Perseverance stories
THE MONKEY AND THE ROCKS
There was once a monkey called Monty who lived on an island that was largely inhabited by other monkeys. The most important scientists on the planet had figured out that climate change would affect this island very badly, almost sinking it completely.
So each of the monkeys decided to build a house on the highest part of the island to protect themselves from the floods on the day the disaster would come. Monty had designed his house to withstand a very big flood, and this required very big rocks.
All the monkeys built their houses in just one day, and then spent the rest of their time playing cards and enjoying their new homes. They all laughed at Monty, because while they had already built their houses, Monty had only drawn some plans. But Monty was convinced that his house could survive any flood and although it might take a long time to build, it was worth the wait.
So Monty moved only one big stone a day, which meant that his house took shape very slowly and the other monkeys continued to laugh at him. But Monty didn’t care, and went on building his house stone by stone.
After a few months, when the other monkeys had got tired of playing cards, Monty finished his house and very proudly threw a big party to which he invited all the monkeys on the island. Read the rest of this short story »
Posted in Animal stories, Human values, Nature stories, Perseverance stories, Short stories for kids, Tales about generosity | 
Tags: Sea | 
1 Comment »ALBERT AND THE TIME MACHINE
Legend has it that there was once a time machine that belonged to an old scientist named Albert. This machine had never been tested, but Albert knew that his dream of travelling to the future would one day come true.
No one had any idea about what experiments old Albert had performed with the machine, but he declared that he was able to travel to the past and future just by sitting in the cabin and typing in the year to which he wanted to go.
The villagers thought that the old scientist had gone mad and that he was losing his mind. In fact, some would say: “Travelling to the future, humph! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Albert ignored these comments and while they were all wondering if he really had gone mad, he kept working on the final details of his time machine. For more than five years, the old scientist had devoted all his time to designing and experimenting with equipment that could make his dream to travel back in time a reality, for he wanted to return to a very special moment in his life, the day his father had let him come into his laboratory to do an experiment together. That day was very special for Albert, for it was at that moment that he knew he wanted to be a great scientist when he grew up. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t achieved it. Read the rest of this short story »
JAMIE’S EXAM
Eleven-year-old Jamie loved playing football on his games console. In fact, he loved it so much he would spend hours and hours without stopping. When the teachers set homework at school, he would lock himself away in his room to do it, or so his parents thought…
But one day, the school called Jamie’s mother to go and speak to his teacher, as Jamie hadn’t handed in any homework for a month – ever since his birthday when his parents had given him the games console.
“What’s Jamie done this time?” asked Jamie’s mother.
“Well, it’s been a month since Jamie has done any homework and lately I’ve noticed that he’s very distracted in class. Do you know what could be wrong?”
Then Jamie’s mother realised that he had been telling lies all this time, for instead of going to his room to do homework, he was playing football on his games console.
“Yes, I know what the problem is. Don’t worry, I’ll talk to Jamie,” she told the teacher. Read the rest of this short story »
WESLEY, THE BOY WIZARD
A long, long time ago there was a family who spent all their time doing magic. Wesley’s parents and grandparents were all wizards, and Wesley wanted to be a great wizard, too.
He already knew how to turn a frog into a snake with his magic wand. He could also stop time by saying the magic words: “Tempo stoppus, abracadabra!”
One day Wesley was on his way to school when he saw a couple of hooligans tormenting a little dog who had been trotting down the street.
Wesley uttered the magic words and stopped time in order to rescue the dog and take him out of reach of the horrible louts. But when he started time again, one of the hooligans caught sight of him scooping up the little dog in his arms and disappearing Read the rest of this short story »
Posted in Perseverance stories, Short stories for kids, Wizard stories | Tags: Adventures, Magic | 1 Comment »THE ANT AND THE GRAIN
Once upon a time there was a little ant called Anita. She was very hard-working and lived in an anthill with the rest of her family – about 50,000 relatives.
The ants were busy storing the grain for the winter so that when the cold weather came there would be enough food for everyone. But this year, the grain was very small and difficult to transport. It was a gloomy situation and even the wisest old ants weren’t sure they could survive the winter.
But Anita wanted to store as much grain as possible to help her family, and she knew that by showing an optimistic attitude around the rest of the ants, they could do it. So off she went to train with an ant who was much stronger than her, an ant called Alexander.
Alexander taught her a few tricks on how to carry more grain with the same amount of effort. Anita trained for a few days and as the days went past, she was able to carry more and more.
When Anita was finally ready, she called the rest of the ants together and told them: “I know you think we won’t survive the winter. But I have a solution: firstly, you have to believe we can do it, and secondly, I’ll teach you what you need to do to carry more grain.”
And so the whole anthill set to work like Anita said, with optimism and a hopeful heart, and before the winter arrived they had already gathered more grain than the year before. And so it was that, thanks to Anita, all the ants survived the winter without any problem.
THE END
Posted in Animal stories, Fables for kids, Optimism stories, Perseverance stories, Tales about effort | Tags: Ants | 1 Comment »JOHNNY, THE BOY WHO RAN FAST
Once upon a time there was a little boy called Johnny who had a little problem with his legs. Whenever he ran races with his friends, his legs would tremble beneath him and he could never manage to win.
This made him feel very bad and he didn’t want to race anymore because his friends always beat him. Then one day, a boy in the class next door said to him: “Shall I tell you how to win a race against your friends?” and Johnny answered: “Yes, please! I want to beat them at least once.”
So off they went to the school racetrack where the boy from the next-door class taught him a few tricks to strengthen his legs. They trained for three hours at a time, and soon Johnny began to notice that he was getting faster with every single race.
After two weeks, Johnny suggested a race to his friends. “But Johnny, you never win!!” said one. Johnny pretended he hadn’t heard him, so off they went to the track… Read the rest of this short story »
