A Family Project: Group Stories

Group stories are fun writing projects you can do with your kids. The process is easy. One person starts the story by writing a few sentences, then another person writes a bit, and so on and so on. Each person is free to write as much or as little as they want when it's his or her turn to write. Leave a notebook out on a coffee table for as long as it takes. I think the story I'm about to share took us several weeks to write.

In this example, it's easy to see who was in the news often during the time we wrote this. Also see if you can see the influence of a 10 year old boy who loves action and an 11 year old girl who was quite the animal lover...

PETER'S SURPRISE

Tonight would be the first time Peter Piccolo would conduct a major concert. He wanted everything to be perfect. But he didn't know that the mother mouse and her ten babies were napping comfortably under the bass drum.



Peter knew that some very important ladies were coming. Just then the ladies entered. They included: Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Julia Roberts, Whitney Houston, and Oprah. They took front row seats beside the bass drum. The orchestra started with the bass drum. It didn't wake the mice yet but the second time it did. They crept out and Julia Roberts screamed!

After she screamed, the mice scurried up a trombone opening. No one else saw the mice so they just thought Julia was going crazy.

Peter Piccolo was fuming. Why did she have to go crazy at HIS concert? He finally got everyone settled down, apologized to the crowd for the interruption, turned towards the orchestra and raised his baton. First the strings played. Then there was a blast from the trombone. The 11 mice came flying out. One landed right on Barbara Bush's nose! She put it down on the ground and kicked it and screamed.



The poor little mouse went flying again, bounced off the kettle drum and slid down the front of Whitney Houston's sequined gown. Everyone stared in amazement as she wriggled and twisted around. Then Oprah said, "Oh, she's doing that new funky hip-hop dance. The group MOJO showed it to me on my show last week."

She started following Whitney around and imitating her moves. Hillary and Barbara looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and joined in. Peter Piccolo's name should have been Peter Puzzled. He just stood there and watched dumbfounded. It seemed Oprah was having the time of her life.

And finally the mouse dropped off and crept out of the place. The other 10 went under Oprah's legs. Finally, Peter saw the mice and scooped them up with his music book and let them go out the back door.

When he came back in, the orchestra was on their feet playing wildly and everyone in the audience was dancing in their chairs. After it was all over, the people gave the orchestra a standing ovation. A newspaper critic took Peter's pictures and wrote an article about the whole episode called: "Piccolo's People Perform Perfectly." Peter read it and smiled, thinking, "Thank you, mice."