Once there lived a sparrow family. The Sparrow family had a mom, dad and baby sparrow. They lived in a tree in the sparrow neighbourhood. This sparrow neighbourhood inturn belonged to a forest. The forest was at the edge of a village.
Baby sparrow was a happy kid and by default very curious.He had been living in a sparrow neighbourhood and hardly got to meet anybody else other than sparrows. He loved all his sparrow friends, but he was curious to find out what lay beyond his sparrow neighbourhood in the forest. In fact, he even entertained the thoughts of seeing what lay beyond the forest in the human village.
Meanwhile, Aaniha was a human kid that lived in the village with her human family. Her family had a mother, father and a grandfather. Both mother and father went to work and Aaniha was with her grandfather during the day. He used to tell her many stories about his childhood. These always involved adventures in the forest. Naturally, she was very keen on visiting the forest. But, her parents had forbidden it.
One day, as grandfather finished telling her his stories and went to sleep, Aaniha slipped out of the house and came to the edge of the village. She was scared to step into the forest.
As it so happened, the very same day baby sparrow also had given the slip to his parents to come to the edge of the forest.
Aaniha saw the baby sparrow and was fascinated. She approached him and he was taken aback and tried to fly away. But Aaniha was a kind kid and she held some grains in her hands and the sparrow came forward and took them
They started meeting everyday and became the best of friends. Aaniha gave the baby sparrow grains; he in turn brought small berries from the forest for her.
Both Aaniha and the baby sparrow had the same doubt,” Why were our parents so overprotective and why did they not let us meet and make new friends.”
One day, while Aaniha and baby sparrow were meeting at the boundary between the forest and the village, they heard footsteps. They were so scared they didn't know what to do. Aaniha hid behind a tree and baby sparrow hid in the leaves of the same tree.
Someone pulled Aaniha from hiding by the ear. It was her grandfather. He also took the sparrow in his head. He took them both home and gave them an earful.
He said,” what if there was a snake or a hunter lurking at the border. Their lives would be in danger. They must always listen to their elders.
But, Aaniha was also rebellious, she said that baby sparrow was her best friend and if she had not ventured out, she would have nit made friends with him.”
Grandfather thought for a while and said, “ I will talk to your parents.”That night he spoke to his daughter and son -in- law. He said that he understood why Aaniha had to abide by the rule of not venturing into the forest. But, she was a child and naturally curious. He said it would be good if some adult chaperoned her to the forest.” The parents agreed
The next morning he went to the sparrow colony and all the sparrows were scared and tried to fly away. But baby sparrow stood his ground and seeing him not moving, his parents were forced to stay. Grandfather repeated the same instructions to the sparrow family also. The sparrow family agreed too,
Soon, Aaniha and baby sparrow were meeting at Aniha’s house . Baby sparrow’s parents would drop him at Aaniha’s house and grandfather would tell his stories to the baby sparrow also . They would have some snacks together and baby sparrow would go back with his parents. Thus began a friendship that lasted a lifetime.
Moral of the story:
This is a beautiful story to illustrate two important life lessons
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When we don’t know or interact with someone we always tend to judge them as dangerous or bad. It is always good to get to know people
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If rules are very strict, children tend to break them and put themselves in danger unknowingly . No screentime vs limited screentime is an example
Why short stories for kids
Short stories are an amazing way to teach kids about different moral values and life lessons.
This is the reason we at ekdali have created over 500 FREE short stories for kids. We continue to add more short stories at the rate of 2 or 3 new short stories a week. Do visit our site often to read them
Our maps, posters and flashcards are designed to limit screen time in kids. Do take a look at them as well
