stories

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Family Traditions

A family is a group of people that are related by birth, by marriage, or another reason, like foster care or adoption. There are other ways people can be included in a family. A person may be included if he or she is a lifelong friend to a member of the family. A person could be considered ‘family’ if he or she served together in the military with someone in the family. Families have mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more.

Families often have traditions that help members of the family feel a stronger connection to the past, and to each other. Traditions include events, activities, a love of music, dancing, participating in sports and games, preparing meals or cultural foods, or celebrations in a religion that people in a family do together.

Traditions can be things like eating a Thanksgiving dinner, opening presents on Christmas morning, or fifteen year-old girls wearing white dresses for their Quinceñeras. A family tradition can be snuggling up in lawn chairs watching fireworks on a Fourth of July evening, grinning children gathered around a picnic table singing, “Happy Birthday”, or grandchildren helping their abuelita make tamales. Other special occasions families might consider traditions are traveling to their home country during school holidays, young and old family members playing soccer or softball at the park, or eating pozole and buñuelos at an aunt and uncle’s house.

Traditions can be wonderful when families participate in them, but they can be sad when members of a family can’t be there because they are not able to attend, are sick, or have passed away.

Traditions like taking a family photo, or walking on the beach holding hands at sunset, are times we cherish and remember, and look forward to doing again and again. Honoring traditions, by keeping them going, is the responsibility of the older members of the family. Having fun, singing, dancing, playing, joking around, shaking hands, and giving kisses and hugs are everyone’s job.

No More Mowing

For Uncle Harry, the grass outside his home was becoming too much trouble to take care of. He lived in the desert of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was hot most of the year, and his water bill was becoming very expensive. In the summer, to keep it green, he had to water his lawn twice a day! In the winter, the grass would turn brown when the temperature got too cold. On top of all that, he thought, at seventy-five, he was getting too old to mow it himself. He decided to have his lawn dug out and removed, and put pampas grasses, cacti, and cool looking rocks and smooth stones in his yard instead.

First, he hired some men who were looking for work, waiting outside the local home improvement store. Together, they dug out all the grass below the roots. Next, they removed all the sprinkler heads and capped them off, as the plants Harry would be putting in wouldn’t need much more than the occassional rainstorm to stay alive. The next step was to smooth out the dirt using rakes and make it flat. After that, they rolled out some thick plastic over the dirt to keep wild grasses and weeds from growing through. Finally, the men opened the bags of different colored smooth stones Harry had bought and spread them out by hand until the dirt was covered. They left open circles where the grasses and cacti would be planted next week.

Harry was happy with his work and the work of the men he had hired. He gave them all an extra twenty dollars each over the one hundred dollars each he had promised to pay them for the day. In the next few weeks, after Harry had planted the grasses and cacti, neighbors were stopping by daily complimenting Harry on how nice his yard looked. Some people even asked him which landscape architecture company he had used, and ‘could they get the phone number?’

Few people believed Harry and a few men looking for work on a Saturday could have done such a ‘professional job’. That gave Harry great satisfaction, along with the relief that he didn't have to mow anymore, and that his water bill would be cut in half.

Making Popcorn

Fran asked her father to help her make popcorn. “There are some microwave pouches in the cabinet over the refrigerator,” her father said.

“Dad,” Fran moaned softly. “I want to make real popcorn, with real kernels and oil in a pan. I’ll even get out all the things we need, and clean up after,” she said. The ‘clean up after’ part was the clincher. Her father agreed.

Fran found a large pan with a cover, some vegetable oil, and the popping corn. First, her father turned on the burner and adjusted the flame. Then he poured oil in the pan. When the oil was hot enough, Fran poured some corn into the pan and carefully placed the cover on top. After a minute, the corn began to pop inside the pan. Then Fran said to her father, “Listen to all the noise! Now I know why it’s called popcorn. It smells fantastic!”

Fran's father poured the popcorn into a bowl. He melted some butter and poured it on top. “See, this is the real stuff. Butter! Not like the fake stuff that they use in most movie theaters.” Fran rolled her eyes a bit, then smiled, and then added some salt.

Fran and her father took the popcorn to the sofa and put the large bowl between them to share. Fran walked over to the shelf of DVDs and picked out her favorite movie, Matilda. Her dad smiled. He knew Fran had seen the movie about a hundred times, and he had watched it several times with her, too. Fran’s dad said, “You know, even though I’ve seen this movie a bunch of times, it’s still fun to watch, because every time I watch it, I notice things I didn’t before.”

Fran smiled again. These were special times with her dad.

The Velveteen Rabbit Or How Toys Become Real by Margery Williams

The Velveteen Rabbit

Or How Toys Become Real

by Margery Williams

THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged in the top of the Boy's stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the effect was charming.

There were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges and a toy engine, and chocolate almonds and a clockwork mouse, but the Rabbit was quite the best of all. For at least two hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.

Christmas Morning

For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to feel himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was the Skin Horse.

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

The Skin Horse Tells His Story

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."

The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.

Ducks

A duck is a bird that has webbed feet and waterproof feathers. Ducks have some features that geese and swans have. But the wings and the necks of ducks are shorter. Their bills are flatter, too. Ducks quack or whistle, but they don't honk. Male ducks are called drakes, and females are called ducks.

Ducks live throughout the world in wetlands, including marshes (wet areas with long grasses) and areas near rivers, ponds, lakes, and oceans. Ducks can live in cold and warmer parts of the world at any time of year. Many kinds of ducks migrate (travel long distances) annually (each year) between their breeding grounds (where they rest and raise their babies), and their wintering areas, where the water does not freeze. Some ducks migrate thousands of miles.

Ducks spend a lot of time in the water, where their webbed feet help them paddle for swimming and diving. They are graceful on water, but waddle and look clumsy when they walk on land. This is because their legs are on the sides and toward the back of the body. Most common wild ducks weigh from 2 to 4 pounds (about the weight of your Math book), but some smaller ducks weigh less than 1 pound.

Ducks get their food in different ways, depending on their body features. Some ducks stretch their long necks down through shallow water to pick food off the bottom. Others dive for food in deep water. Many ducks can get seeds, insects, and snails from the water. Some ocean water ducks have short bills that they use to pry barnacles from rocks or to grab clams. Others have long, narrow bills with sawlike edges for catching and holding fish.

Ducks protect themselves from cold water by waterproofing their feathers. They use their bills to rub their feathers with a waxy oil from a place on their body near their tail. Under the oiled feathers, there are soft, fluffy feathers called "down". Down helps keep a duck's body warm because it traps air under the outside feathers.

Some ducks have bright-colored feathers. Their colors include green, blue, red, and brown. Some ducks are mostly black and white. Most females (girl ducks) are brown, and can hide by blending in with the surroundings when incubating (sitting on) eggs or taking care of ducklings (baby ducks).

Ducks seek mates during winter. (That means that boy ducks try to find girl ducks to live with.) The bright colors of the drakes (boy ducks) attract females (girl ducks). A female usually leads her drake to the breeding grounds (where she wants the male to live) during the spring migration, often coming back to the same place where she was hatched when she was born.

The ability of ducks and other birds to return to the same places each year is called "homing behavior". Male ducks will defend a small territory from which he drives away (intimidates or fights) other males. The female builds a nest in a clump of grass or reeds, or in a hole in a tree.

The female duck lays from 5 to 12 eggs. After she starts to sit on the eggs to warm and protect them, the drake leaves to join other males. The ducklings hatch from three weeks to four weeks later.

Ducklings can run, swim, and find food for themselves within 3 days of hatching. A group of ducklings is called a "brood". A mother duck keeps her brood together so she can protect the ducklings from predators (other animals that want to eat them).

Animals that prey on ducklings include turtles, raccoons, hawks, and large fish. Sometimes the ducklings in one brood mix with another. So, some females end up with broods of 15 to 25 ducklings. Ducklings have most of their feathers in about a month. They learn to fly in 5 to 8 weeks.

Once the female duck has nested, the drake usually leaves her and joins other drakes to molt (lose their old feathers). The drakes lose their bright colors and for many weeks have a brown color like that of the females. During this molt, the drake also loses his flying feathers and cannot fly.

Male ducks molt again in early fall and regain the male coloring. After a female's ducklings hatch, she also molts and replaces all her feathers.

After growing new feathers and after the young learn to fly, the ducks gather in flocks (a group of ducks). They usually fly in long lines or "V" formations. Flocks go to the same summer and winter areas every year, even stopping to rest at the same places along the way.

Rats

When people think of rats, most of them will say words like, 'Yuck!, or 'Ick!', or they might use phrases like, 'Rats are disgusting!', 'Oh, rats are horrible!' They're dirty, filthy!, or 'They make my skin crawl!'

Rats do have a history of causing harm, destruction, and even death to humans. Rats have often been portrayed as hideous vermin in stories and movies. When one person thinks badly about another person, he or she might even refer to him as a 'rat'.

Some people hate rats. Other people think they're cool. Even though they're small compared to other animals, they have many abilities other animals don't have. What are these abilities? Let me tell you what I have learned about rats.

Rats have teeth that never stop growing. And with these teeth, rats have chewing power strong enough to chew through computer cables and even through cement!

People should try to keep their distance from rats though, because with their powerful jaws come an extra danger. Rats carry diseases that can kill other animals, including humans. Sometimes tens of thousands of people at one time can be killed by rats who are carrying a disease.

How can animals as small as rats get close enough to people and other large animals to hurt them? Rats are nocturnal, which means they are active at night, when most other animals are asleep. Rats have strong night vision which lets them see well in the dark. That means they can usually see better than animals they are sneaking up on, or are stealing from.

Rats are also fast runners. Rats can run faster than most people can. You can imagine that this ability would help rats get away from people and other animals that are their natural predators.

What do rats eat? Well, rats are omnivorous, which means they will eat plants like corn, and foods that come from plants, like breakfast cereal. But omnivores like rats also eat animals, including pigeons and even other rats!

Where do rats live? Rats are found throughout North America. The brown rat originated in Asia. It is believed that these mammals came to the United States and its neighboring countries on ships that sailed from Asia hundreds of years ago.

The rat population has increased rapidly. Female rats are able to produce between 100 and 200 young in their lifetimes. Rats live an average of two years. Despite the fact that people have tried to get rid of rats from their cities and farms, rats have used their survival skills to stay alive and grow in number.

In cities, rats have been found living in sewer pipes, between walls, in attics, in basements, where boats dock, and in restaurants. Really, in any place where they can find food, and that includes trash dumpsters and dumps, where trash trucks are driven away from cities to bury their trash.

Rats that live in cities are smart. While they try to stay hidden from humans to stay alive, they stay close enough to find, and live off, the food humans leave behind.

Rats are destructive. It is estimated that rats destroy over $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars) worth of food and property every year. Even though people spend lots of time and money trying to get rid of them, rats keep coming back.

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Raccoons

Raccoons

Raccoons are amazing animals. They are able to do lots of things we would not expect them to do. They can do a lot of things humans can do. With their large brains, they can figure out how to unlock gates, open covered trash cans, and make nests almost everywhere.

Raccoons are clever. Some raccoons can control their paws as well as some people can use their hands. Some raccoons can untie knots on trash bags to get food, or open closed doors to get into buildings.

Raccoons are strong and sneaky. They can move heavy things, climb into small spaces, or up high. Raccoons can dig well. They also have powerful jaws and sharp teeth.

Raccoons will eat smaller living things they find in nature, or food left behind or thrown away by humans. Raccoons that live in cities will eat beetles, fish, or even kittens! They will eat cereal, crackers, or even yogurt! Can you believe it?

Raccoons live in trees and other places outside cities, but they also like to live behind the walls or above the ceilings in buildings, in the sewer, or in garages and shacks.

Raccoons are animals that have found many ways to adapt and survive in the city. Raccoons are a lot like people!