It was a wonderful day: we played "The story of the Easter bunny" at the puppet theatre.
The story goes like this: after many adventures, Little Bunny, the smallest of all the rabbits, reaches the children with the red egg unbroken. He remains the true Easter Bunny and wishes the children, every year: Happy Easter!
That it is the smallest one who succeeds is no accidental detail. It is precisely the idea children take best from a story: it is not the strongest who wins but the one who carries the job through with care. An unbroken egg calls for small steps and attention, not speed.
Puppet theatre, for its part, has an advantage reading does not. The children follow a story unfolding in front of them, with different voices and pauses in the right places, and they hold on to the thread far more easily. And those who would never sit still through a story read aloud will sit through one that is acted.
Happy Easter from us too!