sound of birds. And, to a dragonfly, that is a very wonderful life indeed.
Acceptance
GRANDFATHER CLOCK
The grandfather clock chimes the hours and ticks loudly, just so you can hear exactly what the time is. And the grandfather clock does not need electricity, it just needs the weight to move back and forth to power it. The clock on the cooker, had an alarm to prevent the food from buring.’ And the grandfather clock, who ticked away in the hall, wished he could help cook food. ‘The clock on the boiler heated the water. The grandfather clock felt rather useless and sad. One day, there was a power cut. ‘Don’t worry!’ The father said to the family, ‘this is an adventure! We’ll light a fire in the hearth for heat and warmth. We will heat food over it and the good old grandfather clock will tell the time for us.’ And the grandfather clock realised that he alone could help
Acceptance
GREEN BIKE
A boy wanted to ride his new, bright green bike but every time he tried - he fell off! His father put stabilisers on to stop the bike from falling over. And the boy got on and found he could ride it! And it was wonderful. He enjoyed it so much, he didn’t want to stop. Over time, he rode his bike and, without really realising it, because it was such fun, he learned to use the gears. And he learned that he should always wear his helmet. And he learnt how to mend a puncture. And he learnt how to ring his bell.He learnt all there was to know. And his father noticed all the skills he had now got and when the boy was asleep, he went down to the garage and took the stabilisers off. The next day, after school, the boy rode his bike again, as he did every evening and then his father pointed out the stabilsers were gone
Anger
GUINEA PIG
There was once a girl who had a very bad temper. She could throw things, shout, slam doors and say cruel, unkind words. She loved her pet guinea pig and adored his slanting, black eyes and silky, brown fur. Every morning, she would clean out his cage and give him food pellets, water and sometimes fruit. But, one morning, she was angry and instead of closing the cage door and carefully fixing the latch, she slammed it. When the girl came home, her guinea pig was gone. Her heart was broken and she cried. She felt guilty for not putting the latch carefully back on the cage. And just as cross words cannot be undone, so the guinea pig was gone and him being lost could not be undone. From that day on, the girl, who still sometimes felt cross, did not throw things, shout, slam doors.
Anger
HONEY BEES
Now let’s just think about honey bees. They are loved because not only do they make delicious honey but they also pollinate flowers. Honey bees don’t show their temper is because they always sting afterwards and after they have stung somebody, they use all the energy in their body and they die. And because honey bees love to make honey and to live, they do everything not to get cross and not to sting. Having a temper can sometimes also hurt people and make them sad. For every honey bee you see, remember that there is also a person who has learnt not to be cross and who had made their life sweet, like honey.
Emotion
MOOD CLOUD
I’m not sure if you know this, only a few people do, but around every person is a coloured mood cloud. This cloud sits around everybody’s head and although it is invisible, sometimes you can sense it. And a mood cloud can be all sorts of different colours. Sometimes the cloud can be yellow and happy. Other days, the cloud can be black and angry. From time to time, the cloud can be red and excited. And on days when the cloud is blue, the person will be sad. Sometimes children think that they can’t control the colour of the mood cloud. But the truth is, if you think hard enough, you can change its colour just with the power of your thoughts. And the cleverest magic is when you turn black or blue clouds to yellow and red clouds just with happy positive thoughts.
Neglect
OLD JUMPER
A boy who was often hungry and lonely and his clothes were dirty. His teacher noticed this and so she decided to talk to him. She encouraged the boy to think. ‘Everyone should live in a nice warm house. Do you?’ she asked. ‘No, but it’s OK,’ he replied. ‘Everyone should have someone to talk to, who listens and wants them to be happy. Do you?’ ‘No, but it’s OK,’ he replied. ‘All children should have family who know where they are. Do you?’ ‘No, but it’s OK,’ he replied. ‘And everyone should have clean clothes to wear. Do you?’ And the boy looked down at his jumper and he saw that there were holes in it and that it was stained and dirty. And, in that moment, he could not ignore the truth. And so the boy honestly told his kind teacher: ‘No, I don’t.’ And his teacher nodded and because she was kind, she promised to help him.
Illness
OYSTER’S PEARL
Oysters are small, hard creatures that live in the sea. Their tough shell can weather any stormy sea. No matter how harsh the waves, an oyster is built to remain whole and strong. Inside, it has a soft centre, which drinks in salt water, but, for a small number of oysters, just like for a small number of children, problems can happen. Oysters sometimes get a large grain of sand inside them which sticks inside their soft centre. It’s not what the oyster wants but that’s just the way the sea is. Life is a wonderful mystery. Over time, the grain of sand gets wrapped in lots of layers of beautiful ivory. And the grain gradually turns into a clean, perfectly round pearl. It makes that oyster very rare and very special.
Diversity
PICTURE BOOK
Now let’s just think of the perfect garden for a moment. I wonder if you imagine it like a picture in a picture book. Maybe it has a tidy, green lawn, one or two straight leafy trees, a perfectly painted white, wooden fence, a flower bed, a pool and roses. Now let’s compare it to a real garden. In real gardens, the lawn may be full of dandelions or it may need cutting. A real garden may have an orchard of trees or just one tree. A real garden may have a fence which may need a coat of paint or there may even be no boundary to the garden at all. A real garden may have roses, or there may be many other different flowers growing there. And, as for the pond, a real garden may have ten frogs or no frogs at all. And a perfect garden is lovely but just like the perfect family, it is something that isn’t real.
Resilience
PLAYTIME
A girl loved to run with her friends. And they would have many games. One day, she ran too fast and fell and scraped her knees and hands on the rough tarmac. And it hurt her a lot. The teacher cleaned the wounds and put plasters on her knees; plasters, with pictures of cats on, which the girl liked very much. ‘I will have to stop running when I go and play now,’ she said sadly to the teacher. And the teacher replied: ‘Don’t give up what you enjoy, just be careful. Keep going - everyone falls down sometimes.’ And the girl thought that she would be very sorry to give up running in her playtime. She thanked the teacher and stopped for a moment and thought - should she run again or should she walk? And she decided that if she was a little more careful she would run again because even though she may fall again, running was much more fun.
Resilience
POST BOX
A boy loved posting letters. Every time the boy went to the shops he would ask his parents: ‘Is there a letter to post?’ One day, his parents gave him a pile of letters. The boy tried to post the letters on his own. Well, even though he put his arms as straight as he could, he was too small to reach the slot. Part of him wanted to run to and ask his parents to post them for him. But he did not want to give up just because it was difficult. Next, he stood on tiptoes, he bent his knees and jumped up in the air. He jumped so high that he was able to push the letters into the slot. He had done it on his own! He realised that there were many things he could do on his own. A year later, when he posted a letter that he’d written himself in that same box, it seemed a lot smaller than he remembered.
