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Fun, Not Fear!
Helping Children Cope With Fears Through Stories and Crafts
By Mike Anderson
Mother, Anna and Audra walk downstairs. Another rumble rolls through the house. Anna squeezes her mother's hand. Mother walks into the hall carrying a box. "Maybe you two can find something in here to make music," she says.
Anna looks into the box. "I know what this can be!" She begins hitting the top of a can with a pencil. "It's a drum. It sounds like thunder, only not as loud."
Audra finds a small cardboard tube, a rubber band and some wax paper. She covers one end of the tube with the paper and uses the rubber band to hold the paper in place.
"What's that?" Anna asks.
"Watch," says Audra. She raises the other end of the tube to her lips and hums into the tube. The tube makes a loud buzzing noise that Audra changes by changing how she hums. "It's a kazoo!"
Audra hums "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on her kazoo and Anna beats out the rhythm. Marching out of the room, Anna and Audra take their parade throughout the dark house. They troop back into the living room and look into the box. Audra pulls out a small box and several rubber bands. Anna finds two spoons. She loops the rubber bands around the box and then plucks each one. "How do you like my banjo?" she asks.
Anna knocks the two spoons together. Clickety-click, clickety-clack. Audra plunks on the rubber-band banjo as Anna sets a lively rhythm. Then Audra puts down the rubber-band banjo and hums into the kazoo again. Soon "This Old Man" pushes the sound of the rainstorm and thunder out of the room. Audra hums. Anna sings and taps her spoons.
Mother and Anna's brother Sam poke their heads into the room. "What's going on in here?" asks Mother. Sam picks up the can-drum and is soon playing along. Audra begins to play "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider." Sam and Anna sing and keep the rhythm.