Monday, October 3, 2016

How to Handle a Giant People-Eating-Goat: Making a dream book with a six-year-old


On the last day of a training for dream teachers I was leading in Prague, Marketa brought us a little book with the most wonderful illustrations. She told us she had made it with her six-year-old daughter Františka. She said, "It is one of the most precious books we have at home."
    She proceeded to tell us the origin of the book, which is titled V
elký Kozel, or "Big Goat".
    Little 
Františka woke crying from a very scary dream. Her mother comforted her, but did not press for the contents of the dream when her daughter said that she did not want to talk about it. "I know that my daughter is brave, and I knew she would deal with it when she was ready."    A couple of days later, Františka came to her mother with a question. "Mom, do goats eat people?"    "I don't think so."
    "And what about billy goats?"
    "That's an interesting question. Why do you ask?"
   At this point, 
Františka was ready to tell the  dream. What had scared her was a giant black billy goat, bigger than a tree, that was eating people.    "Let's explore," her mother suggested. "Why would a goat start eating people?"
    
Františka thought about this. She loved puzzles and codes, and soon her creative and investigative mind was working.     She started telling the story of a goat who was desperately unhappy because he was abnormally large and shunned by other goats.
   "Wait," her mother said. "Don't you want to draw his picture?"
   She drew the big black goat, and as her story developed, she made picture after picture. Not wanting to miss a detail, her mother helped her to write the chapters that went with the drawings.
   

Once there was a very big goat who was unhappy because he did not fit in. He had eaten a blade of magic grass that made him bigger than trees or houses. He grew as big as a mountain. He was always hungry, and he started eating people. One day he ate a goat that had wandered away from the flock. Now the goats were very scared and they asked a giant for help. The giant asked the black goat what was wrong with him. "I'm too big!" the black goat complained. The giant went to consult a wizard.




    When the giant found the wizard, he was in the middle of an experiment. He was so startled that things blew up. Nonethless, the wizard was able to tell the giant where to look for the counter-spell that will restore the people-eater to the normal proportions of a goat. This will require another blade of magic grass, dipped in oil. The wizard also explained that humans must make a special blueberry cake that would bring the people and other creatures the giant goat had eaten back to life.
    The story develops terrific energy on its way to a happy ending. 
Františka's mother, who is a librarian, was able to bind the pages together to make a lovely little book, which will always be treasured.
    There is a rich teaching here for anyone who has the privilege of listening to the dreams and stories of young children.
     There are three things we need to be prepared to do, always, to help kids with their dreams. First, we need to listen up, to be present without judgment or analysis to what is being shared. Second, we need to be ready to provide help, right away, with the scary stuff, In  
Františka's case, this simply required hugs from her mother and reassurance that mom would be there whenever she needed more. In another case, a child might need to be encouraged to spit out bad energy (quite literally) or to accept a stuffed animal as a guardian for the night.   
    Third, we want to be poised to help kids do something creative with their dreams. Pictures on the fridge are a great start, but why not think about helping a child to create a long-running journal, or even to make a finished book? 
Františka's dream book, in its text and pictures, is at least the equal of many books for children produced by professional writers, and it has the power and authenticity of imagination working on first-hand experience.   
    Bravo, 
Františka! And Bravo, Marketa, for being a dream mother!



    

3 comments:

  1. Bravo! I loved all that. Thank you so much for sharing. ��

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  2. What a fantastic way to help children with their dreams! And me too!
    Robert, on Monday morning, at the same time you are writing this post, I had a dream that a giant white goat is on top of a rather tall building! He is so big that his body covers the entire roof! Although I am not scared about the goat the surprise woke me up and I had been puzzled ever since until reading this post. In fact, seeing the goat was the end of a dream in which I walk alone in a beautiful and unfamiliar city. Kids are playing nearby on the sidewalk behind trees and their voices are echoing in my ears. I sense that wild animals live here and are roaming freely. I turn my body and see a tiger walking behind me in a distance. I bring up the courage to face him. Soon he and I are only a few feet apart gazing at each other. The expression on his face shows such deep wisdom like an old wise-man. I realize I have a guitar in my hand and I want to play a song for him. However, no matter how I pluck the strings they don’t produce a sound! I am disappointed because I want to please the tiger so much. The tiger turns and walks away slowly and joined by a female tiger. Together they disappear from my sight. I turn and walk toward where the tiger first appears and that is when I see the giant goat. Upon waking I had this feeling that I was in a picture book! To honor the Tiger/Guitar dream I played Jerry Garcia’s song (Grateful Dead performance in 1974) “China Cat Sunflower” for the last two days.
    Thanks for your posting!
    Wei

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  3. As a teacher of young children, I so love this idea and incorporate dream telling as part of our “creative writing/expression”.” Thank you!

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